London 2012 ‘nuke threat’ suspects had phones and cars disabled

Shrimpton was jailed for 12 months in 2015 for the hoax but, at the time, the threat was regarded as credible.

In his book, to be published on November 17, Payne writes: “In the final weeks before the Games, ‘persons of concern’ found their lives unravelling in strangely inconvenient ways. Their cars stopped functioning. Their mobile phones would inexplicably lose power. Their debit cards malfunctioned at cash machines. Then, just as suddenly, right after the London Paralympic Games ended, everything returned to normal.”

The book also details alleged dark arts by Russia when Sochi was bidding against Salzburg for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Payne, who was working for the Salzburg bid at the time, had both his home and office burgled and his computer hard drive stolen.

Sochi also hired hundreds of actors to pretend to be passengers at the city’s new — but empty — airport for an IOC inspection visit. They were each paid £50 to collect bags from the carousel and queue at passport control.

Barcelona’s home from home a hard sell

Barcelona appear to be struggling to fill their temporary stadium despite the fact that it has half the capacity of the Nou Camp, which has been closed for two seasons for renovations.

The Catalan club’s ticketing department has been on a hard-sell drive this season, with tickets for Saturday’s game against Girona still available for as little as €79 (£69). They are also offering tickets for the game against Elche on Sunday, November 2 for €129 including a free scarf and fast-track entry to the Barcelona Museum.

Barcelona are playing their home games at the city’s Olympic Stadium, which has 55,000 seats. Work on the Nou Camp began in June 2023, aimed at expanding the capacity to 105,000. They had hoped to start this season at their newly expanded home, but the stadium is not yet ready.

Crypto questions for Forest

The involvement of Nottingham Forest’s cryptocurrency sponsor Floki in a club event aimed at children may not be against the regulations, but it still raises questions.

Floki posted that it was sponsoring the Premier League Primary Stars “Play on the Pitch” with Nottingham Forest Community Trust in June, although the club insist it did not sponsor the event. Floki also advertised a “metaverse game” on the LED boards during the event.

Dr Alex May, who writes a blog keeping a watch on sport, advertising and gambling, said: “It can hardly be considered socially responsible to promote crypto to under-18s.”

Infantino comes in peace

The Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s presence at Donald Trump’s peace summit in Egypt this week — he was invited by the US president — underlined their close relationship but also provoked a number of questions about why he was there.

Meanwhile, Lise Klaveness, the Norway FA president, confirmed this week that there had been “momentum” for Uefa to vote for Israel’s suspension, adding in the New York Times: “It was a real movement to have a meeting. But then the peace talks started, and then everything cooled down.”

Some senior figures in football believe Israel’s prime minister, Binjamin Netanyahu, feared a Uefa ban would lead to numerous other sports bodies following suit.

Dragan roars in vain

Southampton’s owner, Dragan Solak, has failed in a legal action against the European media conglomerate United Group that he founded — only to be ousted last June.

Solak went to court in Amsterdam to try to force the United Group to install a court-appointed representative to investigate the company’s corporate governance, but was unsuccessful. He still owns 36 per cent of the shares in the company.

United Group said in a statement afterwards: “This was another in a long line of distractions orchestrated by Mr Solak for his own ends.”

Solak told The Times: “I brought proceedings in the Netherlands to protect my interests as a minority shareholder in United Group. This has no impact on Sport Republic or Southampton.”

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