The piece of mine appears in the First Post.
Neil Clark: Let’s make sport the focus of international tournaments - not the location
The host of a major international sports event is behind schedule with its preparations and doubts have been expressed as to whether the tournament will be able to go ahead as planned.
No, I'm not referring to Delhi, desperately trying to get things ready for next month's Commonwealth Games, but to Ukraine, co-host of the 2012 European football championships.
You can read the whole of the piece here.
2 comments:
The process of choosing host countries is obviously flawed and too political, and at this stage there can be no doubt that the 2012 Euros will be an off-field disaster.
However, I'm completely against the idea of having a permanent Olympic host or a cabal of 1st world countries monopolising major football tournaments.
As an Irishman I'd love to see a Celtic games (be it football, athletics, or anything else) jointly hosted with Scotland and Wales. The humour and friendliness for which we're known would make for a great event.
As a Barcelona resident I see everyday what the Olympic Games did for the city and its people, and I'd hate think other cities could be deprived of the infrastructure and pride a couple of weeks' worth of sport can bring.
The bidding process for these events needs to be completely overhauled or maybe even eliminated. Rather than having nations invest millions before even been granted the right to host a tournament, why not have a lots system whereby a willing country is simply drawn from a hat before wasting a cent or a second on something that might never materialise, and then all the other nations in the hat pool together to create a great sporting spectacle to rival Beijing Games?
OPiR
Great piece, Mr. Clark. I agree completely. Too many politicians try to host big sporting events in the hope of gaining prestige and hopefully some economic benefit. But my understanding is that much of the infrastructure built to host sporting events end up rotting when it is found that there is no continuous use for the facilities. It is much better to focus on basic infrastructure for the people first, and then in better times maybe try to host an event.
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