SportAccord Newsdesk -- IOC Declines Intervention; Good News, Bad News for Quebec 2022

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SportAccord Convention Opens

More than 1500 delegates will take place at this year's SportAccord Convention, which officially kicks off tonight with its opening ceremony.

The event is scheduled to take place at indig02 at the 02 Arena in southeast London.

Festivities are scheduled to begin at 6:30 PM, local time.

02 Arena is the venue for gymnastics and basketball finals during the 2012 Olympics, and wheelchair basketball finals during the Paralympics.

SportAccord will run until April 8.

IOC Backs Away from BOA's Olympics Cash Dispute

IOC president Jacques Rogge says he will not personally intervene in the British Olympic Association's legal dispute with London 2012 organizers over the split of Games revenues.

"I am not going to be dragged, if i may say so, into emotional observations about this issue. It is purely a legal issue and has to be solved by legal people," Rogge said Tuesday during a press conference staged on the sidelines of SportAccord in London.

The BOA recently rejected an IOC ruling siding with LOCOG on the split of Olympics revenues and is taking its case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The BOA is entitled to 20 percent of any surplus from the Games but is demanding a bigger chunk and claims Paralympics costs should not be part of calculations.

Rogge said he had neither seen nor spoken to BOA chairman Colin Moynihan for about six weeks.

SportAccord 2012, ANOC 2012

A request from the Summer Olympic international federations forSportAccord 2012 to be moved to earlier in the year will remain arequest, apparently.

SportAccord 2012 is set for Quebec City in Canada for late May, whichthe federation leaders say is too close to the Summer Games in London.

Speaking Tuesday morning at the joint meeting between the IOC ExecutiveBoard and the summer federations in London, Rogge said a move of thedates was not possible because the Association of National OlympicCommittees is set to meet April 17 and 18, place still to be announced.

ANOC was to have met in London in 2012, but those plans have been dropped. ATR is told that a place for the meeting will be known within the next week.

Quebec 2022 Chances Discounted

IOC president Jacques Rogge says that Quebec City’s chances for a Winter Olympics would not be hampered if the bid were forced to use facilities across the border in Lake Placid, New York.

Answering a press conference question about the possibility of a Quebec Citybidfor2022, he said IOC rules allowed for cross-border bids to make use of existing facilities.

Quebec City is in a bind over the failure to win FIS certification for the downhill run proposed for a bid. Quebec City is also in need of a track for the sliding events. Both are venues offered in the Lake Placid area.

But a more sobering assessment came from International Ice Hockey Federation president and IOC member Rene Fasel.Appearing at the same press conference during SportAccord in London, Fasel said a bid from Canada for 2022 may be too soon after the Vancouver Games.

"That’s not enough time," he said, also noting the impracticality of building a new track for the sliding events with one already existing in Calgary and another in Whistler. Both, Fasel said, were probably too far away to be included in a QuebecCitybid.

"But you still have to try to bid," Fasel added.

Sport Central to Qatar’s National Vision

Qatar Olympic Committee general secretary H.E. Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani underlined the Gulf state's commitment to legacy and creating sustainable, long-term benefits from hosting major sports events.

In a speech to SportAccord delegates Tuesday, he said these would include construction of appropriate venues with a clear legacy strategy, establishment of youth engagement programs and international sports development strategies. He cited Qatar’s work with the International Handball Federation to develop the sport in India, a partnership that is gaining momentum since the country won the rights to host the 2015 World Handball Championships.

"Not surprising, there is a great deal of focus on our hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which will fast-track $50 billion of investment in our national infrastructure, including a new metro system, international airport, major road networks and hotels," Sheikh Saoud said.

Written and reported in London by Mark Bisson and Ed Hula