Playing The Race Card

England's match against Spain in Madrid was being closely monitored by the Football Association, officials of the London bid for the 2012 Olympics and the BBC, who televised the match, to see how far the Spanish go in promoting Madrid's bid. The
Telegraph Sport reported: "The Daily Telegraph understands that London 2012 heard rumours some time ago that Madrid were planning to use tonight's match to promote their city's bid. London 2012 got in touch with the FA, who in turn approached the Spanish FA, saying that neither London nor Madrid should try to gain an Olympic advantage from the football friendly."

While any promotion is unlikely to influence the voting by the International Olympic Committee on July 6 next year, the monitoring thereof shows that pressure is building up rapidly in this extremely tight race to host the 2012 Games.

Surprise, surprise the headlines readRacist chanting puts Madrid bid at risk: "Racial abuse of black players during England's friendly against Spain has seriously jeopardised Madrid's chances of staging the Olympics in 2012, according to members of the International Olympic Committee."

France is rumoured to be the favourites, but the British press has joined the foray. One headline readsWhere's the va va voom?: "France's reputation as a multi-cultural society has taken a hit in the last year with the controversy over Muslim girls being banned from wearing headscarves in state schools.

This is an area that London 2012 are already exploiting. Every time Mayor Ken Livingstone talks about the bid, he mentions the hundreds of languages that are spoken here and how the 'world's communities are already in the capital'. "

The London Olympic bid is playing the race card!