Caborn's special offer to IAAF

Richard Caborn, the Sports Minister, today admitted offering senior officials from the International Association of Athletic Federations sightseeing and shopping trips around London in a bid to keep the 2005 World Championships in Britain.

Caborn made the offer after the Government scrapped plans to build a new £100 million stadium at Picketts Lock.

That decision meant the championships could not be staged in London as previously promised, so Caborn set about trying to persuade IAAF president Lamine Diack to award the championships to Sheffield.

The Government wanted to persuade the IAAF it should still hold its annual congress in London. The Government planned to accommodate IAAF councillors and officials in top London hotels and then give them first-class travel to Sheffield for the athletics.

Caborn, who is a Sheffield MP, told Standard Sport he offered to give the wives of IAAF officials shopping trips to Harrods and sightseeing visits to the House of Commons and Number 10 Downing Street.

He said: "We want to sell London and the United Kingdom because of the downturn in the tourist industry following the foot-and-mouth crisis and the 11 September attacks on America.