Paris (AFP)

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognized on Thursday that postponing the Tokyo Games to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic would generate "additional costs" for the Japanese organizer but also for the IOC, without quantifying them.

Costing? "It's a process in progress," replied the director of the Olympic Games Christophe Dubi during a press conference. "What is certain is that there will be additional costs for the Tokyo organizing committee as well as for the IOC and the Olympic family, we are very attentive to this."

"This represents tens of thousands of budget lines to review," he added.

"Tokyo was in an excellent financial situation before the crisis (linked to the coronavirus) (...) they waged a fantastic campaign in terms of marketing, ticket sales and accommodation. This helps enormously because they had generated very large revenues , we can count on that. "

Last week, the IOC and Japan announced the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Games to 2021 due to the peacetime coronavirus pandemic. The announcement Monday of the new dates, from July 23 to August 8, 2021, is "reassuring", according to Mr. Dubi.

"It's very good to have a date. For us, it brings certainty", while the calendars 2020 and now 2021 of world sport, almost stopped since mid-March March, are turned upside down by the Covid -19.

From a regulatory point of view, IOC Director of Sports Kit McConnell said nothing has been decided in relation to footballers under the age of 23 eligible this year for the Games, which will no longer be so next year. , apart from the four older players who can be registered by each team.

"We are in discussions with the federations, in particular FIFA".

McConnell also reiterated that the athletes already qualified for the Games (about 57% of the approximately 11,000 participants) would remain so by 2021, as would the places unlocked by some countries, but that the National Olympic Committees remained in charge of selecting or not these athletes, as is usually the case.

In addition, the city of Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido (north) remains planned to host marathons and athletic walking, the IOC fearing the hot weather that strikes Tokyo in the summer for these long distance events.

© 2020 AFP