Sport 09-06-2005 Paris Favourite To Host Olympics who: International Olympic Committee (IOC) what: Says London bid for 2012 Olympics is "high quality" when: Monday snippet: The International Olympic Committee has described London`s bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games as "high quality" with a budget that "is reasonable and achievable", but Paris remains the favourite to win the Games. "Ladbrokes, the UK bookmaker, reacted by cutting its odds on Paris to 1/6," says The Financial Times. "London was unchanged at 7/2, with Madrid, New York and Moscow quoted at 16/1, 33/1 and 100/1 respectively." The inspectors "were wowed by a commitment to a £1.5billion budget for the Olympics plus £2billion for stadia and infrastructure," says The Sun. "The Paris bid involves less building of main venues than the London plan and the French city is still regarded as having a better transport infrastructure," says The Guardian. "Madrid and New York were also given encouraging reports today but Moscow`s plans were questioned over a lack of detail." Mayor of london Ken Livingstone "said that the IOC`s reservations on transport were the result of decades of under-investment in the UK`s transport infrastructure," reports The Times. "That investment was now finally being made, he said, and by 2012 London`s transport network would have been transformed." "The Princess Royal has indicated that she will play a full part in lobbying for London`s 2012 Olympic bid before the final vote in Singapore on 6 July," says the BBC. "Princess Anne has a key role to play as she is one of three British members of the International Olympic Committee." The Independent says that BBC chairman Michael Grade will also be part of the London delegation in Singapore and for his part he must "convince the IOC the corporation is not carrying out a vendetta" following the Panorama investigation, Buying the Games, which "resulted in the suspension of a Bulgarian IOC member, Ivan Slavkov". [... more]

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