We're now all quite familiar with the fact that Mega Events invariably go way over budget. insideworldfootball has the latest, revealing FIFA under-17 World Cup cost more than double the budget

The Press Association reports that squads of marksmen are preparing for dangers including an armed siege, sniper shooting and Mumbai-style terror attacks with several gunmen.

It's probably unfair to blame the Olympics. In Australia, a former water polo champion, Keri Lane, is accused of murdering a new born baby because she wanted to compete in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Almost as alarming is Peter Keen, Director of Performance at UK Sport, who puts sport up there with 'economic domination' and 'warfare'. In an interview with the Guardian he said: 'Short of economic domination and warfare, I'm not sure what else makes sense of our national identity...'

Dorset County Councillor Tim Munro has described the proposal to to moor a private cruise ship in Portland Harbour to house 800 police for the Olympics sailing events as "disgusting".

Gen. David Richards, soon to be head of Britain's armed forces, says the army may provide specialist teams, usually deployed in Afghanistan, to check for roadside bombs at the 2012 Olympics.

July 29 [2010] - Special "Games Lanes" will be introduced on key roads to speed athletes and officials to the 2012 London Olympics, plans launched today have shown.

The lanes will be in addition to the Olympic Route Network (ORN) which will be roadwork free, cover 2.5 per cent of London's roads, will be used by 82,000 people and cost around £25 million.

©William Heron

Updated Background Papers are now available at http://www.gamesmonitor.org.uk/media_centre

Background Paper 1 - Impact (PDF) 170.23 KB

By Mike Wells

Security precautions for London 2012 include the construction of a 17.5 km, 5,000volt electric fence, topped with 900 daylight and night vision surveillance cameras spaced at 50 metre intervals. On first sight of the fence you could be forgiven for thinking you had slipped through a wormhole in the space-time continuum to find yourself on the perimeter of a Soviet era Gulag.

Pan American Games. Rio 2007.