Games boss Rogge in crisis

Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, is facing a major revolt which could threaten his position as head of the movement and overshadow the race for the 2012 Games.

Sports threatened with expulsion from the summer Games are furious at plans to stage a vote on their survival at a meeting of the IOC in Singapore in July - the same session where the host city for the 2012 Olympics will be decided.

An emergency meeting of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) has been called for 7 June in Geneva after under-fire sports organised a petition protesting at Rogge's plans.

The rebellion, led by the sport under most threat, modern pentathlon, but backed by 12 other more established sports including cycling, hockey and gymnastics, is the biggest to be faced by an IOC president in decades.

It is even more damaging to Rogge because one of his closest allies, Hein Verbruggen, who is in charge of co-ordinating the 2008 Beijing Olympics and is head of the International Cycling Union, has signed the petition against his plans. The financial survival of many of the sports depends on being part of the Olympic programme.

But now Rogge has called for each sport - even high-profile disciplines like athletics and swimming - to make a case for their inclusion by winning the majority support in a poll of IOC members.