Six cities bid for 2020 Games

Six cities have officially lodged bids to host the 2020 Olympic Games – Bakou, Doha, Istanbul, Madrid, Rome and Tokyo, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) yesterday.

The bids deadline ran out at midnight on Thursday, with the IOC vote on the host city for 2020 scheduled to be held on September 7, 2013, in Buenos Aires.

The 2012 and 2016 Games are being staged in London and Rio de Janeiro.

The IOC held a meeting in South Korea last week to examine Qatar’s candidacy, with Doha requesting that should they be chosen they want to hold the Games at the end of October and start of November rather than the traditional window between July 15 and August 31.

Qatar was snubbed by the IOC in its bid for the 2016 Games despite tying with Chicago for third place and ranking ahead of Rio in grading by the IOC’s evaluation commission because of its insistence that the Games move to October.

Tokyo and Madrid lost out to Rio in the final vote to host the 2016 Games.

An initial selection to cull the list for 2020 of the weakest candidate will be made in May, 2012.

In January 2013, the candidates’ bid dossiers will be handed over to the IOC which will then despatch its evaluation committee to each city to assess their respective merits.