Inside Lines: Athens hits out at high travel costs for UK fans

While the debate rages in London about the cost of getting the Olympic Games in 2012, the Greeks are more concerned with reports about the cost of Londoners getting to Athens for the Games in 2004. Indeed, they are more than a little miffed that the British Olympic Association's official travel agents suggest it will be more expensive to watch the Athens Games than it was those in Sydney two years ago. The agency, Sportsworld, have warned prospective clients to expect above-Sydney prices, largely because of the cost of hotel rooms. The price of their cheapest trip, for three nights, starts at just under £2,000, which includes flights, tickets and bed-and-breakfast accommodation but not transportation to events. A package deal for the 18-day duration will cost £5,395. Yet both the Athens organisers and the Greek Tourist Board strongly deny that the Games will be more expensive for UK visitors than Sydney 2000. "It need not cost them anything like that," says an Athens 2004 spokesman. "They may be better off making their own arrangements. They can get return flights to Athens with companies like EasyJet for well under £200, and by the spring they will be able to book tickets and accommodation on our special websites. This will be available from private homes through to hotels and cruise ships with prices around the same level as those in Sydney. Moreover, event tickets will be cheaper, some half the price at an average cost of less than €30 (£20). There will also be free transportation to events." A BOA spokesman says they are comfortable with Sportsworld's prices. "They have a long history of providing the best-value inclusive deals for people in this country who want to visit the Games."

Call for sacking of 'killjoy' Kaufman

Sports leaders backing London's Olympic bid are up in arms over that old killjoy, Gerald Kaufman MP, who says it would be "madness" to go for the 2012 Games, a view expressed before he chairs the Parliamentary Sports Committee's public hearing into the pros and cons of the bid. Some are now calling for his removal. "His comments make his position untenable," said one. "It is like a judge delivering a guilty verdict before hearing the case." Even the usually urbane Craig Reedie, chairman of the British Olympic Association, says he is disturbed by Kaufman's "bias". "It would seem he has pre-judged the issue and that cannot be right. You hear of hostile witnesses but here we have a hostile chairman. I am happy to go along and answer his questions but it makes you wonder if there is any point when he has already made up his mind." The acerbic Kaufman, a renowned anti-Olympian, is a bizarre choice to lead a sports committee. His only enthusiasm for the subject was in endorsing the Commonwealth Games but, then, he is a Manchester MP. Isn't it time the PM kicked him into touch?

Blatter sees England as game for a laugh

We know that the Fifa president Sepp Blatter is not much of an Anglophile but at least one player from these shores seems to have impresssed him. Move over Becks. The player in question is an Indian, Parminder Nagra. And a girl, to boot. Blatter was so taken with her performance in the film Bend It Like Beckham that he has given her his Presidential Award. Parminder had never kicked a football before but within 10 weeks really was bending it like Beckham thanks to coaching from Simon Clifford, who runs the Brazilian-style soccer schools Futebol de Salão. "She probably worked harder than anyone in world football," he says. The film has been voted best comedy. Now for the sequel. Bend it Like Blatter.

It's that time of the year again when sport looks through its list of high achievers and wonders who will get what in the New Year Honours. Presumably we can forget football and cricket though it would be naughty if the Government really has vetoed the deserved knighthood for Trevor Brooking.

The intrepid Ellen MacArthur should receive a decent accolade, likewise Clive Woodward, the England rugby manager. Paula Radcliffe got an MBE after the London Marathon so it may be too early for an upgrade. We anticipate gongs galore for those involved with the Commonwealth Games, including, surely, a damehood for the woman who made it all happen, chief executive Frances Done. But what of her boss Charles Allen, who, as chairman of Granada, was involved in that unseemly football wrangle with ITV. Allen is perhaps best remembered from Manchester for the hand which hovered near the Queen's bottom. Will it be reciprocated with a tap on the shoulder?

The Eagle has landed – on his feet this time, too. A Hollywood film is to be made of the life of the world's least successful ski jumper, Eddie Edwards.

The London producer Rupert Maconick says he hopes to start shooting in the New Year, and reckons the film will have the same international appeal as Rocky, Cool Runnings and The Full Monty. Edwards, now a 38-year-old law student at a Leicester university, will perform some of his own jumps but would like to be played by Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle or Brad Pitt, though he is open to suggestions. Well, Kevin Spacey has similar characteristics but it a pity that Benny Hill is no longer with us. His Fred Scuttle would have been perfect.

insidelines@independent.co.uk

Exit Lines

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