MAY 16, 2002

Michael not having a good week

DESPITE picking up an award for International Sportsman of the Year on Tuesday, Michael Schumacher has not been having a good week with all the negative publicity after his win in Austria at the weekend.

To add insult to injury the Swiss authorities have blocked his plans to build a huge house in the German-speaking part of the country. Michael enjoys considerable tax benefits in the country but wants to move from his current home in the French-speaking part of the country, near Lausanne and was planning to construct a villa with stables, a swimming pool and a gymnasium. But environmentalists have blocked the plan as the Schumachers wanted to build the property on top of a wooded hill.

Schumacher says that he will try again. He is hoping to get things sorted out by 2004 when his daughter is ready to start school.

Schumacher has been looking for a new house for some time, his first attempts having been blocked because the Swiss military refused to let him fly his executive jet into one of their bases. The planned house was close to an airport where his plane could land.

The environmentalists say that they tried to be as flexible as possible but that Schumacher's negotiators made a deal impossible.

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