By Duncan Mackay

Naoki Inose with Tokyo 2020 pin badge April 30 2013May 1 - A line seems to have been drawn under the row between Tokyo and Istanbul after the Japanese capital's Governor Naoki Inose upset his rivals when he criticised the Turkish city in a newspaper interview.


The row blew up when Inose (pictured top) was quoted in an interview he had given to the New York Times at the weekend in which he appeared to claim Istanbul, which is widely perceived as Tokyo's biggest rival to host the 2020 Games, is less developed and less equipped to host the event.

He also criticised Islamic countries by saying the "thing they share in common is Allah and they are fighting with each other", leading to accusations of racism and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) seeking an explanation from Tokyo 2020.

Turkey's Sports Minister Suat Kılıç had publicly criticised Inose on Twitter of violating the Olympic spirit.

But now, following Inose's public apology in Tokyo yesterday, Istanbul 2020 claim they want to put the row behind them and concentrate on the rest of the campaign, now entering a critical phase with all the bid cities, which also includes Madrid, due to make their first major international presentations at SportAccord in St Petersburg on May 30.

Suat Kılıç in front of Istanbul 2020 logo 2Turkish Sports Minister Suat Kılıç has accepted the apology of Tokyo Governor Naoki Inose

"We accept the apologies of the Governor of Tokyo and now wish for a friendly competition between the candidate cities abiding by the criteria established by the IOC," said Kılıç.

"We place the utmost importance on the friendship and mutual respect between the peoples of Turkey and Japan that date back for centuries.

"We love Japanese people and know that they have sincere and warm-hearted feelings towards Turkish people.

"The spirit of the Olympic values will bring the two nations even closer."

The IOC, who could have issued a penalty to Tokyo 2020 for the comments, have instead settled for writing to them to emphasise the importance of rule 14 of its conduct for bidders which forbids cities from commenting on its rivals.

"We wrote to Tokyo 2020 to remind them of the rules of conduct and this concludes the matter," a spokesman for the IOC said.

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