Dubai to bid for 2024 Olympics

Dubai, Dec 5 (IANS) Yousuf Yaqoob Alserkal, the vice president and chairman of the United Arab Emirate’s National Olympic Committee (NOC), said here that the sheikhdom still plans to bid for future Olympic Games, despite a withdrawal of a bid for the 2020 edition.

Speaking at the sidelines of the Emerging Host Cities conference, a two-day forum on hosting major sporting events which started Tuesday, Alserkal said the Dubai committee, which was formed in 2008 to work out Olympic bidding procedures, was still in place and he confirmed that the sheikhdom will effectively submit a bid for 2024, Xinhua reports.

Dubai has all sorts of required infrastructure for athletic sports, swimming, football, tennis or basketball, said Alkersal, “so we think in general we would be ready to host a multi-sports events.”

The UAE’s NOC vice president added that Dubai proved to be ready when it hosted the 7th FIFA Club World Cup in 2010 and the 9th Asian Swimming Championships last month, besides organising annually the Dubai Duty Free Tennis event.

However, temperatures rise up to 50 degrees Celsius during summer amid high humidity. This would force Dubai to move the summer games to the winter months, which might reduce the emirate’s chances against potential competing bidders.

Dubai was hit severely by the global financial crisis and was at the brink of bankruptcy end of 2009, which forced the government to put Olympic dreams on hold at that time. Dubai was financially saved by a $10 billion guarantee from neighbouring Abu Dhabi.

Dubai’s economy is now witnessing a strong comeback. According to Dubai department of statistics, in the first six months of 2012, Dubai’s real economy grew by 4.1 percent year on year, representing the highest half-year growth in five years.

IANS 2012-12-05 12:04:17