Experts give London edge
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-05 17:02

London's bid presentation has given Britain's capital an edge over rival cities competing to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, according to a survey of the world's top sports officials released on Tuesday.

London's bid presentation has given Britain's capital an edge over rival cities competing to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, according to a survey of the world's top sports officials released on Tuesday.[Reuters]

The research found there was little to choose between the bids technically, which meant Wednesday's presentations would be "extremely influential" on the thinking of International Olympic Committee (IOC) members when they vote later that day.

"London received the strongest backing, partly on the basis that its presentations were thought to be the most professional of the five bidding cities," said the website, Sportcal.com.

The London-based site surveyed the secretaries general of National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and international sports federations by telephone and e-mail over the past two weeks.

The officials, who work alongside some of the roughly 100 IOC members due to cast the vote in Singapore, were asked which of the contenders -- London, Madrid, Moscow, New York and Paris -- they favoured and why.

"Of almost 70 NOCs and federations surveyed, London's bid was the clear leader ... with 44 percent of respondents backing its bid, compared with 29 percent backing for Paris, 10 percent each for Madrid and New York and 7 percent for Moscow," Sportcal.com said in a statement.

"London received the backing of 31 percent of the federations, compared to Paris's 28 percent, New York's 19 percent and 11 percent backing for ... Madrid and Moscow."

TOO CLOSE

Paris came to Singapore confident in its role as clear favourite, but IOC president Jacques Rogge has repeatedly said the vote looked too close to call.

An IOC evaluation commission report last month said the New York and Madrid bids were high quality, appearing to put them behind Paris and London, which were both praised for "very high quality" bids. Moscow's bid was seen as merely "very serious."

The survey's authors, Mike Laflin and Callum Murray, quoted one NOC as saying that the technical aspects of the London and Paris bids were almost equal and there should be no problem for either city organising the biggest sporting event in the world.

"After all, if Athens could successfully organise the 2004 Olympic Games, any of the five bid cities would be able to match Athens easily," the NOC told the website.

Sportcal.com said that in the Americas, it did not receive enough responses to provide a meaningful sample.

This almost certainly means that votes for Madrid are under-represented in the survey's final results, given the likely backing for the city in the Hispanic regions of South and Central America.

National Olympic Committees of the countries that contain a bidding city were omitted from the survey samples.

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