On-the-ball Hickey basks in reflected glory Irish reaction

Pat Hickey emerged from the IOC gathering and, to the uninitiated, it appeared as if he had personally been awarded the 2012 Games to stage in his back garden. Congratulations and backslaps rained down on the Irish IOC member.

in a world of tallymen, of dealmakers, of shimmiers, of political movers and backroom shakers, Hickey, virtually alone in the building, had called the result right on the button. He had earned the adulation and admiration of his peers.

"I knew that the Madrid vote probably wouldn't keep intact. Once it spilled it would be London's. The Blairs made a difference in the last few days. The London team identified the IOC members who might be vulnerable to being swayed and they fed them to the Blairs. Those marginal votes of four or five members were always going to be Tony Blair's job. It was a great operation."

Hickey hadn't just done his sums, he had done his homework. As secretary of the European Olympic movement he felt it impolitic to say where his vote went, but it was clear where the benefits would be going.

"We've already spoken to the London team about Ireland being included as a marketing add on in what deals they do. That will be of huge benefit to us," he said.

Being a "marketing add on" will bring much-needed money to Irish sport. Basically, what it means is that if the London Olympics do a marketing deal with, say, Kellog's Cornflakes, Ireland will be thrown in as an add on for the marketing campaign. It might cost an extra €100,000 or so, which would go to the Irish Olympic movement, but it would save the manufacturer the cost of excluding Ireland from the campaign.

Hickey is hopeful the other benefits will be political and infrastructural. Gazing around at the Raffles Conference Centre, which as he speaks accommodates 1,600 journalists, media rooms, cafes, a ballroom for presentations, about 1,000 staff of bid teams and the IOC's own machine, he reflects that Ireland lacks the facilities to stage even an IOC congress such as this, never mind the Games.

Hickey has already had inquiries from teams, including Germany, about the possibility of using Ireland as a training base. Several major teams using Ireland for such purposes would bring revenue and possiblytourism spin-off. But facilities are a problem.

"The only world-class sports facility we have in the country is Croke Park. That's an embarrassment to us as a nation. We are going to have people looking at our climate and our proximity to Britain and wondering if they could come and train in Ireland. It's seven years away. Hopefully this will give us the impetus to put facilities in place."

Hickey, aware perhaps that Bertie Ahern has never quite relinquished his vision for the place, envisages a mini-Abbotstown which would cope with the training needs of foreign Olympic teams and provide a long-term legacy for Irish sport.

"When you look at what London has and what this successful bid will give them, it really highlights how substandard our facilities are," he says. "I'd like to see us getting the aquatic centre sorted out properly and then putting in some other facilities in a planned and centralised way.

"I'm not talking about velodromes, but a decent track. It doesn't have to be a stadium, just a good track-and-field training facility, and some facilities for indoor sports.

"People used to go on about the possibility of a Dublin Olympics. That was ridiculous and it looks even worse when you think of the Olympics coming to our neighbours in London and you realise we don't even have decent training facilities to offer to a team. I think this will be wake-up call. We can benefit and grow from this. "

Hickey pointed out that London's first official presentation as a host city will actually take place in Dublin this December. Hickey plays host to the governing bodies of the European Olympic movement for a conference. A modest-enough ambition at a quiet time of the year.

"But we couldn't even find a hotel that could take all the delegates. We're spread out everywhere."

London will deliver its first official progress report at the Dublin meeting. Hickey, as host, will only be able to listen to the details of sporting infrastructures to be and wonder how much will rub off on us.

Perhaps they could colonise us again. Oh, Seb?