THE Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) executive board yesterday approved Indonesia as hosts for the 2018 Asian Games which faces a growing battle to find venues because of the cost.
The continent’s sports leaders had to find a quick replacement after Vietnam said in April that it could no longer afford to stage the next Asian Games.
“Today it has been approved by the EB (executive board) that in 2018 will be the next Asian Games in Jakarta in Indonesia,” said council president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah.
The body’s general assembly should rubber stamp the decision today. But Sheikh Amad stressed that an earlier special assembly had given him “the authority to decide and find the replacement to Vietnam.”
The OCA executive met in Incheon ahead of the opening of the 17th Asian Games later yesterday.
The world’s biggest multi-sport event after the Olympics will this year feature 13,000 athletes, coaches and officials from 45 nations across 36 sports.
Vietnam had originally been picked to host the 18th Games in 2019, but withdrew blaming fallout from an economic crisis.
Indonesia immediately became favourites to take on the showpiece event with no other serious candidate.
The OCA initially scheduled the event for 2019 to avoid any clash with the Olympics. The 2018 Winter Olympics are in South Korea and the 2020 Olympics are in Tokyo.
But Jakarta told the OCA that if it was to host the Asiad, it would have to be a year earlier, in 2018, because presidential elections are scheduled for 2019.
In its original bid for the event, Indonesia put forward the country’s second-biggest city, Surabaya, as the host.
However officials have now decided to make the capital Jakarta the main host city, with events also planned for other cities, including Palembang and Bandung.
Sheikh Ahmad said no decision has been taken on whether the 19th Games would revert to it’s original slot of 2023 or come a year earlier in 2022 following the Indonesia switch. AFP