Sea Games 2009 in Laos uncertain

Sea Games 2009 in Laos uncertain

The 25th Southeast Asian Games is scheduled to be held in Vientiane, Laos, in 2009. This will be the first time the country has ever held a Southeast Asian Games. However, there is an important condition for hosting the games: if Laos fails to meet the qualifications to hold this event, the games will be moved to Singapore.

Because of the limited sports facilities in Vientiane, the competition will comprise only 25 disciplines. This is already a very limited number of competitions compared to the 43 held last year in Nakhon Ratchasima, North-east Thailand. With the help of China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and the Olympic Council of Asia, there is good hope Laos will be able to host the 25th SEA games.

Unfortunately, a big disagreement arose between Thailand and Laos. What is the problem? Money, basically. Thailand initially vowed to support Laos in its first hosting of the SEA Games, offering use of its facilities for events which Laos has no capability of hosting. Thailand, however, withdrew its offer, prompting Laos to scamper for resources to be able establish the multi million facilities needed for the Games.

There is a distinguished reason for these actions. Laos is said to be seeking 75 percent of the television rights and for changes in crucial provisions in the current charter of the SEA Games federation. The host country also desires to create headquarters in Laos. This would leave all SEA Games members sharing whatever would be left from the 25 television revenues.

In order to solve this problem, a two day conference is planned to talk about the issue of the chapter change. It is important for the Lao government to handle these negatiations with care or else the SEA games of 2009 might go to Singapore. No doubt, the government realizes this fact and will reassure us soon that we can all look forward to a fantastic event in Vientiane in December 2009.