Western Europe preferred to host 2019 European Games

25 June 2015 09:53 (UTC+04:00)

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The second European Games should be in Western Europe following the inaugural event in Azerbaijan, the head of the European Olympic Committees Patrick Hickey told The Associated Press.

"We have a policy in the EOC that we always like to have a geographical spread, Hickey said. It would be my personal wish that we would have gone back to - I don't like to call it Western Europe - the old part of Europe with the second edition of the Games. And Netherlands fitted the bill perfectly there.”

"We would have liked to have the second event in the old part of Europe. That could be still possible but, if not, we'll proceed wherever we think the best place is," Hickey added.

Hickey said four cities expressed interest in holding the 2019 games after the Netherlands withdrew, but declined to name them. Two of the candidates originally lost out to the Netherlands in bidding, and have approached the EOC again, while the other two are new to the process.

A decision is expected by the end of the year, Hickey added.

"We'll try and do it faster because we're conscious to give the cities as much as time as possible for preparation," Hickey said.

The First European Games are currently being held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The European Games that kicked off June 12, will last till June 28. There is a total of 20 sports at Baku 2015: 16 Olympic sports and four non-Olympic sports.

More than 6,000 athletes from across Europe came to Baku to represent their nations over 17 days of competition. Baku was awarded the games by the European Olympic Committees (EOC) in December 2012.

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