CONI: If Rome 2024 bid dropped, candidacy unlikely for years

ROME (AP) Italian Olympic Committee president Giovanni Malago says that if Rome's bid for the 2024 Games is rejected by Mayor Virginia Raggi, a new candidacy wouldn't be realistic for up to half a century.

Having maintained her opposition to the bid since being elected in June, Raggi is expected to formally announce a request to drop the candidacy in the coming weeks. She maintains that costs would not be sustainable.

Malago tells Naples daily Il Mattino that in such a case ''it would be useless to waste time with the IOC for 2028 or 2032'' and perhaps ''for 30 or maybe 50 years.''

It would mark Rome's second withdrawal in four years after then-premier Mario Monti stopped Rome's plans to bid for the 2020 Games in 2012 because of financial conditions.