The disgraced International Olympic Committee (IOC) have made it more difficult for Sydney to reach its financial targets for the 2000 Games. Sydney organisers have had to cut their operating budget by $48 million after potential sponsors were frightened away by the IOC bribery scandal surrounding the Salt Lake City bid for the Winter Games. The president of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG), Michael Knight, said the sponsorship target had been cut to $513 million.

"Over the last few months the focus in the media on the IOC has left us with a period where it was incredibly difficult to get out and pitch for sponsors," Knight said after a SOCOG board meeting this week.

The IOC was forced to expel 10 members in a million dollar cash-for-votes scandal over Salt Lake City's successful bid for the 2002 Winter Games.

Knight says the cuts are a fraction of the $1.6 billion overall budget and he still believes they could leave a $19 million surplus to the New South Wales State government, the underwriters of the Games.