Germany able to host 2024 Games and Euro in same year: Bach

[September 16, 2015]  BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany would have no problems hosting both the 2024 European soccer championships as well as the summer Olympics in the same year, given the country's sports infrastructure and organizational skills, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said on Wednesday.

Hamburg is bidding for the 2024 Olympics while the German football association (DFB) is hoping to land the Euro in the same year, traditionally staged just a few weeks before the summer Games.

"I think this can be possible because they are time-wise a couple of weeks apart from each other so they do not influence each other in this respect," Bach said in a conference call.

"I also think that nobody has real doubt about the Germans' organizational skills."

Hamburg is bidding against Paris, Rome, Los Angeles and Budapest, with the French capital and the U.S. city seen as the early frontrunners in the race to be decided in 2017.

Bach, a German himself, said the country already had the necessary stadium infrastructure in place for the Euro, which meant preparations for the continental soccer tournament would not affect Hamburg's plans for the Games, should the German port be selected as the host.

The IOC two years ago had warned Turkey to pick one of the two, with Istanbul bidding for the 2020 Olympics and the country campaigning to land the Euro 2020.

It had said the strain of staging two large international events so close to each other would not be possible for Turkey.

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)

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