The first, published by Sport Markt, claims that the negative publicity surrounding the upcoming Beijing Games has led to a fall in interest in the Olympics in Britain.

 

The second, commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) found more than eight out of 10 schoolchildren knew very little about the Games.

 

Sport Markt's research, published in today's edition of The Times, discovered that the proportion of people who were either “interested” or “very interested” in the Olympics had fallen from 52 per cent to 36 per cent over the past four years since Athens staged the Games.

 

Britain displayed the lowest level of enthusiasm out of the five major European countries - Germany, Italy, France, and Spain - where interest had fallen.

 

Germany registered the highest level.

 

Gareth Moore, an international sales director for Sport Markt, said: “In the UK, the drop in interest in the summer Games over the past four years is drastic.

 

"The fact that England did not participate in the European [football] Championships this year should have had the opposite effect.

 

"But negative publicity regarding China and Tibet as well as the environmental issue and discussion on Beijing's air pollution did its job.”

 

The survey did, however, reveal more awareness among the British public of the Olympic sponsors compared with four years ago.

 

Coca-Cola was the most recognised brand followed by McDonald's and Visa.

 

That contradicted another survey published last month that claimed two-thirds of Britain's opinion-formers, made up of executives, senior City advisers, departmental officials, Government advisers, public sector professionals and the media, could not name an international Olympic sponsor.

 

The DCSF research found that 83 percent of young people currently know "not very much" or "nothing at all" about London 2012.

 

The Government survey, carried out by leading poll firm Ipsos Mori, found some youngsters mirroring attitudes expressed by adults with one teenager saying: "They are not going to build all those stadiums in time.

 

"It just isn't going to happen.

 

"They've already spent billions more than they should have."

 

A spokesman for London 2012 said: "We understand that this research was conducted up to a year ago.

 

"Our own, more recent, research shows that young people are supportive of the Games coming to London and want to be part of it.

 

"We've undertaken a lot of activities in the past year, aimed at young people in particular.

 

"Our education programme is being launched in September.

 

"This will be a very important way of engaging young people."