S Korea get 'yellow card'

The South Korean city of Pusan has been warned that it could be stripped of its right to stage the 2002 Asian Games after allegedly reneging on cash promises that helped it win the event.

The executive board of the Olympic Council of Asia warned after a meeting in Tashkent on Sunday that it is giving Pusan "the equivalent of a yellow card" over its failure to honour key commitments in the joint marketing agreement for the Games.

A final decision on whether to take the Games away from Pusan will be made by the end of October, the board agreed.

At the centre of the row are alleged pledges to fly 11,000 officials and athletes to South Korea free of charge and provide national olympic committees across Asia with a total of $35 million for sports development.

A spokesman for the Pusan organisers denied they had made such commitments but said he was hopeful the row could be resolved through talks.

"We hope the prolonged row over money will be settled through further talks, although it is hard to accept OCA's demand," Sohn Yul of the Pusan Asian Games Organising Committee said.

Sohn said Pusan was only committed to sharing profits from "sponsorship and marketing" with OCA.

"We have not promised to provide free air tickes and accommodation," he added.

In a sign OCA is serious about its threat, Abdul Muttaleb Ahmad, OCA's director general, said the 43-member organisation had decided to move its general assembly, scheduled for Pusan in November, to the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat.