Greece hits back

The Greek national press accused IAAF President Primo Nebiolo yesterday of trying to sabotage Athens' bid for the 2004 Olympic Games. The press reacted furiously to Nebiolo's comments that he was disappointed with the attendance for Sunday's 100 metres final - the stadium was half empty though Nebiolo had been told it was sold out.

The papers said that it was not the organisers fault that the attendance was poor as Nebiolo had not listened to them and allowed them to host the championships later in August, when more people had returned from holiday, or even at the beginning of October. While most papers complained that it was unfair to blame empty seats on the organisers the Greek daily newspaper Ethnos used a more personal attack to vent their fury at Nebiolo. "Nebiolo is using the empty seats to sabotage the Athens bid so his home town of Rome gains an advantage," it wrote. Nebiolo, who made a point of inviting all five mayors of the cities vying to be chosen to host the Games to the opening ceremony last Friday, criticised the organisers on Monday in front of IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.

Evangelos Savramis, president of the Athens organising committee, was unimpressed by suggestions from the IAAF president that they could have filled the stadium by giving out free tickets to the military. "Our soldiers are not there to fill stadiums but to assure the defence of the country," he said.

Ticket sales are also the only revenue for the organisers who are already in the red, having spent $36 million for the championships and expecting $7 million in return if all tickets were sold. The daily average of tickets sold in the first four days is only 24,000.