Why Banks is backing marbles in Olympics

Olympiakos out, and AEK is not aok

Dateline: Athens

During his helter-skelter stewardship of the Sports Ministry there were some (this column excluded) who suggested that Tony Banks had lost his marbles. So it is pleasing to note that the abrasive-as-ever MP for Newham is now doing his bit to see that the Greeks regain theirs. Banks is leading the campaign to have the Parthenon Sculptures, otherwise known as the Elgin Marbles, restored to their rightful ownership before the Olympic Games in 2004. "There is no legal or moral reason why we should hang on to them," argues Banks, currently chairman of the parliamentary arts committee. He is back on the sporting beat, too, as chairman of the Council of Europe sports committee, a position which gives him even more clout internationally than Richard Caborn. More than 120 MPs have now signed a motion that the Marbles, currently housed in the British Museum, should be returned forthwith. "We will try to convince Tony Blair that giving them back to Greece would raise his stock on the international stage," says Banks. Well, that might do the trick. If it doesn't then maybe Blair will accept the suggestion made to British MPs by Greece's engaging poet-politician Telemachos Hytiris, the minster co-ordinating the 2004 Games, that as a goodwill gesture, the Marbles could be put on temporary display at the new Acropolis Museum in Athens up to and during the Olympics. Banks, 59, who describes himself as "a romantic philhellene" also believes the Games themselves should be returned permanently to their birthplace as a "sporting Vatican", and says he is thinking of retiring to his favourite island, Symi, when he quits politics, still with his marbles.

Top Athens beat for ex-British bobby

Budgets cuts imposed by the Greek government, who face an awkward election just three months before the Games begin in August 2004, mean fewer Olympic frills in Athens. Such as one new hockey field instead of two, temporary rather than permanent stands and sand instead of grass at some venues. But the Games diva Gianna Angelopoulos assures me one area where there will be no scrimping is security. "It remains our top priority," she says. This is good news for the only Briton likely to be involved in running an Olympics in the foreseeable future. Peter Ryan once a London bobby and now one of the world's top cops, is the security chief for the Games, as he was in Sydney. Ryan, an anti-terrorism expert who was formerly head of police training in the UK, was also security consultant for the incident-free Winter Games in Salt Lake City, where the $310m bill was half that budgeted by Athens. Here he will co-ordinate a 50,000-strong security force with experts from various intelligence organisations, including the CIA, Mossad and his old stamping ground, Scotland Yard.

Quite unexpectedly there has been a touch of the Wembleys about one of the principal venues for the Games. A dispute over refurbishment costs between the government and the owners of the Karaiskaki Stadium, which houses Olympiakos, for now leaves Athens without a home for the Olympic football final. The only viable alternative, AEK's Nikos Goumas Stadium, is similarly in need of expensive overhaul but the IOC are resisting moves to stage the final outside the capital. "Football is an essential sport and the final has to be in Athens," the Swiss lawyer in charge of the IOC's progress chasing told the organisers last week. A solution must be found soon otherwise Greece's joint bid with Turkey for Euro 2008, favoured ahead of Scotland-Ireland, will be jeopardised.

There are still 775 days to go before it all kicks off here, but Cassandras still stalk the corridors of Grecian 2004. If the IOC do not keep the Games organisers on their toes, the local media certainly will. Assurances from the Co-ordination Commission that they believe the Games are on course with only the standard reservations about accommodation and traffic congestion, fail to appease the Athenian Paxmans.

They question whether it really will be all right on the night, citing the new government economies as a big danger despite the promise from Mrs Angelopoulos that "the quality of the Games is not negotiable". Personally I find Athens at least as firmly on the ball as Sydney was at a comparable stage. Moreover, according to the proverbial poll, the Greek public is more supportive, over 96 per cent approving of hosting the Games. Two years before Sydney, 85 per cent of Australians were opposed to them. What a difference a G'day makes.

Tradition-conscious they may be, but the Greeks are still "relocating" 2,000 trees to enable the original marathon route to be re-run after 108 years.

At least that's 26 miles of roadway that will be traffic free. But Athens itself now has an even bigger congestion problem as, contrary to expectations, most Athenians say they will be staying in the city for the Games rather than going on holiday. This means fewer homes available for rent and more cars on the roads. Hence the planned recruitment of an army of volunteer traffic wardens, some from overseas. British jobsworths need not apply, unless they know the Greek for "I don't care if you are Jacques Rogge, you can't park 'ere mate."

insidelines@independent.co.uk

Exit Lines

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