Russia Bidding for 2023 European Games

(ATR) The Russian city of Kazan is bidding to host the European Games in 2023.

Kazan becomes the second city to join the race to host the third edition of the Games, joining Katowice, Poland.

There may be more candidates to come. Around the Rings is told that there are currently contacts, conversations and informal meetings with various cities interested in hosting the event. The deadline to submit a bid is February 28. A vote to determine the host is expected in June.

Kazan hosted FIFA World Cup games last summer and has previously hosted the University Games in 2013 and the world swimming championships in 2015.

Should Kazan win the right to host the European Games, it would mean that venues in the former Soviet Union would have been home to all three editions of the event. Baku, Azerbaijan hosted the inaugural competition in 2015 and Minsk, Belarus has the honors in June of this year.

Minsk stepped in to host the 2019 event after Russia was dropped in 2016 amid its doping scandal. The Netherlands had originally agreed to host, but backed out in 2015.Russia is currently compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code thanks to a decision by the World Anti-Doping Agency last September. However, that compliance is conditional on the Russian Anti-Doping Agency fulfilling a number of obligations. Should Russia not fulfill those conditions, WADA could recommend that sporting organizations enforce not allowing the country to host international events.

With the IOC declaring that Russia has paid its penalty for doping, Russia appears ready to resume its efforts to host a variety of international sporting events.

Russia is also bidding for the UEFA Champions League Final in 2021 (St. Petersburg) and the Summer University Games in 2023 (Yekaterinburg), among others, according to Belarus News.

Written by Gerard Farek

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