RIYADH, 5 February 2008 — International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge arrived in Riyadh on Sunday on a three-day visit to the Kingdom.
Rogge is in town on the invitation from Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, president of General Presidency of Youth Welfare and head of the Saudi Olympic Committee. Prince Sultan along with his deputy, Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal, welcomed the IOC chief at the King Khaled International Airport near Riyadh.
Prince Sultan held talks with Rogge on areas of cooperation between the Saudi Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee and other related topics.
In a press conference at Riyadh Palace Hotel, Rogge expressed his wish to see more Arab cities such as Riyadh, to be nominated to host the Olympic Games 2016 and 2020. “Riyadh has the potential to be a strong competition to most developing world cities to host a major tournament like the Olympic Games especially since it has the sport facilities and infrastructure,” Rogge said.
He added, “Everybody knows that Doha has launched its bid to host Olympic Games in 2016 along with other major cities and we will be glad to see Riyadh nominated as well.”
He said Cairo, another Arab city, failed in its bid to host Olympic Games in 2012 because it was competing with biggies such as London, Paris, and New York and Moscow. This made it hard to win but this shouldn’t stop the Arab countries to lose hope and in fact this should encourage them for more development in order to win next time, he said.
He added that Saudi Olympic sports plays an important position in the Olympic scene. Prince Sultan is at the helm of promoting Olympism in the country along with others in the Arab world.
SOC is a great sponsor of relief program in the poor countries. “We have many countries that need huge aid and the Saudi Olympic Committee is playing a tangible role in this aspect,” he said.
He said 94 percent of the IOC revenues are distributed to the NOCs (national Olympic committees) of developed and poor countries to help them build sport facilities and infrastructure and support the Olympic movement in these countries.
Rogge said, “We have established a special fund called International Olympic Committee support fund to help poor countries. The fund is budgeted at $250 million.
He added that the IOC allocates a separate budget of $250 million for the other Olympic federations. Rogge has revealed plans aimed at developing the Olympic federations in Asia and Africa and to develop sport facilities there.
Of the Saudi national teams’ chances in the forthcoming Beijing Olympics, Rogge said, “Saudi sports is in the right direction specially after winning 8 gold medals and 6 silvers in the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.”
