Despite being one of the favourites, Rome's bid to win the 2004 Olympic Games ahead of rivals Athens, Buenos Aires, Cape Town and Stockholm, has prompted potentially ruinous internal strife between the city authorities and environmentalists. In effect, IOC members finds themselves confronted with both a "Rome-Yes" and a "Rome-No" lobby when considering how to vote at tomorrow evening's all-decisive session.
In one corner stands the pro-Olympics city mayor, Mr Francesco Rutelli, backed by the centre-left government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi, by public figures such as opera star Luciano Pavarotti and Fiat president, Mr Gianni Agnelli, and by nearly all the mainstream political parties as well as a majority of Italians. In the other corner is the environmentalist lobby led by Euro MP and former EU Commissioner, Mr Carlo Ripa di Meana, who is in Switzerland to voice his dissent.
Put simply, the "no" group cites Rome's fragile infrastructure, its infamous traffic and smog problems and the possibility of terrorist attacks as reasons not to host the Games. Furthermore, the environmentalists point out that recent history, in particular the 1990 World Cup, suggests public works projects may be subject to corrupt overspending as developers and politicians enter into a mutually satisfactory arrangement whereby the former get the Olympics business and the latter get both kickbacks and publicity.
The "no" lobby has recalled some of the farcical overspending of 1990 which saw stadium building and rebuilding costs spiral dramatically. One of those stadiums, Turin's Stadio Delle Alpi, was so ill-conceived that its local club, Juventus, recently threatened to play in another city.
The "no" lobby does not believe that Mayor Rutelli will be able to deliver on his promises either to build an 18,000-capacity Olympic village or to provide hotel beds for 600,000 people. Furthermore, the organising committee's claim that it takes only 23 minutes to reach the centre of town from Rome's Fiumicino Airport was greeted with scorn - 23 minutes, wrote Italian Senator Jas Gawronski yesterday, if your name is Michael Schumacher and you are driving at night with no traffic.
Mayor Rutelli said yesterday in Lausanne that he was unconcerned by the "no" lobby, adding that it represents the opinion of "a small minority". He counters environmentalist concern by arguing that the three major Games sites will be in the suburbs, thus leaving the city centre untroubled, while adding that the city's infrastructure will have already been thoroughly tested by the 30 million Catholic pilgrims expected for the millennium celebrations.
Furthermore, Mayor Rutelli argues that the Games will prove profitable since they will cost the Italian taxpayer $1.6 billion to stage, but should gross nearly $3 billion. Over to the IOC for a decision.
Stockholm's Olympic committee yesterday strenuously denied offering free furniture to IOC officials. A senior IOC member said it had warned both Stockholm and Cape Town about Olympic bidding rules. Cape Town has allegedly offered the wives of IOC officials free trips to Switzerland for the vote, a charge it also vehemently denies.