91Èȱ¬

What would happen if LOCOG turned around and said no to the IOC with regard to certain individuals attending the Olympics. You said in the article that the home office could reject individuals on security ground, but what about other grounds? I agree that Libya should be allowed to compete in the games however, I do not believe Libyan officials should be allowed to attend if they have any connection with the regime in power. Secondly, what is the deal with separate lanes for olympic traffic, it was part of our bid that improvements would be made to the transport infrastructure within London as a whole. How are they going to police this??

International sport and politics have been linked forever. Berlin 36, Munich 72, the ban on South African participation in sport... To suggest otherwise is disingenuous. To allow Mugabe into Britain under the cover of a celebrated sporting event is disgusting.

For goodness sake man, you're supposed to be a Sports Editor! How can you justify questioning the use of public money on the premier world multi-sport event? Leaving aside that it's sport, stupid, the money and publicity it will bring to this country will be an enormous boost in a time of depressing cuts.

Stop looking for easy targets with your awful brand of negative journalism.

If the IOC want freedom from political interference, then why will it automatically be inviting people like Robert Mugabe to London?

I believe he is a "politician" rather than an athlete, and so I don't see how Zimbabwe's participation in the games requires him to be there.

While the IOC preaches political impartiality on one hand it insists on a huge gravy train for its representatives. An to hell with the public who fund the games.

The insistence that digniteries have preferential lanes from the expensive and trendy west end hotels to east london (by passing the docklands hotels) is ridiculous and also contradicts the supposed green agenda for these games.

You know what you sign up for. Its not a secret. No one forces you to apply for the Olympics. On the other hand there does need to be some greater measure of accountability by the Olympic Committee than appears to be the case at present when they effectively are managing such vast sums of money. The same applies (doubly so) to FIFA. These people seem to think they are beyond ethics, morals and taxation.

I sincerely hope we will NOT be letting Mr Mugabe anywhere near our country!!

I hate it when money is mentioned as a reason not to host the games. Money will not bring you happyness but seeing Kenny, Pendleton, Ennis and Idowu win Olympic gold certainly will!!!

Any person who thinks the "money and publicity" that could be generated is worth it is extremely short sighted, maybe in years to come when the full extent of the cost of the games is revealed we will actually be able to calculate if there was any economical benefit, I highly doubt there will be. The obvious winners will be the sponsors and the industries (such as retail, hotels etc) but it is not as if any of those companies after the games will say we have had a good few months lets give our workers a wage rise.

The reality will be: the sponsors will cash in, a limited amount of ordinary people will actually get to see the games except on television, the transport systems will be a disaster and the corporates will be lauding it up and whether or not the games are a success or not remains to be seen. Sceptical to say the least.

In the UK we have a right to protest and if Mugabe does show up, I'm sure the British public will give him the sort of 'welcome' you might expect for a tyrant.

@davidjones12

I can just see the police plans for "kettling". I wonder if they'll have separate "kettling" areas for any media, IOC reps or athletes wishing to take part?

The IOC have the biggest show in town, is it any surprise that they exploit this?

I thought we now only recognised the rebels in Benghazi as the legitimate government of Libya. Why were the tickets not issued to them instead ?

The Olympics ... didn't it used to be a good thing ?

Let alone that junk food is a core sponsor and kids are encouraged to spend all their money on shiny trainers, and Mugabe is coming to dinner ... even the athletes are in on the demise, I am sure right now they are all hard in training working through their EPO, human growth hormone and whatever new drugs they've got in preparation.

Maybe I'll go for a run tonight. At least that's worth something.

I have to say this is one of the most poor pieces of journalism I think I have ever read. 91Èȱ¬ please start getting your act together on this as these articles are, quite literally, degrading in quality by the month.

I would be writing to my MP if I even thought Mugabe and his cronies were to be attending the Olympics - and if possible I'd be bashing down Northumbria Police's door asking for an arrest warrent to be issued for his offences against the people of Zimbabwae.
It's great to see the IOC and FIFA demand that Governments don't interfere in their organisations like an FA or national IOC team YET demand to be treat like a Government itself.

i personally feel that Zimbabwe and other countries with appalling human rights records should be banned. i do have some sympathy for the athletes but a message should be sent out that that behaviour is unacceptable. the sports ban in south africa really damaged national pride and undoubably put pressure on an end to apartheid.

More hypocrisy as usual. The same 91Èȱ¬ sports journalists who called for a sporting boycott of Zimbabwe were strangely silent over Bahrain recently where they said sports and politics DON'T mix. The western funded Zimbabwe opposition leader is in Zimbabwe free,where are the Bahraini opposition leaders?
Did you see last nights tv programme on Sri Lankas killing fields ? Why aren't we advocating a sporting boycott of them until the war crimes have been investigated?
If we don't like a country we call for a boycott,if we like them or do business with them we say sport and politics are separate. What a laugh !

Is it possible to allow Mugabe to visit and seat him in the super-executive, front front front FRONT row for the javelin finals?

Just checking.

It's WE who are bombing Libya, not the other way around. What harm has Libya done to us, for us to refuse Gaddafi entry on security grounds? (Moral grounds are another matter. And till a couple of months back, these moral grounds did not seem to matter.)

As for the other inconveniences - we made tall promises in order to get the Games (anyone remember the Olympic stadium legacy fiasco?). We can't start whinging when it's time to pay the bills.

The olympics has become a farce in recent years. The legacy so far has been white elephants all over the place: Atlanta, Greece, Australia and know the U.K. It used to be good until money got involved

David you raised so many valid questions -
1. It is too expensive. Well dial Qatar they are ready to host it....haha FIFA knew you will whine once you get the World Cup.
2. Politics : How about countries bombing other without UN resolution... read four word IRAQ. Gosh as UK is out who will open the London Olympics.
3. Transport disruption : London can shift the World Cup to city more willing to tolerate it. Paris is ready.
4. Public Money and hard times : FIFA World Cup 2018 .... from where the money would have come for it.

I think football should be kept seperate from Sport as rule, I wasn't around back in 66 but I believe that North Korea made quite an impression at the WC when they beat Italy at Goodison, and nobody took into account the fact that their country was internationally isolated, only the football mattered. Thats how it should be. i'm disgusted by a lot of things with these big overbloated sporting associations i.e. IOC & FIFA, but I fully support their attempts to keep governments and their often short term opportunist agendas out of the game. I do think accountability and transparency is however doable and neccessary for such organisations to function

Why not let them all come to the UK and then arrest as they leave the country and fly them straight to the Hague for War crimes

Plus, the bidding process is so complicated inclucing the requirements to hold the game, I think David Bond is providing an excellent service is highlighting these issues. eep up with the good work and don't listen to those who complain about your work

They are not the GB Olympic Games, they are Olympic Games being held in GB.

75% of tickets being sold here is for me a fair representation,howthey are distributed is debatable.

Big business whether you like it of not is the first item on the agenda for any sport nowadays, in fact why we still use the word sport is a bit perplexing but thats a bye the bye,the sad fact is these businesses are making a significant contribution to the total cost, and he who pays the piper ?

Sport and politics will always mix, tell me how many politicians look at good performances from our athletes, or our Rugby players, or our cricketers (footballers ? er no) and how often do you see the politicians trying to barge in on the good news, reception at no10? Innocous, yes but its still politics and sport mixing.

I will be very surprised if the games take place at all

The Olympics has become a farce in recent years. The legacy has been several white elephants in Atalanta, Athens, Sydney, Beijing and soon to be London. Tax payers money is usually wasted in pursuit of coperate greed.

sagat4 is right Olympic Games are a big farce now !

@28. Sagat, having lived in Sydney for two years now, I'd be interested to know what these white elephants are? Regarding the main Olympic site at 91Èȱ¬bush, a large area of prime land in the middle of the city has been decontaminated. This was not commercially viable, hence the public expenditure. Thousands of new homes have now been created with good public transport accessibility. The new parklands are packed out most weekends and the stadium and pool are heavily used week by week. The Olympic Park has also stimulated major commercial investment at Rhodes and helped regenerate the deprived suburb of Auburn.

I don't deny there have been facilities sitting idle in Athens but I'd suggest that the London model is much closer to that of Sydney.

I was very fortunate to get the tickets I applied for. I applied for four tickets and got them. I knew the rules and my chances of getting them. We all knew the rules when we applied and accepted them. I have no complaints about the system even if I didn't receive the tickets with the exception that the limit of sessions/events should have been tighter.

This would have meant a fairer distribution of tickets to all. The format should have been; preferred event, then you would get a further two options as to where you could apply for an event. If you were successful in any event it meant that the rest of the application would not be looked upon. This would mean that everyone would have received a far better chance of attending an event of their choice.

Finally this would also have ensured that people couldn't pay more than they could afford.

is there a form of cencorship at work on the bloggs pages?