The pointed, caustic and intended-to-embarrass comments whipped around the globe this week because that's exactly what the International Olympic Committee wanted.

The IOC decided to stage its grandiose Summer Games in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, even though any reasonable mind could see there was little to no infrastructure in place, a culture that isn't accustomed to completing such massive projects overnight and a populace that was never going to embrace spending precious public dollars on placating the gold-plated tastes of "international sporting administrators."

With the 2016 Olympics now two years out, it predictably doesn't look like Rio can deliver all the glitz and glamour the IOC believes it is entitled. And so here come wave after wave of complaints, attacks and dire comments through the media.

This week it was John D. Coates, an IOC vice president, who declared the Rio preparation is "the worst I have experienced." He also said the IOC has "become very concerned" and said it's "unprecedented" someone like him has to keep traveling to Rio to try to get the locals to do anything.

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This is how the IOC plays, and this why governments around the world – and the people who elect those governments – need to stop dealing with it.

Now, Coates is likely telling the truth; Rio probably is the worst in terms of preparation. But IOC officials say the same about almost every Olympics.

The issue isn't that Brazil's progress is slowed by prep for this summer's World Cup – it's worth noting FIFA is just as terrible of an organization. Or that there are neighborhoods under the plague of street violence sitting so close to planned facilities. Or that this is a nation of populism and worker strikes. Or that polluted waterways generate unpleasant smells (the New York Times reported just 35 percent of Rio's sewage is treated). Or …

It's that none of this should surprise anyone. It's that none of this is a new development.

Rio is Rio, the same Rio it ever was. Just because the IOC convinced a desperate and delusional politician to promise the country would build another epic sporting playground doesn't change it.

This is an equal opportunity con job here, local politicians and international sportsmen, both pretending this makes sense, both claiming spending billions on oversized stadiums and temporary housing and kayaking courses is a good idea.

They both get drunk on each other's sweet whispers. It's just when the IOC doesn't think it's being treated properly, it goes vengeful and runs to the media. It ought to date Donald Sterling.

"Probably these federations will keep complaining about me until the day the Olympics start, because sometimes they want us to do things that are too large," Rio mayor Eduardo Paes told reporters in Brazil last week. "They are making demands about the stadiums, but I will not accept them."

His example? Paes said the International Tennis Federation's Francesco Ricci Bitti, who doubles as a higher-up in the IOC, demanded Rio build a 20,000-seat tennis facility for the Games. Paes said he told Ricci Bitti a facility that size for tennis was ridiculous, unneeded and unnecessary.

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