By: Pirate Irwin

PARIS, July 7, 2009 - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair may be best remembered for standing shoulder to shoulder with George W. Bush over the Gulf War but in the sporting world it will be how he produced a dramatic late flurry of lobbying to gain London the 2012 Olympic Games.

His "table side" manner in Singapore, where the vote was held in 2005, contrasted sharply to that of then French President Jacques Chirac whose more formal behaviour later drew strong criticism from members of the devastated Paris bid.

Blair's timely intervention was followed by a bravura performance by the then Russian President Vladimir Putin in Guatemala when it came time for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to vote on who would host the 2014 Winter Games.

Putin, who was lobbying for Black Sea resort Sochi, went up against Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, for Salzburg, and Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, who was there on behalf of Pyeongchang.

The result - victory for the hardnosed Putin.

Thus the stage is set for the battle to host the 2016 Summer Games and already the heavyweights are planning their campaigns for the vote in Copenhagen on October 2.

Chicago will be banking on the presence of President Barack Obama, Rio de Janeiro on the equally charismatic President Lula, Madrid on King Juan Carlos and in theory Tokyo on Crown Prince Naruhito and the Crown Princess.

However, for some in the IOC the whole thing is getting out of hand and they see the process being unduly influenced by the lobbying of the heads of state in the dying days.

"Put it this way - what are you going to say when you are invited up to have a cup of coffee with the most powerful man in the world (President Obama) and he actively asks you for your vote," a source close to the IOC told AFP.

"Well for most IOC members it is a moment of great power for them to be having him asking for your vote. It is hardly going to happen to them again in their lives. But it is pressure all the same."

IOC President Jacques Rogge has said that there had been an active debate among the members about allowing heads of state to attend and in the end they had reached a compromise.

"Our position is very clear. If a head of state wants to be there he is very welcome but they must restrict themselves to what the Ethics Commission rules are," said Rogge in Lausanne in mid-June.

However, Rogge was put in a sticky position when put on the spot about some of the critical comments about the other candidates made by President Lula which is permissible because he is not a member of the official bid team.

"I am not going to comment on comments of a Head of State," said Rogge.

"However, I know his passion. He has always been a very passionate man. "He is a very hands-on man for his country."

Rogge has all but conceded nevertheless that Copenhagen could be a circus where the actual bids themselves may be lost among the invasions of their glamorous supporters.

"There there will be heads of state, dignitaries and celebrities which makes it a wholly different scenario," he said.

--AFP