According to a British report, Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke at a sporting breakfast at the Commonwealth summit in Nigeria about London’s bid for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. The report said that Nigeria’s Olympic head Abu Gumel was among those listening to the speech as was a senior athletics representative from India, host of the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Following the Salt Lake City bribery scandal, direct lobbying of International Olympic Committee members is frowned upon.
Blair said the “extraordinary success” of last year’s Commonwealth Games in Manchester gave the UK confidence to bid for the 2012 Games.
He said that one billion people had followed the Manchester Games. “It was an extraordinary success not just for my country but for the Commonwealth. It generated a huge amount of interest not just in Britain but actually worldwide”.
