Top Olympic official wants even bigger Asian Games

Al-Musallam rejects calls to cap participants despite accommodation concerns

NAGOYA:

Asia's Olympic chief said Friday that he wished the Asian Games in Japan had an athletes' village and hinted that future editions of the multisport event could be even bigger.

The continent's premier sporting spectacle opens in Nagoya and Aichi prefecture on Saturday but the build-up has been beset by difficulties.

That includes a shortage of rooms for the more than 17,000 athletes and officials -- a bigger number than the Olympics.

To save money there is no athletes' village at this year's Games, organisers instead putting competitors in hotels, temporary wooden huts and on a cruise ship.

Some teams have complained about the quality of the accommodation, including that the beds are too short.

Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) director general Husain Al-Musallam said organisers needed to "be practical" and put on a financially sustainable event.

"We wish that we have an athlete village, number one, but number two we also have to be flexible," he said.

"We need to listen also to the organiser, to the host, how they would look for the future, after the Games, after the closing ceremony.

"It's very easy, you can insist on the athlete village, and then you build the athlete village, you spend an amount of money but then you need to see what's going to happen after the Games," he added.

South Korean officials said earlier this week that there was "a serious shortage of accommodation" at the Games.

Officials from the Philippines said they had resorted to Airbnb.

Al-Musallam said that "every athlete, every official, every coach has accommodation".

"There is no single accredited person without accommodation," he added.

Local organisers initially expected 15,000 athletes and officials and argued last month that they had "neither the manpower nor the budget" to deal with ballooning numbers.

In March, the OCA added teqball and padel to the sporting programme.

Asian Games official Mohammad Tayyab Ikram said as of Friday they were "touching around 17,000-plus participants, which does not include yet the technical officials".

The accommodation crunch in Japan has led to suggestions that participant numbers at future Asian Games could be capped.

Al-Musallam ruled that out, saying he wants to make the event even bigger.

"I am a supporter to increase the number of athletes, not to decrease athletes," he said.

"To support sport because now with the current political crisis and conflicts in Asia and around the world, we need sport."

The Asian Games will be held in Doha in 2030 and Al-Musallam said six countries including India and the Philippines were interested in staging the event in 2034.

"This shows the popularity of the Asian Games," he said.