Regarding Olympic Lanes, the problem is that Athens in August is normally a ghost town, much ofthe population is on holiday and during the Olympics even more went on holiday. Therefore the Olympic Lanes had little impact.

Beijing was even better/easier as not only were some roads built with the Olympics in mind, but every manufacturing plant within x kms of the city were closed down and a huge amount of the population tool time off. Furthermore, as a country with extremely strong state control, even if people did have problems with the lanes......no one heard about it (and I was there, half the time in Olympic Lanes, and half not, and there rarely was any traffic).

London's Olympic lanes will probably be a nightmare for the population as there is no "mass holiday" happening (although a taxi driver told me yesterday that they are planning on protesting about them because they will not be allowed even to turn across them!), many roads are inadequate already....notice how the Hammersmith roundabout being out and/or restricted to 1 lane has been a nightmare lately, that is how it will be everyday and worse.

Regarding the rest, all sorts of sporting organizations get all sorts of perks that they demand as part of hosting or sponsorship obligations, its just a fact of life.

Regrading FIFA. Many heads of sporting organizations are IOC members, and there has always been a FIFA one. Regarding Havelange, he was a member for almost 50 years, even before he was the FIFA President, hell the guy COMPETED in the 1936 Berlin Games!