Exclusive: "Everyone wants Turkey but Turkey wants the Olympics"

By Duncan Mackay in Moscow

April 13 – Leaders of Istanbul 2020 claim that there is no threat of their campaign to host the Olympics and Paralympics being sabotaged by a bid from Turkey to stage football’s European Championships in that year instead.

Istanbul’s bid had been steadily gathering momentum but suffered a setback last month when Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced during the UEFA Congress in the city that they would also like to bid for Euro 2020.

Erdoğan’s comments appeared to cast doubt over the Government’s commitment to the Olympics but Ugur Erdener (pictured below right) and Hasan Arat (pictured below left), the President and vice-president respectively of the National Olympic Committee of Turkey (NOCT), both claimed here that successfully bidding for the Games remains the country’s main priority.

To make his point, Arat flicked open Istanbul’s Applicant City file and pointed to a paragraph attributed to Erdoğan which states categorically that no “major international” event will be held in Turkey in 2020 within a month of the Olympics, which would clearly rule out them staging the European Championships.

“This is written by the Prime Minister and given to [International Olympic Committee President] Jacques Rogge with his personal signature, ” Arat told insideworldfootball.

“When we talk about 2020 we understand Istanbul 2020.

“I don’t know of any other event in Turkey in 2020.”

Erdener, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and President of World Archery, has total confidence in the strength of the Government guarantees.

“There is no other signed commitment from the Government for any other event, only for Istanbul 2020,” he told insideworldfootball.

There are suspicions that Michel Platini, the President of UEFA, has tried to hijack Istanbul’s Olympic bid because he desperately needs a country to host his newly-expanded 24-team European Championships.

The event is now so big and logistically challenging that are there few countries in Europe capable of hosting it on their own, particularly in the current economic climate.

Turkey, whose booming economy is bucking the trend of the rest of Europe, is seen as an ideal candidate to host Euro 2020, especially as they only missed out on the event in 2016 by one vote to Platini’s France.

“Everyone wants Turkey but Turkey wants the Olympics,” said Arat.

Erdener and Arat will be part of Istanbul’s delegation that is due to make a 10 minute presentation at the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) here tomorrow, along with their rivals Baku, Doha, Madrid and Tokyo.

Among those joining them will be Ayda Uluç, the President of the Turkish Tennis Federation, and Neslihan Demir Darnel (pictured), a member of Turkey’s volleyball team that won a bronze medal in last year’s World Championships.

Erdener claims that if Istanbul make it onto the shortlist when the IOC makes its choice in Quebec City on May 23, then they will revert to the more traditional bid model of one leader, which is widely expected to be Arat, a hugely successful businessman.

“When we enter the Candidate City process you will see how strong Istanbul is going to be,” said Erdener.

“This time is the right time for Istanbul.”

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