Will it be third time lucky for Doha’s Olympic dream?

Reedie, who was speaking at a World Rugby conference in London, served on the IOC’s evaluation commission for the 2016 vote and was the chairman of evaluation commission for the 2020 Games prior to becoming global anti-doping chief.

Concerns about the extreme heat, low population and limited sporting pedigree meant that Doha did not even get on the shortlists for those votes.

Those concerns remain, but Qatar has since successfully bid for major events in sports as diverse as cycling, handball and swimming, carefully building relationships with the international federations of each of those “Olympic family” members.

It also appears to have the useful knack of learning from mistakes. Doha lost the race for the 2017 Worlds to London, but spent the last two years quietly fixing the perceived weaknesses in its offer. One such tweak was to upgrade the proposed accommodation for athletes and officials, a detail that plays well with the athlete-first lobby and those who just like nice hotels.

The fact that Qatar was also high on the IAAF’s speed dial thanks to its staging of the less popular world indoor championships in 2010 and five subsequent Diamond League events also helped.

One British-based consultant for sports bids described winning the 2019 Worlds as the “last piece in the puzzle” for a Doha Olympics, given track and field’s status as the IOC’s most important sporting stakeholder.

But there are other voices to consider, not least those of US media giant NBC and several American-based sponsors. And a successful bid in 2024 would mean that a country that has never qualified for a World Cup or won an Olympic gold will stage three of the world’s biggest sports events in just five years.

News that Doha had beaten Barcelona and the American city of Eugene , external– a bid heavily backed by Nike – to IAAF’s biggest prize, the Worlds, came on the same day the IOC announced 40 proposed reforms to how it chooses host cities and sports.

Among these changes are plans to allow joint bids from more than one city, and not necessarily cities in the same country. This has prompted some to speculate Doha could be part of a regional bid, but the BBC understands the Qatar authorities are keen to go it alone.

It should also be pointed that Qatar is hardly Mr or Mrs Popular in the region, having fallen out with Bahrain, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and other near neighbours in recent months over its alleged financial support for Islamist opposition groups and militants.

Being the home and sponsor of Al-Jazeera,, external the TV network known for its outspoken commentary on every Middle Eastern state apart from Qatar, has not won many friends either, although relations are improving., external