Dubai Hopes To Submit Olympics Bid Within Eight Years – Official

Dubai is planning to submit a bid to host the Olympic Games within the next few years, a senior official has said.

“Hosting the Olympics is a dream. We hope to submit such a bid within the next eight years, God willing,” Ali Omar, the director of Dubai Sports Council (DSC) sports development department, was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

The 2016 Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, while Tokyo, Japan won the rights to host the 2020 games. The bidding process for the 2024 games is expected to begin in 2015, and the International Olympic Council is slated to announce the winning city in 2017.

The event could see bids from cities across the world including from Germany, the US, France and Kenya.

While reports did emerge that Dubai was potentially planning to make a bid for the 2024 Olympics, officials denied the news last year.

“Currently, we don’t see any interest from the leadership [regarding an Olympic bid]. We are more focussed on Expo 2020 and on making the event a success,” Shaima Al Zarooni, a senior executive board member on the UAE National Olympic Committee said late last year.

However, Dubai, which won the bid to host Expo 2020 in November las year, is capable of holding the Olympics, she added.

“Dubai is very well prepared. That’s why Jacques Rogge, the ex-International Olympics Committee(IOC) President who visited Dubai in 2010, stated that we are capable of holding the Olympics – it’s because of our infrastructure, because of our strategic location, because of the facilities and the commitment of the UAE people,” Al Zarooni said.

“We are certainly prepared; if we are capable of hosting Expo 2020, we are definitely prepared to host an Olympics,” she added.