- Title: Italy withdraws Rome 2024 Olympics bid
- Date: 11th October 2016
- Summary: ROME, ITALY (FILE - DECEMBER 15, 2014) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF CITY HALL VARIOUS OF TRAFFIC ROME, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 21, 2016) (REUTERS) TEXT ON SCREEN READING (Italian) "NEWS CONFERENCE - 2024 OLYMPICS ROME CANDIDACY" ROME MAYOR, VIRGINIA RAGGI, ARRIVING JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ROME MAYOR, VIRGINIA RAGGI, SAYING: "We have nothing against the Olympics, we have nothing against sport, sport forms an integral part of our electoral programme and the activity of our government. The vice mayor has a mandate which I hold very important in regards to sports, he is working closely with the communal facilities which are in a state of complete decay and which have been abandoned. But we don't want sport to be an excuse for more rivers of cement in the city. We won't allow that" NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS
- Embargoed: 26th October 2016 13:21
- Keywords: Olympics Rome 2024 Mayor Raggi withdrawn
- Location: ROME, ITALY
- City: ROME, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Olympics,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA00253K9OHZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Italy's Olympic Committee has officially withdrawn its bid to stage the 2024 Games in Rome after the city council voted to oppose the project, committee chief Giovanni Malago said on Tuesday (October 11).
"Today I wrote a letter to the International Olympic Committee in which we have broken off our candidature for the Olympic Games in 2024," Malago told reporters, ending speculation that he might try to pursue the bid regardless.
Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi announced in September that she would not back Malago's drive to put on the sporting extravaganza, saying that staging the Games would bury the Italian capital under piles of debt and "rivers of cement".
Raggi's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement won a landslide victory to take over in Rome in June. It had repeatedly flagged its opposition to hosting the Games, arguing that the city had more pressing problems.
However, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government had firmly supported the bid and the broader Rome municipality, which includes an array of small town councils, had indicated it was ready to put its name to the project in an attempt to by-pass the 5-Star veto.
But Malago, who met Olympic chiefs last week, called a news conference on Tuesday to make clear there was no way forward.
His announcement means only Paris, Los Angeles and Budapest are left in the running to stage the 2024 Summer games. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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