Chair of IOC’s 2016 Olympics evaluation team will return to Madrid bid’s tour late Thursday

Chair of IOC evaluation team to return to Madrid

MADRID — The head of the International Olympic Committee team evaluating Madrid’s 2016 bid will return to the city late Thursday, a day after leaving for government business in Morocco.

Nawal el Moutawakel left the IOC evaluation commission meetings on Wednesday and traveled to Morocco, where she is sports minister, after King Mohammed VI called a meeting of the council of ministers.

The IOC said that El Moutawakel will be back with the five-day tour ending on Friday.

Madrid organizers said they were “completely confident it will have no impact on the success of the IOC visit.”

“Madrid 2016 fully understands the reason’s why Nawal el Moutawakel had to return to Morocco because of the request of King Mohammed VI,” bid organizers said in a statement issued to The Associated Press.

“The bid team has been able over three days to both tell her about what Madrid has to offer and show her during the tour of all the venues. The evaluation commission will hear the rest of our submission over the remaining two days and advise Nawal el Moutawakel, who hopefully will be able to return by Friday.”

Madrid is the last of the four candidate cities to be visited after Chicago, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.

On Thursday, financing was one of the key issues on the agenda.

The IOC panel will compile a report assessing the bids by Sept. 2. The full IOC will vote on the host city on Oct. 2 in Copenhagen.