Italy: The board of the Roma09 world championships was unable to reach agreement on a statement of account in terms of who owes how much of a 12.7 million euros debt but a little progress was made: the Italian swimming federation has paid 1.75 million euros towards writing off the debt. The City of Rome has been deliberating over its own responsibility: an official 1.688 million euros against its name  has yet to be repaid, while a third party slated to cover the loss is Italy's  public purse, down for 3 million euros that was specifically granted for installations. That leaves 6.2 million euros to cover. The next meeting is scheduled for February 15. Comment: The question that those wishing to bid for future events may be asking is: how much of the fee that went to FINA is due to be repaid. FINA may say nothing, under the terms of agreement, but future events may wish to write in a loss clause, especially when all those organising such events publish copious figures that suggest "the best ever" event but without telling us of such things as a 12.7 million euros loss. The lesson is at it ever was: transparency and telling the good with the bad, no matter how uncomfortable. The good news is more readily celebrated if those delivering it also front up on the bad news, the acknowledgment of which is the first step to making it better next time round.

Britain: Plans are being made for the London 2012 Olympic Park to host the UK School Games in late September of the year of the next Games. The proposal is to be announced by Richard Caborn, British MP, in Westminster Hall at an Adjournment Debate at Westminster today, with cross-party support from Hugh Robertson, Conservative Shadow Minister for Sport, and his equivalent in the Liberal Party, Don Foster. The proposal, say media reports in Britain, is for around 15 sports to take place at various venues, with some 2,000 school children  living in a scaled-down athletes' village. 

Brazil: Cesar Cielo, who admitted to SwimNews that he felt lonely at times while at Auburn, is to have friends from home for company in the coming season: Nicholas Santos and Henrique Barbosa are heading to the States. Barbosa, who told Brazilian media, that he had long been sought out by coaching staff at Auburn, is used to being based overseas, having previously training in the US and Europe.