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When London was bidding for the Games, opponents of the bid,and sometimes supporters of Paris, would often walk up to me and say: "You know, the Games won't work in London because the city won't be able to cope with the transport. It's often a problem WITHOUT the Games."

They had a fair point. It is the biggest challenge of every Games to transport hundreds of thousands of spectators, officials and competitors around the city every day.

In some ways chiefs have had an easy ride so far on transportation. Their tactic has been to tell us that the fast "javelin" trains to the from will solve most of the problems.

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When I broke the story last autumn about plans to scrap a temporary stadium near the o2 (formerly the dome) and ask sports to go to , I always felt it had the potential to cause a huge row.

Now, it has finally happened with said to be involved in an acrimonious showdown with the at an Olympic board meeting this week.

The argument was about money. Should 2012 spend £40 million on a temporary venue for badminton and rhythmic gymnastics near the or save money by shuffling sports around and using a venue like Wembley?

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A senior official told me the other day about the most important advice he always gives to cities hosting the Games.

He tells them: "There's no point buying one of the most beautiful paintings in the world and then putting it in a cheap frame."

What he means is that there is little point in spending billions of pounds building the facilities for the Olympics and then failing to take advantage of the Games because you haven't spent enough money on the projects which help them make a real difference.

There is growing concern that Britain is doing that because there are not enough programmes in place to increase sports participation across London and the country.

Remember, the big promise of the bid was to inspire people to take up sport.

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