Dubai: Not all pools FINA compliant
The location of this year’s World Short Course Swimming Championships has been thrown into doubt after FINA gave Dubai a deadline of only a few weeks to pay the fee for hosting the event.
The municipality has recently suffered a well publicised financial crisis, including a bail out from local neighbours Abu Dhabi, and some are concerned this may be linked to the late payment for December’s event.
However, FINA can take solace from the fact that, despite their troubles, Dubai still recently found the money to pay for over 10,000 fireworks to celebrate the grand opening of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.
This is not the first time that the hosts of a major swimming championships have run into financial difficulty. As recently as 2005 Montreal was stripped of the right to host the World Long Course Championships, only for the decision to be reversed less than a month later.
In a prepared statement a FINA spokesperson added ‘If sweeping national stereotypes have taught us anything it’s that people in Dubai love to spend piles of cash. Paying for a international swimming championships is a lot less crazy than paying for an indoor ski slope in the middle of a desert. As such we expect the money to arrive in our account very soon.’
