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Olympic Committees want more cash
 Rana said the smaller NOCs should be given an extra 20 percent funding. SEOUL, South Korea -- National Olympic Committees (NOCs) on Tuesday pressed the International Olympic Committee for more money, saying its lead sponsorship program needed to be reviewed. Mario Vasquez Rana, the chairman of the Association of National Olympic Committees, told reporters that he believed the IOC should pay more. They would ask for the smaller nations's funds to be increased by 20 percent Blaming increased pressure from local sponsors and ambush marketing, the committees from Papua New Guinea to Jamaica said they often felt left out of the funding process. Several committees said it was necessary to review the methods used by the IOC to distribute funds through its prime sponsors program, which is worth billions of dollars a year. Speaking at the end of a meeting attended by 201 NOCs, Rana said:"There are two types of NOCs; the small ones for which top sponsors may think there is not enough marketing interest and the bigger ones. "For these (small) NOCs, the IOC gives some funds and we will ask the IOC to increase it by 20 percent." Ambush marketingCanadian Olympic Committee chief Michael Chambers complained that committees were also feeling the squeeze through ambush marketing or ever growing presence of sponsors, clothing manufacturers or broadcasters associated with the athletes. He said NOCs were sometimes left as "the odd man out." In one such recent incident, the Swedish Olympic Committee threatened to strip its own ice hockey team of its Turin 2006 Winter Olympics gold medal after federation sponsors and not official Olympic sponsors featured in a welcoming celebration. Rana said a meeting between the committees and a representative of the sponsors program would be set up soon to discuss the matter. Jamaican Olympic Committee president Michael Fennell said a lack of funds was threatening the autonomy of smaller committees. "There are two groups of NOCs, rich and poor," Fennell said. "It is a serious problem, because if NOCs cannot raise the funds and go to the governments then this relates to their autonomy." According to the Olympic charter NOCs can only raise funds on the territory they represent, which in many cases severely limits their options. "How can the Cayman Islands with a population of 5,000 or Haiti with eight million people but a very poor nation raise funds on their turf," Fennell said. 
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