IOC Wants To Keep Closer Eye On Rio

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is to set up three task forces to deal with delays in Rio de Janeiro's preparations for the 2016 Games, IOC president Thomas Bach said on Thursday.
Senior IOC official Gilbert Felli, director of Olympic games at the IOC, will next week travel to Rio de Janeiro earlier than planned as part of a series of measures to deal with delays which are threatening the Games.
The IOC further wants the Brazilian hosts to set up a decision-making body involving the government, the IOC and organisers to enable faster decisions to be taken, Bach said at the end of a two-day executive board meeting in Turkey.
International sports federations, who this week criticised the Brazilian government over delays, are to be more closely integrated in planning as was the case for the winter Games in Sochi.
Bach said it was not a case of handing out yellow cards as a warning to the hosts, as was the case with Athens in 2004.
"This is not about giving out (yellow) cards. This is about ensuring success of these Games," he said.
"We still believe these Games can be very successful and we are undertaking all measures to make these Games successful."
The IOC had been urged Olympic summer sports federations (ASOIF) at their joint meeting with the IOC executive board to take action amid calls for a "Plan B" should the problems in Brazil continue.
ASOIF president Francesco Ricci Bitti spoke of "the most critical situation in the preparations to the Games in the last 20 years at least."
The federations have asked Bach to make another trip to Rio in the near future as delays ranging from venue constructi