NewSporAfrica Foundation aims to bring Olympics to Africa

GENEVA: A group of European and African executives and sports officials on Thursday launched a campaign to bring the Olympic Games to Africa in 2016. Vowing not favour a single country or bid, the founders of the NewSporAfrica foundation said they wanted to generate support inside Africa and in wealthy nations for bids by African countries.

“It will never be partisan by taking sides for one country,” said Jean-Pierre Sirot, a former French industrialist who is the driving force behind the foundation. The president of Cameroon’s Olympic Committee, Hamad Kalkaba Malboum, who is supporting the move, said that after 116 years the modern Olympic movement should give Africa its turn to host the Games.

“There are five rings, one can’t settle for four of them,” he said, referring to the emblem of the Olympic movement which represents the five continents. “What we regard as an injustice must be repaired,” he told AFP at the launch, underlining that it would be just a return for decades of medal-winning performances by African athletes and teams. No African country has ever hosted an Olympics, one of the costliest public events in modern times.

• Posted in : Moblog
• Author :Franz Isella