Dubai: Qatar yesterday announced an interest to bid for the right to host the 2016 Olympic Games bringing them into direct competition with Dubai who is also bracing itself to make a strong pitch.
The small Gulf Arab state, who will host the Asian Games this December, will be competing against 12 cities.
A senior official from the Qatar National Olympic Committee said: "We want to be one of the candidate cities for the 2016 games. We have expressed our interest and we hope to be accepted.
"We have already built our infrastructure, and what we currently have is over and above the requirements for the Olympics. But we will know more on how well our bid is doing by this time next year."
No Arab country has hosted the Olympics.
Dubai, the regional commercial, tourism and sporting hub, has long harboured a desire to host a mega sporting event on the scale of the Olympics.
The $2 billion Dubai Sports City currently under construction in Dubailand was conceived with a final goal to stage sport's greatest spectacle.
Earlier this year Mohammad Al Gergawi, UAE Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and the Executive Chairman and CEO of Dubai Holding, said: "The UAE is ready, via the Dubai Sports City, to hold the Olympics".
Abdul Rahman Falaknaz, one of three local investors behind the project also believes Dubai can host the 2016 Games as it meets the required criteria.
In evaluating a bid the International Olympic Committee has stipulated several requirements for new cities including stadiums, necessary infrastructure like transportation, an Olympic and media village venues and adequate hotel and convention space. The nominee must also have the support of both local and federal governments, as well as active private sector participation.
It must also have a realistic chance to win against international candidates.
Reacting to the news that Qatar would also be bidding to host the 2016 Olympiad Dubai Sports City CEO U. Balasubramaniam said: "The very fact that Qatar is pitching for the Olympic Games is good news for the Middle East in general.
"Should the Government of Dubai also intend to make a bid, as I believe they will, they will have the backing of Dubai Sports City.
"We are confident that Dubai Sports City has the capability of staging an event like the Olympic Games in the future."
Dubai Sports City, covers approximately 50 million square feet and features state of the art stadiums and world class sporting academies as well as schools, shops, restaurants, hotels, a hospital and all of the other essential services and facilities in a city within a city.
The facility will feature four magnificent stadia - a 60,000 seat multi-purpose outdoor stadium, a 25,000 capacity cricket stadium, a 10,000 seat multi-purpose indoor arena, and a field hockey stadium for 5,000 spectators.
It also boasts the first Manchester United soccer school outside of Europe, a golf course designed by South African No 1 golfer Ernie Els, a David Lloyd tennis school, and a Butch Harmon golf academy, the first outside North America.
Besides Dubai and Doha, the cities likely to bid for the 2016 Olympics are Kenya, Cape Town, New Delhi, Tokyo and Fukuoka, Bangkok, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Leipzig, Lisbon, Madrid, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, Montréal, Toronto, Havana and Monterrey. The bidding has not commenced but the IOC are expected to begin to collect applications in 2007.
The winner will be chosen in October 2009 at the Olympic Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.
REQUIREMENTS
In evaluating bids to host the Olympics the IOC will be looking for the following:
- The nominee must have an existing stadium or approved plans for a new stadium that would be a large enough venue for the opening ceremony, closing ceremony and track and field competition
- The nominee must have "already built or fully committed" to building necessary infrastructure like transportation and the like
- The nominee must have Olympic and media village venues and adequate hotel and convention space
- The nominee must have the support of not only local government but also state and federal governments, as well as active private sector participation
- The nominee must have a realistic chance to win against international candidates.
