A tale of two crises: Euro 2016 and Rio Olympics
lausanne — An Olympic Games in a country engulfed in political crisis and football’s European Championship in a nation that fears a terrorist outrage. It is almost a perfect storm in a major sporting year.
Experts see risks everywhere that could destroy the “feelgood factor” that two such major events would normally bring. The 100day countdown to the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games starts on Wednesday. The country, gripped by an economic crisis that has forced deep austerity cutbacks, could lose its president in the coming weeks.
President Dilma Rousseff is fighting for her political life with impeachment proceedings likely over alleged accounting irregularities. She has called it a “coup” attempt. France has seen two major militant attacks in the past 16 months and decided last week to extended a state of emergency to take in the European Championship football finals starting June 10 and the Tour de France cycling epic in July. “These two events are at risk because terrorism is everywhere and the economic crisis is strong in both Brazil and France,” said Jean Loup Chappellet, a specialist on the Olympic movement at the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP) at the University of Lausanne. Chappellet said there was every chance that the risks will not materialise. Printed and Published by Galadari Printing & Publishing (LLC), P.O. Box 11243, Dubai. Telephone: 3383535/ 3384545. Telefax: 3382238/ 3383676. email: sports@khaleejtimes.com Internet Home Page: www.khaleejtimes.com