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Olympic Rings (source: wikimedia.org)
Thursday, 12 November 2015 - 10:27
Report: Amsterdam wants 2028 Summer Olympics with Rotterdam co-hosting
It seems that Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan wants the Netherlands to host the 2028 Olympic Games. During the trade visit to Japan he said in two speeches that he hopes Amsterdam and Rotterdam can organize the 2028 Summer Olympics together - once in the presence of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Het Parool reports.
A spokesperson for Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb told the newspaper that he does not know "what Mr. Van der Laan is talking about". And the Amsterdam mayor himself has not responded to questions about how serious he is about these comments. But sport and education lecturer Cees Vervoorn thinks that the comments were made "with a serious undertone" at least. "The mayor is not a man to joke about this", he said to the newspaper.
The government pulled the plug on the Olympic Plan 2028 in October 2012. At the time they believed that hosting the games would be too big a financial risk due to the economic crisis of the time and that there won't be enough support from the public. Countries or cities interested in hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics has to report to the IOC by 2019.