Maybe the Sports Minister, Richard Caborn, here on a flying visit this weekend, will be able to offer some advice.What is apparent is that London desperately needs some top-level PR, without becoming paranoid. As Alain Lunzenfichtel, Olympic correspondent of France’s daily sports newspaper, L’Equipe, says: “The French don’t have the same obsession with London that Londoners have with the French.”Even so, the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, who is Cassani and Ken Livingstone rolled into one as he also chairs the French bid, will be quick to point out to visiting VIP’s that whereas London has not staged an Olympics since 1948, Paris has not had a summer Games since 1924. This is why she has been holding brainstorming sessions with her embryo team in an attempt to find ways of off-setting the early Parisian advantage.Like the Government, London’s bidders need to be adept at burying bad news. Of course, there are seven other contenders, but for the moment it is Paris v London, going t? ??.Ignore the chauvinistic William Hill odds of 7-4 on London. Paris, with so much already up and running, is clear favourite at this stage of the Games, as Cassani well knows.

The Parisian own goal cancelled out the one scored in the big athletics meeting at Crystal Palace a fortnight ago, when the 100 metres failed to go like clockwork.This is how it is going to be from now on as this Olympic tale of two cities reaches its denouement in Singapore just under two years from now. When she does eventually touch down, the former airline chief will find, rather like the London bid itself, that she has a lot of catching up to do.As you might expect, Paris is using its obvious charms to woo potential IOC votes, and will not be shy of demonstrating its eminent suitability as host city for 2012 by staging a showpiece at the Stade de France. From chic to cheek, as it were.True, there was something of a technical hitch with that computer cock-up which made a French farce of the voting procedure for places on the IAAF Council when Seb Coe cemented his position as front-runner for the post of Cassani’s chief aide-de-camp by obtaining a vital seat for the UK. She could be excused some wishful thinking – that something untoward happens in the French capital as the World Athletics Championships unfold.
Nothing life-threatening, of course – but a New York-style blackout would do nicely, putting a timely spoke in the Parisian wheel as it gathers momentum towards Olympic D-Day in 2005 for bids for the 2012 Games.The London bid leader has already missed a trick by Bank Holidaying at home rather than making herself busy with the bigwigs of the International Olympic Committee and International Association of Athletic Federations over the past few days. Barbara Cassani will be an American in Paris when she arrives on Tuesday, but she will have more than sight-seeing on her mind. If you saw this as a plot on Footballers’ Wives you would not believe it. Fitness instructor Laura Church, sacked by Gillingham after texting a married player at midnight.. It was a bit of a culture shock.

Wolves director Rachel Heyhoe Flint on the 5-1 Premiership baptism at Blackburn. Reaction of David Hookes, Victoria state coach, to allegations that Shane Warne had been making salacious phone calls to a South African woman… It bodes well for their progress towards next year’s Olympics, which begins with a qualifying match against Vietnam in Damascus. But will there be other Iraqis in Athens? Both the IOC and the IAAF are sending missions to Baghdad to “identify possible athletes and sports leaders”, who will be offered overseas training. Let’s hope they will be more perspicacious than previous investigators, who failed to suss out the treatment of Iraqi sportsmen.insidelines independent.co.ukExit LinesSome dopey, hairy-backed sheila has dobbed him in.

She escaped a drugs ban when she blamed a positive steroid test on a medical condition. British shot-putter Carl Myerscough, who bombed out yesterday, was not so lucky, but he has been thrown a lifeline by the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, who has warned the BOA – and other national bodies – that they are “exposing themselves to dangerous litigation” by imposing lifetime Olympic bans.Iraq’s Olympic footballers, whose tribulations we reported recently, won the international friendship tournament in Saudi Arabia, defeating Morocco 1-0 in the final.A remarkable renaissance considering they have no money, no stadium and suffered the brutalities of Saddam Hussein’s son Uday. Ottey switched nationalities after falling out with Jamaica’s athletics authorities following a selection dispute in Sydney. The redoubtable track queen, who competes in the 100m today, has amassed 28 world and Olympic medals – more than any other woman. In any case, he gives London little chance – his pick is Paris.Jonathan Edwards has admitted he can no longer hack it athletically at 37, and for another veteran record-breaking Olympian Paris also signals a World Championships adieu.But unlike Edwards, 43-year-old Merlene Ottey plans to keep on running towards Athens where, as here, she will be representing her new homeland of Slovenia. Although he left Britain under a cloud, Norman, who is now 60, remains a major player in the sport globally, and would be a huge help to London’s Olympic bid – not that he is likely to be asked because of the messy circumstances of his departure. The exiled Andy Norman, once the “Mr Big” of British athletics, returned from South Africa, where he now lives with his wife, Fatima Whitbread, and their five-year-old son, to use his still considerable influence with the moguls of world athletics on behalf of friend Coe and five other Britons who won places on various commissions.