Cambodia declines to host games

CAMBODIA may not be ready to host the 2015 Southeast Asian Games, Vath Chamroeun, the secretary general of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia, told the Phnom Phen Post on Monday that five years may not be enough “for the Kingdom to prepare a sporting event of that magnitude.”

Cambodia’s reluctance to host the games in 2015 prompted the Philippine Olympic Committee to look into the possibility of Manila hosting the event in the same year.
“We will wait for Cambodia’s official communications on this. The executive board will have to take this up,” stated Cojuangco.
Earlier this month, Cojuangco said the Philippines is prepared to host the games on an earlier schedule if Myanmar or Vietnam back out of their turn in the rotation for hosting.
But Myanmar accepted the hosting rights for 2013 SEA Games during a recent meeting of the SEA Games Federation Council in Jakarta after Singapore backed out.
Cambodia was supposed to host the games in 2015, while Vietnam will have its turn in 2017.
The Federation has warned Cambodia that if it misses out on its turn, the wait can “be long and painful as bids are considered on a rotation basis.”
“We are overwhelmed by this show of massive support, but realistically, it may not be possible to mobilize resources, create infrastructure and develop human resources in a time frame of five years from now,” added Chamroeun. Peter Atencio