WEST BANK: ATHLETICS - International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge calls on Israel to ease restrictions on Palestinian athletes

Record ID: 561543

  • Title: WEST BANK: ATHLETICS - International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge calls on Israel to ease restrictions on Palestinian athletes
  • Date: 7th October 2010
  • Summary: ROGGE VISITING THE GROTTO, BELIEVED BY CHRISTIANS TO BE THE EXACT SPOT OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS ROGGE WALKING UP STEPS
  • Embargoed: 22nd October 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA8Y9F57VCNKQYJHLF2AENC7W0H
  • Story Text: International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said on Wednesday (October 6) that he will ask Israel to allow greater freedom of movement to Palestinian athletes.
    Rogge was in Bethlehem after a one-day visit to Ramallah, where he met Palestinian Olympic Committee officials and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who asked the IOC president to press Israel to allow greater freedom of movement for Palestinian athletes.
    Rogge responded to the requests by inviting Israeli and Palestinian Olympic representatives to IOC headquarters in Lausanne to discuss the issue.
    "The message will be, to Israel, please make the life of the Palestinian athletes easier, and allow them to travel more easily, allow them to import goods and equipment that have been donated by international federations and or the IOC," said Rogge ahead of a meeting later on Wednesday in Jerusalem with Israeli Olympic Committee members and President Shimon Peres.
    "That's definitely the main message that I will convey later this afternoon and tomorrow. And the specific issues, as I said, I would invite both national Olympic Committees to our headquarters in Lausanne, to discuss the details and then to work out the details, but that is going to be a second meeting. But the message would be please make it more easy."
    Rogge spoke to Reuters during a visit to the town of Bethlehem, believed by Christian to be the birth place of Jesus. The IOC chief spent several minutes in the Church of Nativity, describing the tour as 'very emotional'.
    The Belgian defended India's much criticised hosting of the Commonwealth Games, where he was guest of honour at the opening ceremony, saying it was too early to judge whether the games will be a success or not.
    "Well, I think you have to be fair and only cast a judgment at the end of the Games, and not at the beginning or before the Games," he said.
    "They have had teething pains, that's for sure but we have seen that in other major sport organisations and then at the times of the games themselves everything came into order. So that's what I wish for my Indian friends. Let's make an assessment at the end of the Games and then we can discuss what the conclusions are."
    Rogge was also asked when negotiations on U.S. broadcast rights for the 2014 Sochi winter games and 2016 Rio de Janeiro games are scheduled to begin. Discussions with U.S. broadcasters, planned to begin in 2009, were delayed by the IOC due to the fragile economy and the crisis in the advertising market. Critics in the United States complained the delay in negotiations benefits NBC, current broadcast rights holder, giving it an unfair advantage over other possible bidders.
    "I don't see where there is an unfair advantage for NBC, because NBC was by far the best bidder at the previous rights that were rewarded at 2003 so I don't see why there would be a criticism," he said.
    "We are going to conduct discussions with the broadcasters in the first quarter of next year, and we are doing that now because advertising is building up in the television world. It has been a slump, definitely after the economic crisis in 2007 and 2008, but the economy is reviving and that is the right moment to start negotiations."
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