Krisztián Kulcsár, the President of the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB), has hired Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy to be the governing body's strategic consultant.

Szalay-Berzeviczy, the President of the Budapest Olympic Movement (BOM), is tasked with "re-evaluating the conditions for a future Olympics organised in Hungary", according to a statement released today.

He will not take a salary and will work on a pro-bono basis.

The announcement is a clear statement of intent after Budapest was forced to abandon its bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in March.

This came after a petition from campaign group Momentum Mozgalom, calling for a referendum on the bid, received more than 250,000 signatures.

In face of the opposition, Government officials opted to withdraw the bid to leave a two horse race between Los Angeles and Paris. 

However, Hungarian Olympic officials have not given up their dream of hosting the Olympics for the first time.

This is the case even with a change of leadership at the MOB, with Kulcsár, a former fencer who won two Olympic silver medals, unseating Zsolt Borkai in an election earlier this month.

He won by 108 votes to 51 in the second round of voting to defeat the sitting President who had been in power since 2010.

In a letter to Szalay-Berzeviczy, Kulcsár wrote: "Under my presidency, the issue of the Budapest Olympics will be a special and highly significant chapter, and that is why I am counting on you - as a strategic consultant - primarily in the reevaluation of the conditions for a future Olympics organised in Hungary and an examination of all the opportunities. 

"The other area in which I count on collaboration is in the strengthening and renewal of the Hungarian Olympic Committee's corporate relations, in which as a former chairman of the stock exchange you similarly have exceptional experience."

Szalay-Berzeviczy, a former head of the Hungarian stock exchange, is the great grandson of Albert Berzevicz, one of the founders of the MOB.

In 2005, he was one of the founders of the BOM, with Kulcsár becoming involved in the work of the Movement in 2006.

"Both are fully committed to the organisation of the Olympics in Budapest," a statement added. 

If Budapest is to bid for the Olympics and Paralympics again, it may now have to wait until the 2032 races.

The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) President Thomas Bach is understood to favour plans to award both the 2024 and 2028 editions to Paris and Los Angeles at their Session in Lima on September 13.

However, both cities have stressed that they are only interested in the earlier edition.