Baseball, softball voted out of the 2012 Olympics

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -- London will stage a reduced Olympic Games in 2012 after baseball and softball were wiped from the program in a controversial vote on Friday.

London's showpiece will now feature 26 sports rather than 28 after International Olympic Committee members rejected proposals to replace the axed sports with two from rugby sevens, golf, squash, karate and roller sports.

Baseball and softball failed to win a majority of votes in a ballot of members at the IOC Session at the Raffles complex and became the first sports to be cut from the Games since polo in 1936.

In a farcical display of bureaucracy, IOC members went through seven rounds of voting to decide which two of the five would-be Olympic sports should be put up for a vote to give them Olympic status.

Having selected squash and karate, the members then overwhelmingly rejected their bids to join the Olympic program.

The last Olympics to be staged with just 26 sports were Atlanta in 1996. The minimum number of sports required for an Olympic Games is 15, while the maximum is 28.

"Today was a decision to put quality over quantity," IOC communications director Giselle Davies said.

Although London will have two less sports than Beijing in 2008, it is expected the IOC will tweak the program of events and boost numbers among the events so the Games will be no smaller than Beijing's.

"It's entirely a matter for the IOC. We're delighted to deliver Games with 26 sports. We're happy with the decision," London 2012 communications director Mike Lee said. "There will be some savings through not having temporary venues in Regents Park but it is not a major consideration. We will deliver the Games the IOC want."

Lee said Regents Park will now likely be used to stage cultural events during the Games period.

In 2002 the IOC capped the number of sports at an Olympic Games at 28, the number of events at 301 and the number of athletes at 10,500.

At that same session in Mexico City, IOC President Jacques Rogge proposed that baseball, softball and modern pentathlon be dropped, and golf and rugby union added.

However, IOC members resisted and no vote was taken.

"This is payback for Mexico City," a visibly shocked softball federation chief Don Porter said after his sport's rejection. "They wanted us out in 2002. It has taken them three years but they have got us. We didn't expect this at all. The discussions we have had all week led us to believe we were safe to assume the program would remain unchanged for 2012. I don't want to say it's an anti-U.S. thing, but