Despite the uncertainty surrounding Italy’s financial and political crisis, Rome will continue its bid for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.

The bid committee said in a statement, “Rome’s bid is going forward and there is no chance that will be put up for discussion. While aware of the particular moment Italy is going through, the board has confirmed the importance of continuing the Rome 2020 project with determination”.

Following a meeting between bid Chairman and International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice President Mario Pescante, Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno, and others, the committee said hosting the Olympics would bring economic and development benefits “for Rome and the entire country”.

On Tuesday Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he would step aside for the good of the country once Parliament passes economic reforms, adding that he wouldn’t run again for office.

Rome 2020 officials reportedly said they are still working on a parliamentary motion supporting the bid, and have already confirmed that the government will help compile a bid file that must be submitted to the IOC by February 15.

Officials now say if Rome is awarded the Games, the Olympic budget would be about five billion euros, down from projections of nine billion euros earlier this year.

Rome’s bid is centred around mostly existing venues that were used for the 1960 Games, including the expansive Foro Italico complex that hosts the 80,000-seat Stadio Olimpico, a newly built 10,5000-seat tennis stadium, and outdoor pools used for the 2009 swimming world championships.

Pescante has said he is hoping Rome’s bid can be “a blueprint for a return to fiscal responsibility and real sustainability in the Olympic bidding process”.

Madrid, Tokyo, Istanbul, Doha, Qatar and Baku are all fighting with RomeRome for the 2020 Games.

The IOC Executive Board is to meet in May to decide whether to keep all six candidates or reduce the list. The IOC will select a host city in September 2013.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and former London Mayor Ken Livingston have waded into the argument over the prospect of India boycotting the London Olympic Games over Dow Chemical’s sponsorship.

The IOC was responding to a planned vote by the Indian Olympic Association next month on whether to boycott the 2012 games because of Dow’s links to the 1984 Bhopal disaster, which killed at least 8,000 people.

London organisers have come under intensive lobbying from activists and politicians in the UK and India, who say Dow’s sponsorship and its legal battles with the Indian government and families affected by the disaster threaten the reputation of the Olympics.

The company won a ­tender in August to supply a £7m decorative “wrap” for London’s Olympic stadium. This sparked opposition from groups such as Amnesty International, because Dow owns Union Carbide, whose Indian subsidiary was responsible for the Bhopal gas leak.

Livingstone, who will stand again next year to be London mayor against Boris Johnson, believes continuing the Dow sponsorship will undermine the  London 2012 games.

Livingstone said Dow had a “moral responsibility” to deal with residual contamination in the area. He said: “Dealing with industrial contamination was the first necessary task to transform the Olympic Park from a derelict polluted wasteland into the largest urban park in Europe. It would undermine London 2012 to take money from a sponsor that refused to clean up its own subsidiary’s mess.”

He said the issue could “go as far as creating a potential crisis of legitimacy for the Games” and claimed that given that the venues had come in under budget questioned whether there was a need to “accept £7m from Dow Chemical so that they can rehabilitate themselves and destroy London’s reputation in the process”.

The former mayor said: “Our objective should be an Olympics that is good for London, not a them-and-us Games. The soul of the London Games is worth much more than 0.08% of its budget. It would be far better to do this than to allow Dow Chemicals to exploit an opportunity that has been paid for by people in London and across the whole country.”

Livingstone called on organisers to “admit they had made a mistake” and, if they could not find replacement sponsors, to fund the wrap from unspent contingency funds.

Tessa Jowell, shadow Olympics minister for the opposition Labour party, said: “It’s better that we have an unwrapped stadium, rather than a stadium wrapped in the continuing controversy of Dow Chemical’s sponsorship.”

The IOC said it would “oppose a boycott, as ultimately the only people hurt by actions like these would be the athletes themselves”.

The London Organising Committee (Locog) has tried to play down the issue. Lord Coe, chairman, told the House of Commons culture, media and sport committee last week: “We have looked at this, and we are satisfied that Dow were not the owners or the operators or were involved with that plant at the time of the disaster.”Dow won a competitive tender and met Locog’s environmental, social and ethical values “by a distance”.

On Friday, Locog said: “We have had absolutely no indication from [India’s national Olympic body] that there are any plans or discussions to boycott London 2012.”

But Barry Gardiner, a London MP leading the UK-based campaign against Dow’s wrap sponsorship, said: “I can’t understand the level of inaction from Locog on this.” He said the committee could “still end the partnership [with Dow] and ensure the damage is minimised”.

On Thursday Shivraj Singh Chouhan, chief minister of Madhya Pradesh province, wrote to the Indian government urging a boycott. “The funds intended for sponsoring the Olympics would be far better spent in alleviating the misery suffered by the people of Bhopal,” he said.

Dow Chemical has said: “Although Dow never owned nor operated the plant and the legal claims surrounding the incident were resolved in 1989, long before Dow acquired Union Carbide, we – along with the rest of industry – have learnt from this tragic event, and have helped to drive global industry performance improvements to ensure that such incidents never happen again.”

The European Athletics Council has chosen Amsterdam as the host city of the 2016 European Athletics Championships. The 2016 Championships will be the 23rd edition of the event. The Amsterdam bid was fronted by the Royal Dutch Athletics Federation, prostate city of Amsterdam and the Dutch Olympic Committee.

 

European Athletics President Hansjörg Wirz said: “We are very pleased to confirm that Amsterdam will be the hosts of the European Athletics Championships in 2016. We are sure that we can look forward to a fantastic event.”

The historic decision was made at the 131st European Athletics Council meeting in Helsinki. Amsterdam won the hosting of the championships ahead of Istanbul and Split.

Helsinki, usa cialis Finland will host The 2012 European Athletics Championships are from June 27 to July 1. The 2014 championships will be held in Zurich, Switzerland.

 

Following news reports last week that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was holding a meeting next week to discuss a possible boycott of the London 2012 Games a key representative has said boycotting the games is not a possibility.

A number of Indian athletes and dignitaries have taken a stance over the Games sponsorship of Dow Jones that will wrap the Olympic Stadium. Dow purchased Union Carbide a US based chemical plant that was responsible of the leak of toxic gasses in 1984 at Bhopal causing the deaths of thousands of citizens.

IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra told Reuters:“We are meeting next week but it’s not about boycotting the games. Some people have raised a concern about the sponsorship issue and we will discuss that, along with some other issues.”

The Boycott threat elevated as Shivraj Singh Chauhan, a main minister of the Madhya Pradesh region where Bhopal is located, spoke up to get India to take a stand.

The IOA is also in the middle of a disagreement with the Indian sports minister, Ajay Maken, who is trying to pass a bill for the ministry to take control of the national Olympic committee.

Malholtra also spoke out in the Times of India also against losing the automony of the IOA and its relative sports federations.

Wicket record holder in tests, Mutthaih Muralitharan, has been handed a important role in Hambantota’s bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games by being one of the delegates that will make the final presentation alonf with fellow cricketer Aravinda da Silva.

The Sri Lankan, the only bowler in the history of the sport to take more than 800 Test wickets, is expected to be part of the delegation that will make the final presentation as the city bids against its only rival, the Gold Coast, at the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) General Assembly in St Kitts and Nevis on November 11.

Muralitharan is set to be joined by Aravinda de Silva, Sri Lanka’s former captain who scored more than 6,000 runs in 93 Test matches.

The two former cricketers are expected to spread the message that by awarding the Games to Sri Lanka for the first time it would help reunite the country following the civil war which ended in 2009.

Ajith Nivard Cabraal, the co-chairman of Hambantota 2018, said: “No Games will ever have a greater legacy than that of helping a nation in uniting its people. It [the Commonwealth Games] gives us in Sri Lanka the opportunity to showcase to the world that we have emerged out of challenging times and that we have truly reconciled.

“As a unified nation we in Sri Lanka are on an exciting and progressive journey. Bidding for and hosting the Games in 2018 is a key part of that journey. For us there is much more at stake than tourism and revenue generation. The Games can be a catalyst for sustainable economic, social and cultural development. They can help us in building a better tomorrow for all our people.”