The Road to 2012

SBS Sports Producer John Baldock looks ahead to the London Olympics.

London's Burning

09 August 2011, 12:49 PM | Source: John Balddock, SBS

For three days fires have burned, shops have been looted and hundreds of arrests have been made. 

London's Burning

London's Burning

1

Comment | Add yours

But despite the trouble spreading to areas which border the Olympic site itself, the organising committee of the London Games has yet to comment on the impact it could have on the Games.

The civil unrest has no direct correlation to the Games. But the alarm bells are sure to be ringing.  

West Ham’s League Cup match with Aldershot and Charlton’s clash with Reading  had to be called off – and there were simply no police personnel available to provide crowd control.

England’s friendly against Netherlands is also now in doubt. 

Even when the situation has calmed down, there’s now the real threat of civil unrest during the Games. It seems the current riots broke out partly because young, disaffected people realised they could get away with it.

Police were apparently overwhelmed and unable to respond quickly enough. And the police are sure to be stretched to the limit just do deal with the ever present threat of 'terrorists' targeting London during the Games and venue security.

But before all that,  there’s the small matter of the imminent start of the English Premier League season this weekend.

Olympics? There are far more worrying times ahead for London in the next few days, let alone next year. 

 



 

top

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.

Your Comments

Wow...

Nik - from Melbourne, 10 months ago

What an in-depth article! You should pat yourself on the back for this one. How will the riots effect sport? Asking the tough questions, eh? Bold indeed.