Rome (dpa) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Monday that his
country would bid to stage the 2024 summer Olympic Games in Rome,
more than 60 years after the Eternal City last
hosted the landmark sporting event.
The announcement was expected to boost national pride, but also trigger criticism, as it came days after investigators exposed a wide Mafia-related corruption ring controlling the allotment of public funds in Rome.
"We are bidding to win," Renzi said at an event at the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) in the capital, adding the proposal would include some sporting events in Florence, Naples and Sardinia.
"I don't know whether we will make it, even if I am convinced of it: but bidding for the Olympics will be one of the greatest things we can do for our children, for ourselves, for Italy," the premier added.
Rome last hosted the Summer Games in 1960 while Italy has also held Winter Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo (1956) and Turin (2006).
"We have all the right stuff (to host the games again) and over 3,000 (years) of great history behind us," said Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino, who has pledged to clean up local politics after recent corruption revelations.
The investigation in Rome, which was dubbed Mafia capitale, followed other graft cases unveiled this year in Milan, which is to host the international food exhibition EXPO 2015, and Venice, where the MOSE dam project is underway to protect the lagoon city from flooding.
Quotidiano Nazionale, a newspaper, said the Vatican might also be involved in the Olympic bid. It said CONI President Giovanni Malago, who was due to meet Pope Francis on Friday, was considering asking him to host some competitions - like archery - on Vatican grounds.
"I think the proposal is excellent," Portuguese Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, told the daily. "It has never been done until now, but the church has always supported sport as a tool to spread healthy values. I really think Pope Francis could approve of it," he added.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is due to open the bidding process to host the 2024 games on January 15, and close it on September 15. The winning bid is expected to be picked at a meeting in Lima in September 2017.
Italy was the first country to formalize its interest.
In 2012, then premier Mario Monti vetoed plans to have Rome running to host the 2020 Olympics, on the grounds that it would have been too expensive for the debt-ridden nation, which had been on the brink of default a few months earlier.
"That 'no' to the Olympics was an unpopular, but responsible choice," Monti said in an op-ed on the Corriere della Sera newspaper last month, adding that he was not opposed to a new Olympic bid for 2024 since the country's financial health had improved.
hosted the landmark sporting event.
The announcement was expected to boost national pride, but also trigger criticism, as it came days after investigators exposed a wide Mafia-related corruption ring controlling the allotment of public funds in Rome.
"We are bidding to win," Renzi said at an event at the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) in the capital, adding the proposal would include some sporting events in Florence, Naples and Sardinia.
"I don't know whether we will make it, even if I am convinced of it: but bidding for the Olympics will be one of the greatest things we can do for our children, for ourselves, for Italy," the premier added.
Rome last hosted the Summer Games in 1960 while Italy has also held Winter Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo (1956) and Turin (2006).
"We have all the right stuff (to host the games again) and over 3,000 (years) of great history behind us," said Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino, who has pledged to clean up local politics after recent corruption revelations.
The investigation in Rome, which was dubbed Mafia capitale, followed other graft cases unveiled this year in Milan, which is to host the international food exhibition EXPO 2015, and Venice, where the MOSE dam project is underway to protect the lagoon city from flooding.
Quotidiano Nazionale, a newspaper, said the Vatican might also be involved in the Olympic bid. It said CONI President Giovanni Malago, who was due to meet Pope Francis on Friday, was considering asking him to host some competitions - like archery - on Vatican grounds.
"I think the proposal is excellent," Portuguese Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, told the daily. "It has never been done until now, but the church has always supported sport as a tool to spread healthy values. I really think Pope Francis could approve of it," he added.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is due to open the bidding process to host the 2024 games on January 15, and close it on September 15. The winning bid is expected to be picked at a meeting in Lima in September 2017.
Italy was the first country to formalize its interest.
In 2012, then premier Mario Monti vetoed plans to have Rome running to host the 2020 Olympics, on the grounds that it would have been too expensive for the debt-ridden nation, which had been on the brink of default a few months earlier.
"That 'no' to the Olympics was an unpopular, but responsible choice," Monti said in an op-ed on the Corriere della Sera newspaper last month, adding that he was not opposed to a new Olympic bid for 2024 since the country's financial health had improved.
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