Olympic officials have been accused of closing the door on the Arab sporting world after Doha was rejected as a candidate city for the 2016 Games. In whittling down the list of seven bidding cities to four, the IOC kept Tokyo, Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro in the race to follow London in 2012 and play host to the world's biggest sports event.

Doha, the capital of Qatar, joined Prague, in the Czech Republic, and Baku, Azerbaijan, in the pile of jettisoned would-be Olympic cities despite ranking alongside the surviving four as a city with the potential to host the Games, according to the IOC's team of assessors, who included Lord Moynihan, the chairman of the BOA.

The report rated Doha fourth overall in terms of project and legacy, behind Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago, but IOC members were unhappy at the city's timetable for the Games, which would have been staged in late October to avoid the highest temperatures. Even then, many of the events would have been held indoors in an air-conditioned environment. The IOC's preferred dates are July 15 to August 31 - an optimum time for TV viewers in the United States over the school summer holidays and before the start of the NFL season.

In the final assessment, it was a decision for the executive board and it chose to leave Doha out of the running. “I don't think that this was a technical decision,” Hassan Ali Bin Ali, chairman of the Doha 2016 bid committee, said. “We were thinking of the athletes when we chose the date. There are precedents of the Games going into November but it could have been changed.

“It is a pity that they have closed the door on the Middle East. If it's going to be Asia, Europe and the Americas, I do not know why they want us in the Olympic Movement if they are going to talk about the weather.”

It was the first time an Arab nation had bid for the Games. Qatar had contended that it could play host to such a large event after Doha staged the Asian Games in 2006. On technical merits it equalled Chicago - now one of the favourites to bring the Olympics back to the world's biggest media market after a 20-year absence. The US most recently held a summer Games in Atlanta in 1996.

Madrid also has a strong case after narrowly missing out on the 2012 Games, when it came third behind London and Paris. Rio, an outside bet, would be the first South American city to host the Olympics. Tokyo last had the Games in 1964.

The four finalists proceed to a 16-month race that will culminate in October next year with a secret ballot by the IOC at its annual congress in Copenhagen. They must each submit detailed bid books by February, after which a panel of experts will visit the proposed cities and discuss plans with bid leaders and politicians.