Rome City Council votes overwhelmingly in favour of bid for 2024 Olympics and Paralympics

Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino is a supporter of the city's bid for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics ©Rome City Council

Rome's bid to host the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics has received a significant show of support from the City Council, who today voted 38-6 in favour of backing it.

The vote comes two days after Paris announced they were joining Boston and Hamburg in the campaign to host the Olympics and Paralympics, with Budapest also expected to be a candidate.

"Like it was for Barcelona [1992] and London [2012], the Rome 2024 Olympics will leave a renewed, modern and sustainable identity for our city," said Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino.

"This is a vote that looks to the future and an opportunity to think about the city for the next generation."

Rome, which last hosted the Olympics in 1960, abandoned plans to bid for the 2020 Games due to financial problems.

Rome's bid comes against the backdrop of the so-called "Capital Mafia" inquest revealing a network of officials, businesses and criminals who rig tenders for public contracts – from restorations of historic buildings to housing services.

The votes against the bid came from the opposition Five-Star Movement, which has been against the candidacy since it was announced by Italian Premier Matteo Renzi in December.

Marcello De Vito of the Five-Star Movement said: "With 'Mafia Capital' in full swing and in a city with Mafia infiltrations, spiralling budgets and services inadequate for its citizens, putting forward the Rome bid seems absurd to us.”

Image title — Italian Olympic Committee Giovanni Malago has been the driving force behind Rome's proposed bid for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics ©CONI

But Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) President Giovanni Malago, who campaigned for the candidacy with bid leader Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, said: "I am very satisfied with the outcome of the Rome Council Assembly.

"Today sport prevailed over politics.

"I want to thank both the majority and the opposition for voting in favour of the motion.

"It was proven that with common sense it is possible to overcome the obstacles inevitably created by political debate.

"Today’s achievement is just the first step in a long journey which will continue over the next two years and which we must make together, in unity.

"This is the only way to achieve our goals."

The bid is expected to include many of the venues used for the 1960 Olympics, including the city’s Stadio Olimpico, which hosted the 1990 FIFA World Cup final.

"Together, beginning with this vote, we'll learn to win this challenge and bring this event to Rome with the goal of transforming the city, curing old urban wounds and making our beautiful capital more livable, welcoming and modern," Marino said.

"It is an extraordinary challenge that begins now.

"But it is a challenge not only in Rome, is a challenge of our country that we want to win together."

The International Olympic Committee is due to choose a host city at its Session in Peru's capital Lima in 2017.