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- Dubai 04:25 05:43 12:19 15:46 18:50 20:09
Qatar has expressed an interest in hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics which falls just two years before the football World Cup is held in the emirate, Asia's Olympic chief said on Wednesday.
"I hear Doha have interest," Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah told Japan's Kyodo news agency. "This is what I'm hearing, but we don't have anything officially announced yet."
The Qatari capital, which hosted the 2006 Asian Games, could battle it out with Tokyo, if the Japanese capital follows through on a pledge to bid for the 2020 Games.
Sheikh Ahmad, a Kuwaiti member of the International Olympic Committee, was in Tokyo for the OCA meetings. He is expected to be re-elected to a sixth term at the OCA general assembly on Thursday.
Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics but lost to Rio de Janeiro in the race for the 2016 edition, is expected to formally announce its bid for 2020 this week.
Rome is the only city which has officially entered the 2020 bidding so far. Apart from Tokyo and now Doha, Madrid and Istanbul are also said to be interested in hosting the Games.
The deadline for submitting the bids is September 1 and the winner will be decided in 2013.
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