MONTREAL, Dec 8 (AFP) - The staging of the world swimming championships in Montreal next July could be cancelled due to huge financial problems, it was reported here Wednesday.
The financial situation is said to be so dire that organisers have asked for an extra 12.2 million dollars (9.9 million USD) from city authorities, the region of Quebec, and the Canadian government in a bid to avoid a cancellation.
"It's a critical situation. There's a real risk the championships could be cancelled," Yvon DesRochers, who is in charge of Montreal 2005, told La Presse.
According to the newspaper organisers have been set back by their failure to attract crucial funds from sponsors. From an expected 12 million dollars (9.78 million USD), they have only received four million (3.26 million USD).
Another spanner in the works is the lack of ticket sales. According to La Presse, current ticket sales amount to 500,000 dollars (407,000 USD). A predicted figure of seven million dollars (5.7 million USD) had been included in the championships' total budget of 36.5 million dollars (29.74 million USD).
Reports suggest that city and regional authorities would not be keen to bale out organisers, meaning the Canadian government could be asked to dig deep to save the championships from being handed to another city.
12/08/2004 18:03 GMT - AFP