February 06, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 27, 1429

RIYADH, Feb 5: Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who is in Riyadh on a short trip, has urged Arab countries to bid for the Olympics.

While addressing the press here, Rogge expressed his wish to see more Arab cities such as Riyadh, to be nominated to host the Olympic Games for 2016 and 2020.

“Riyadh has the potential to be strong competition for most developing world cities to host a major tournament like the Olympic Games especially since it has the sport facilities and infrastructure,” Rogge said.

He added: “Everybody knows that Doha has launched its bid to host the Olympic Games in 2016 along with other major cities and we will be glad to see Riyadh nominated as well.”

He said Cairo, another Arab city, failed in its bid to host the Games in 2012 because it was competing with biggies such as London, Paris, New York and Moscow. This made it hard to win but it shouldn’t stop the Arab countries to lose hope and should in fact encourage them for more development to win next time.

The IOC chief said that 94 per cent of the IOC revenues are distributed to the NOCs (national Olympic committees) of developed and poor countries to help them build sport facilities and infrastructure and support the Olympic movement in these countries.

“We have established a special fund called the International Olympic Committee support fund to help poor countries. The fund is budgeted at $250 million,” he said, adding the IOC allocates a separate $250 million budget for the other Olympic federations.

IOC’s plans are aimed at developing the Olympic federations in Asia and Africa and to develop sport facilities there, the IOC chief underlined.