A dispute over profits from last year’s World Athletics Championships is hugely embarrassing for Paris’ bid for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, reports the Evening Standard.
The French Government wants to keep about $13 million (U.S.) for itself instead of putting some of the money back into the sports.
The regional council for the Paris area is furious and has called the decision a “scandal” reports the newspaper.
The championships made a profits of more than $13 million (U.S.) and French athletic officials and the local authorities wanted at least 10 per cent each, but Sports Minister Jean-Francois Lamour, a former Olympic fencer, wants to keep it for the French Exchequer.
The dispute is embarrassing for the Paris bid because the French recently criticized its rival London saying there was not enough political solidarity between the city authorities and the Government. The French claimed their relations were much stronger.
But Standard Sport reports that Lamine Diack, the president of the world governing body of athletics the International Amateur Athletics Federation, (IAAF) was advised not to attend a Paris debriefing about the successful championship because there would be a huge argument over the Issue.
The IAAF is the most powerful governing body within the Olympic movement and the newspaper says it is unlikely the organization would take kindly to a decision that will deprive French athletics of a cash boost.
Local government and sports officials were said to be so angry that they stormed off after the meeting.
