India should never have been awarded the Commonwealth Games, Australia's Olympic chief John Coates said Friday as New Delhi scrambled to fix problems that have caused athletes to withdraw.
India should never have been awarded the Commonwealth Games, Australia's Olympic chief John Coates said Friday as New Delhi scrambled to fix problems that have caused athletes to withdraw.
Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates said it was obvious that the venues in the Indian capital were not ready for the Games, which are set to begin in nine days.
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"The Games shouldn't have been awarded to New Delhi, in hindsight," Australian Olympic Committee president Coates told reporters in Sydney.
"I think the problem is the Commonwealth Games Federation is under-resourced. It doesn't have the ability... to monitor the progress of cities in the way that the Olympic committee does."
Coates said that the International Olympic Committee already had contracts in place with 2012 host London and 2016 city Rio de Janeiro that set deadlines for the construction of venues and facilities.
Host cities were also required to host test events one year before, he said.
"If that had been the case here then certainly something would have been done a lot sooner because obviously the venues are not ready," Coates said.
"You can't ever cut any slack when your focus should be on the best conditions for the athletes," he added.
New Delhi is preparing to host thousands of athletes for the Games, which begin on October 3 amid high-profile withdrawals from athletes and as several national teams delay their arrival in India.
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