Six cities have officially lodged bids to host the 2020 Olympic Games - Baku, Doha, Istanbul, Madrid, Rome and Tokyo, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Friday.
The bids\' deadline ran out at midnight on Thursday, with the crunch IOC vote on the host city for 2020 scheduled to be held on September 7, 2013, in Buenos Aires.
The IOC, in a statement, confirmed the runners in the race for 2020: "The International Olympic Committee is pleased to announce that six cities have been put forward by their respective National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to apply to host the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in 2020.
"The cities, in alphabetical order, are: Baku (Azerbaijan), Doha (Qatar), Istanbul (Turkey), Madrid (Spain), Rome (Italy) and Tokyo (Japan)."
Doha\'s name went into the 202 hat after the IOC held a meeting in South Korea last week to examine Qatar\'s candidacy.
Should they be chosen Doha are requesting to hold the Games at the end of October and start of November rather than the traditional Olympic window between July 15 and August 31.
Qatar was snubbed by the IOC in its bid for the 2016 Games despite tying with Chicago for third place and ranking ahead of Rio de Janeiro in grading by the IOC\'s evaluation commission because of its insistence that the Games move to October.
Azerbaijan capital Baku also failed to make it into the final vote for that edition.
Qatar have already been chosen to host the football World Cup in 2022.
Both Tokyo, the 1964 hosts, and Madrid lost out to Rio in the final vote to host the 2016 Games.
Rome are attempting to secure their second games after the staging of the XVII Olympiad in 1960.
An initial selection process will be made by the IOC after studying each applicant\'s ability to host a Games with those candidates that survive this first hurdle announced in May, 2012.
In January 2013, the candidate\'s bid dossiers will be handed over to the IOC which will then despatch its evaluation committee to each city to assess their respective merits between February and April, 2013.
The IOC then publishes a report on each bid, with candidates then being invited to IOC headquarters to brief IOC members on their bids ahead of the crunch September 2013 vote in Buenos Aires.
Missing from the list of candidates for 2020 is a city from the United States, humiliated in the final vote for 2016 when favourites Chicago crashed out in the first round.
New York, Dallas and Chicago again had shown an interest in hosting the 2020 Games, but any potential bid was contingent upon the US Olympic Committee (USOC) resolving a revenue-sharing deal with the IOC.
A group from Las Vegas had launched an ultimately failed rogue bid for 2020, submitting paperwork to the IOC without the backing of the USOC last month.
The last Olympic Games to take place in the United States was in 2002 the Salt Lake City Games, an Olympics that was subsequently overshadowed by the \'gifts for votes\' scandal.
The 2012 Games are being staged in London.
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