Lord Coe felt like 'Costa Brava timeshare salesman' while selling 'derelict' East London for Olympi

London, July 22 (ANI): The chairman of London Games Organising Committee (LOCOG), Lord Sebastian Coe, has said he felt "like a Costa Brava timeshare salesman" as he tried to persuade Olympic bosses to bring the Games to a derelict part of East London.

He recalled standing on top of a tower block with a team from the International Olympic Committee eight years ago, surveying an industrial site in Stratford earmarked for the 2012 Games.

"I must admit I felt a bit like a Costa Brava timeshare salesman. I was saying to them, 'You see those fridges over there, well that is where the stadium is going, and over there, that is where the velodrome is'," the Daily Express quoted Coe, as saying.

"As I was hearing the words coming out, I remember they were looking at me saying, 'Right, OK'.We have come a long way since then, and I do not think people quite realise what has happened here," he added.

He said key to the project was gambling that LOCOG could plan and build the stadium earlier than other host cities had and allowed it to create the Olympic Delivery Authority, which worked with the government to clear the site of scrap metal merchants, haulage companies and other "dirty" industries, the paper said.

Controversially, they also demolished a cycle circuit and nature reserve, as well as a housing estate, but Lord Coe said it was all worth it.

"I pay tribute to my teams, I have the smartest group of people that have come together in a national cause," he said. (ANI)