Nebiolo seeks tribute
25 September 1998What does Primo want?
Last week in Seoul, Sydney Olympic organisers appealed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for help in getting the official decision on the athletics program for the 2000 Games.
SOCOG set the International Amateur Athletics Federation a deadline of September 15 to respond to its proposed schedule for the athletics program.
But this passed without any response from the federation, headed by the forthright Italian Dr Primo Nebiolo.
SOCOG told the executive board it was keen to get the athletics program finalised as soon as possible as it wanted to go ahead with plans to start working out ticket distribution to the 198 other national Olympic committees.
For some time Dr Nebiolo, who is well aware that he runs the sport which is the jewel in the Olympics crown, has been asking that the 28 summer sports federations be given 1 per cent of tickets to the Sydney Games.
In athletics, this would translate into more than 1,000 prime seats a day in the main stadium.
SOCOG rejected this outright more than a year ago, but Dr Nebiolo has said he doesn't mind if it is SOCOG or the IOC who supplies the tickets.
(The IAAF's demand for what it sees as its fair share of tickets was also a long-running issue before the Atlanta Games).
Dr Nebiolo, who also heads the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, has also been pushing the IOC president, Mr Juan Antonio Samaranch, for a greater share of Olympic television revenues for the federations.
But he doesn't seem to have made much progress.
SOCOG is having final negotiations with rowing, canoeing and swimming federations about the schedules for the Games. Athletics is the only federation with no decision in sight and no specific negotiations over the program.
In response to SOCOG's plea, the IOC executive board asked the Co-ordination Commissioner for the Sydney Olympics, Dr Jacques Rogge, to take the matter up with the IAAF to see if it could be finalised.
Sydney Games organisers recently had a friendly meeting with Dr Nebiolo and say they do not know of any outstanding issues in the program itself which may be delaying the IAAF decision.
Speaking from Belgium this week, Dr Rogge said he thought the matter would be considered at the next IAAF council meeting in November.
This would be in time for consideration by the IOC's executive board at its next meeting in Lausanne in December.
"SOCOG has asked for everything to be finalised by January 1, 1999," Dr Rogge said.
He said there would be no problem with the ticketing for Sydney if the matter was resolved by then.
Some officials feel the IOC is keen not to be seen to be pressuring the IAAF as it wants to make sure the powerful federation joins its big world drugs conference in Lausanne in February.
So it seems SOCOG may have to be a little more patient.
