Coronavirus: IOC ruffles feathers
Tokyo 2020 organisers unhappy with Q&A quoting Abe on costs of delay; comment axed
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A passenger wearing a face mask stands next to a poster of Tokyo 2020 Olympic mascot Miraitowa on a train in Tokyo. The cost of rescheduling the Games to July 23-Aug 8 next year is estimated at S$4.3 billion, said Kyodo news agency.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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TOKYO • The International Olympic Committee (IOC) yesterday removed a comment from its website that referred to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when discussing the financial impact of postponing the Games.
The move followed objections from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Organising Committee.
The IOC and the Japanese government agreed last month to postpone the Games because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The cost of rearranging the Games and who will shoulder it - estimated to be around US$3 billion (S$4.3 billion), according to Kyodo news agency - has yet to be determined by either the IOC or the Japanese government.
However, on Monday, the IOC published a Question and Answer segment on its website about the postponement that stoked controversy.
Referring to the question, "What will be the financial impact of postponing the Games?", the governing body said: "Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed Japan will continue to cover the costs it would have done under the terms of the existing agreement for 2020, and the IOC will continue to be responsible for its share of the costs.
"For the IOC, it is already clear that this amounts to several hundred millions of dollars of additional costs."
Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya yesterday took umbrage with that stance, saying it was "not appropriate for the PM's name to be quoted in this manner".
He added: "What we are requesting to the IOC team is the name of the Japanese Prime Minister should not be quoted, plus the IOC's website should not express beyond what was agreed between the IOC and Tokyo 2020."
The organising committee also said that the breakdown of who will pay the additional costs was not discussed between Mr Abe and IOC president Thomas Bach, when the latter made the executive decision to postpone the Games for the first time after consulting the former.
Yoshihide Suga, Japan's top government spokesman, also refuted Kyodo's report which said Mr Abe had agreed to pay the additional costs resulting from the delay.
The IOC later updated the Q&A section of its website and removed any mention of Mr Abe.
"The IOC and the Japanese side, including the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, will continue to assess and discuss jointly the respective impacts caused by the postponement," read the updated statement.
Hosting the Games as planned was expected to cost 1.35 trillion yen (S$17.3 billion), mostly covered by the organising committee and the host city of Tokyo.
BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
