Moscow Games heading for chaos, say technicians

Press, 19 April 1980, Page 8

Moscow Games heading for chaos, say technicians

NZPA Pans Technically and logistically the 1980 Moscow Olympics are on course for chaos, sources close to the Games organising committee have said in Paris< America’s recent announcement withdrawing their technical aid as well as their athletes means that the electronic timing and scoring devices remain incomplete, while the television, centre and the lighting systems are at the momen': unworkable without American expertise. The Soviet are officially reticent about the shortages they are obviously suffering. But at a meeting next week in Lausanne between the organising committee and the International Olympic Committee, the ruling body will be demanding a frank and truthful report on the true state of the Games infrastructure.

Vitaly Smirnov, vice-presi-dent of the organisers, did say in Moscow this week that some difficulties had arisen, while Western technicians working on the Games complexes have said there are more problems than the Soviets care to admit.

It is almost . certain, according to informed sources, that the 1980 Olympics will be a long way short of the extravaganza the Soviets envisaged just a year ago. The Games seem destined to be in the style of the Eastern European Spartakiad — short on electronic and technical sophistication but big on flag waving. In London, Britain’s Independent TV has decided to slash live television coverage of the Moscow Olympics because several countries are expected to boycott the Games. The State-owned British Broadcasting Corporation has already said its coverage of the Games would be cut.The British hockey, yachting, and equestrian teams have said they are not going to the Games. Three of Australia’s most senior Cabinet Ministers, spearheaded the call by the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) for an Australian boycott of the Olympics, before an 11-man Australian Olympic Federation executive meeting in Melbourne

The Labour Opposition also put forward its views on the boycott. The issue of

whether Australia should follow the United States lead and stay away from the Games goes before a full meeting of delegates to the federation today.

The Acting Prime Minister (Mr Doug Anthony), the Foreign Affairs Minister (Mr Andrew Peacock), and the Home Affairs. Minister (Mr Bob Ellicott) met the executive members for 90 minutes.

Mr Fraser has continued his campaign to keep Australia out of the Moscow Olympic Games right across the Indian Ocean into Africa. The Olympic boycott had remained his main preoccupation even in Salisbury in the middle of celebrations to launch the new nation of Zimbabwe.-

Mr Fraser was clearly buoyed by talks on Thursday with the West German Foreign Minister (Mr Hans-Di-eter Genscher). He summoned journalists travelling with him to say that the meeting had left him convinced that a large number of important countries would stay away from Moscow. “In my view now it is just a matter of time,” he said. ‘“There is going to

be an effective boycott.” (He is said to expect that the Australian Federation will decide to go to the Games but he will not regard the decision as-final).

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union has begun wooing West European countries in a diplomatic drive to get them away from the American initiative. This week the Russians asked the West German Chancellor (Mr Helmut Schmidt) to take up the invitation to visit Moscow that went into abeyance when the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan. Sources in Mr Schmidt’s ruling Social Democratic Party said the Chancellor would probably delay making up his mind until after the Bonn Cabinet decides on the Olympics issue next Wednesday. The West German Olympic Committee has said it will follow the Government decision. And in Paris the Government has announced that the Soviet Foreign Minister. (Mr Andrei Gromyko) will visit France hext week for talks in which he is expected to try to urge the French Government to reject American initiatives on world issues.