It is believed FC Sion owner and President Christian Constantin is leading the move for the canton of Valais capital, the International Sports Press Association has claimed.

Sion has never hosted a Games but has bid unsuccessfully for the winter event on three separate occasions - in 1976, 2002 and 2006, which were awarded to Innsbruck, Salt Lake City and Turin respectively.

It is not clear, however, how the Swiss public will react to the move as a proposed bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in St Moritz and Davos was rejected by a state referendum in March last year.

Christian Constantin is said to be behind the proposed Sion 2026 Winter Olympic Games bid ©Getty Images


If Sion does go ahead with the bid it could face competition from a number of cities from across the globe, with Trento in Italy, the German city of Dresden, Barcelona in Spain, Lviv in Ukraine, Sweden's capital Stockholm, Quebec City in Canada, the Japanese city of Sapporo and a number of United States cities all mooted as potential bidders.

Meanwhile, Lausanne, also in Switzerland, is currently in the race to host the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games.

The city, which is widely known as the world's Olympic capital as it is where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters are located, was shortlisted, along with the Romanian city of Brașov, as a candidate for the competition earlier this year.

A press conference will be held early next year to clarify all points of the proposed 2026 Games bid.

The host city will be selected at the 131st IOC Session in 2019.

The Swiss Olympic Committee was unavailable for comment when contacted by insidethegames.

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December 2014: Lausanne and Brașov shortlisted to host 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games