The International Olympic Committee informed about creating a shortlist of candidates to host 2020 Summer Olympics. The two eliminated cities are Baku (Azerbijan) and Doha (Qatar).

Yesterday the IOC announced shortlist of three candidate-cities to host 2020 Summer Olympics. Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo, all with long history of Olympic bidding, have been rated best among five applications.

Elimination of Doha may be seen as a disappointment in Qatar as the country were supposedly expecting to host World’s largest tournaments just two years apart (Qatar is host to 2022 World Cup while Paris is the strongest candidate for 2024 Olympics).

Now the shortlisted candidates have time until January 7^th 2013 to submit their full documentations. Then IOC representatives will visit each candidate (March - April) and evaluate their bids by July. Finally on September 7^th 2013 final vote will provide the name of 2020 host city.  

Istanbul has proposed redeveloping their current national stadium for the event. Tokyo plan a complete rebuilding of popular Kokuritsu (budget projected at $1,3bln). Madrid is in an interesting situation as the main venue of the bid is currently being remodeled to become… football-specific.