Baku won't give up Olympic dream - Bid CEO

Baku and Doha were both denied candidate city status on Thursday, when the International Olympic Committee said it would only consider Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul for the 2020 Summer Games.

"The decision of the IOC is unfortunate for us," said Kenul Nurullaeva, the CEO of Baku's bid.

"But I can assure you that we will make conclusions and take into consideration the evaluations of IOC on our application for 2020 Games and the next time will be even more convincing."

Baku, a city of 2.3 million on the coast of the Caspian Sea, is able to plunge resources into upgrades that will strengthen the bid next time around, Nurullaeva said.

"Our country is on the way to progress. We invest significant resources in services and infrastructure to improve the future of our nation and the region. We are very pleased that our efforts have been noted in the report to the IOC working group. "

However, this report also said that Baku would be a risky choice of host for the Games, as it has never hosted a major international multi-sports event, Kazinform cites RIA Novosti.

Moreover, excessive pollution was highlighted and Baku's police were slammed as lacking professionalism.

Madrid has never hosted the Olympics, although Barcelona brought the Games to Spain in 1992, while Tokyo hosted the 1964 Olympics and the Japanese city of Nagano held the Winter Olympics in 1998.

The candidate cities are to complete their official bids until January 2013 and to be visited by the IOC inspectors afterwards. The final vote for the host will take place September 7, 2013, at an IOC session in Buenos Aires, Argentina.