London Latest - Coventry Hosting Football, Anti-Doping Hotline, Wind Turbine Plans

London Moves Football Venue

Coventry will host qualification football matches during the London 2012 Olympics.

Ricoh Arena will be temporally renamed City of Coventry Stadium for the Games. The renaming of the stadium fulfills the IOC requirement that Olympic venues are free of advertising during the Games.

Coventry replaces the city of Birmingham's Villa Park as the venue in Midlands. Last year, LOCOG ruled out Villa Park due to construction work.

"The City of Coventry Stadium is a great venue, and will be an excellent host for Football matches for the London 2012 Olympic Games," LOCOG Chairman Sebastian Coe said. "It is ideally located in the center of England and the city already has strong links with London 2012."

The stadium seats 32,500. The Olympic schedule for the stadium has yet to be confirmed.

Wind Turbine Not Feasible

In a possible blow to sustainability pledges, the London Olympic Delivery Authority is scrapping plans for a wind turbine in the Olympic Park.

ODA Chief Executive David Higgins said that the turbine "was no longer feasible." ODA cited new safety legislation the main reason for scrapping the turbine, which is also known as the Angel of Leyton. The preferred-bidder told the ODA that it was unable to comply with the new regulations at the Eton Manor site in the North end of the park.

"We have carried out an exhaustive process with the industry and suppliers over the last 2 years to find a viable way of delivering a wind turbine on the Olympic Park site. However, the industry environment has changed and that means the project is no longer feasible," Higgins said.

The wind turbine would have helped ODA fulfill a promise of providing 20 percent the Olympic Park’s energy from renewable energy sources by 2014. Higgins said that the ODA remains committed to the renewable energy goal.

"Weremain committed to meeting the challenging renewable energy targets we have set ourselves," Higgins said. "Our focus is now on researching a number of alternative renewable energy options across the Olympic Park site to help contribute to these targets and compliment the other state-of-the art new energy infrastructure we are building."

The Commission for Sustainable London 2012 said it supports the decision if the ODA achieves sustainability targets by other means. The commission monitors the sustainability of venues and reports directly to LOCOG.

"The symbolic power of a wind turbine at the park, whilst valuable, does not outweigh the considerations of the optimaluse of resources," said the commission in statement.

The commission added, "ODA’s agreed commitments on carbon emissions on the Olympic Park must be met."

UK Anti-Doping Opens the Phone Lines

UK Anti-Doping is launching a confidential hotline to combat doping.

UK Anti-Doping opened the phone line on Thursday. Callers can speak to someone 24 hours a day, seven days a week to report doping information. The information will be forwarded to the UK Anti-Doping Intelligence Unit.

UK Anti-Doping says callers name will be confidential whether they are an athlete, trainer, or family member.

"We are urging people to come forward with any information on doping, no matter how insignificant they might feel it is," said UK Anti-Doping Chief Executive Andy Parkinson. "The smallest amount of information could be the missing link that enables us to take action and protect sport from those who want to cheat."

The phone number is 0800 032 2332. Crimestoppers operates the line.

Information can also be sent to Crimestoppers via its website. http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/

Written by Sam Steinberg.