Not the Track, Not the Pool - the Hilton Will Be the Heart of the Olympics

The art of lobbying is being perfected this week in the modernist marble interior of the Hilton hotel in Athens. The city's magnificent Olympic stadium may be the focus of the world's attention when the games of the 28th Olympiad open tomorrow night, but the Hilton will be the real heart of the games.

The hotel provides not only a temporary home for the 123 members of the International Olympic Committee, the body that administers the self-styled "greatest show on earth", but is also the venue for the deal-making and politicking that drives the Olympic movement.

Crucially for London, Paris, New York, Madrid and Moscow, the lobby of the hotel is also the battlefield where by stealth and sleight of hand the right to stage the 2012 summer games could be won or lost.

For the past week the elegantly dressed, permanently tanned and predominantly middle-aged mix of businessmen, potentates, minor royalty and entrepreneurs who make up the IOC's membership have been visible in and around the Hilton. The hotel is the IOC's luxury barracks and its administrative heart - the capital of the state-within-a-state that the Olympic movement has established in Athens.

Staging the games requires the host country to comply with a number of extraordinary regulations, chief among them the suspension of normal immigration controls. For the duration of the games an Olympic accreditation document grants its holder the same privileges as a visa, effectively gifting the IOC sovereignty over one of the state's most important functions.

Nowhere is this temporary power more apparent than in the scores of army, police and security personnel that surround the Hilton, minutely checking the accreditation of anyone intending to pass between the fountains that flank the hotel's revolving door and into the air-conditioned heart of the games.

The hotel was block-booked nearly six years ago when Athens was awarded the Olympics, and it is clear why, being both a short limousine ride from the stadium and superbly appointed. The suites occupied by IOC members are the height of luxury and the view from the rooftop Galaxy bar is the best in Athens, taking in the Acropolis, the harbour at Piraeus and the islands beyond.

It is inside, however, that the real business is done. For the cities bidding to host the 2012 games the opportunity to access the entire IOC membership is one they cannot afford to miss. As London's bid is fast discovering, it is a world in which perception can mean more than reality, and every advantage must be made to count.

Yesterday the leaderships of the London, Paris and New York bids were working the hotel's prestigious guests with a determination worthy of any of the medal hopes honing their preparations in the athletes' village. After the bribery scandal that followed the awarding of the 2002 winter Olympics to Salt Lake City, candidates are bound by strict regulations limiting the scale and nature of contacts with the IOC members who decide the venues.

Bid members are prevented from even buying an IOC member a drink, and officially cities are not allowed to "actively campaign" until after November 15, when their candidature files have been handed to the IOC.

This has not stopped the five candidates for 2012 under- taking an intensive if discreet lobbying process. Dan Doctoroff, the CEO of the New York bid, said: "It's a great opportunity for us to get at the members of the IOC and many more members of the Olympic family. It is the only chance between now and the vote in Singapore when it will happen. Our contacts are informal, open and it's a great opportunity to establish relationships."

For London's bid, damaged by changes of leadership and a Panorama exposé unfairly linked to the bid team, their efforts this week could be crucial to their chances of success. Lord Coe, the bid chairman, will be based at the Hilton - he spent yesterday, along with the chief executive, Keith Mills, working hard to find favour with IOC members dismayed at Panorama allegations of widespread corruption within the Olympic movement.

Lord Coe, who also addressed a session of the IOC's commission last night, said he was encouraged by the response since arriving on Tuesday. "I've had very positive feedback so far," he said.

"I've spoken to a great many members of the IOC today and only a few have mentioned Panorama, and we have made it clear that we are here and available to talk to them about the allegations if they want us."