Plans to make the last round of tickets to the Sydney Olympics in September available only to VISA credit card holders appear to have been shot down by an Australian consumer watchdog who has rightly claimed that the arrangement was discriminatory.

VISA is one of the Olympic sponsors who put an estimated $40 million into the Games over a fouryear period. That, however, does not make things any simplier with regard to paying bills at the Games.

Imagine journalists' surprise in Atlanta in 1996 when informed on arrival that no other credit card except VISA would be acceptable for payment of phones and faxes, etc. Now, that was a mess.

"There is a sponsorship deal with VISA. That's the nature of the modern Olympics-sponsorship deals. So therefore one has to accept these arrangements, even though they are far from perfect," an organising official said. The world media might agree.