IOC cuts Doha and Baku from Olympic bid field

The number of cities bidding for the 2020 Olympics was cut down from five to three when the IOC’s Executive Board at a meeting in Quebec yesterday voted to let only Madrid, Tokyo and Istanbul go on as candidate cities.

Baku and Doha were eliminated from the race for the second time in a row after failing to make the shortlist of candidates for the 2016 Olympics. The Board used the findings of a report by an IOC working group as a basis for its decision.

The Doha bid proposed to stage the Games in October, as a way to avoid the extreme heat in Qatar during the summer time. However, scheduling the Olympics in October might clash with other sporting events and cause issues for broadcasters, which made it difficult for the Board to approve the Doha bid, Board member Richard Carrion explained to the newssite Around the Rings.

The VP of Doha’s bid, Almayassa Al-Thani told Around the Rings “We were here, we did our best. We’re very committed to the Olympic Movement. We’re very committed to sports development, so I think the two countries that were eliminated are emerging markets and I think it’s a missed opportunity for the IOC”.

Baku was found by the working group to lack the necessary experience and infrastructure to deliver successful Olympic Games in 2020, and the IOC report recommended that the capital of Azerbaijan should not advance to become a candidate city.

The election of the host city for the 2020 Olympic Games will take place on September 7, 2013 at the IOC session in Buenos Aires.

Read the full report from the IOC working group here

SOURCE: Around the Rings, IOC