The website, accessible here, is accompanied by a dossier entitled "Roma 2024: A very risky bet".

It highlights what is described as the "winner's curse" and claims that previous Olympic host cities have cost taxpayers in both a short and long-term sense.

The Olympics in Montreal 1976 and Barcelona 1992 are among those selected to supposedly reinforce this point.

"The nomination is official, there is the political and financial support of the Government, in short, it seems to have already decided everything," the Radicals' secretary Riccardo Magi declared in the dossier.

"But we still have time to open a debate on the costs and benefits of a project that will cost billions of Euro of our tax.

"We believe that such an important decision for the future of the capital should be taken by citizens, [which is] why we ask the President Renzi and the Special Commissioner Trim to hold a referendum, as has been done in many other cities bidding to host the Games."

The Radicals, formed in 2001 from the splinters of previous left-wing parties, is a small grouping which received just 0.2 per cent of the vote in the 2013 General Election, returning no deputies or senators.

They have, however, gained a reputation for forcing referendums and their call today follows repeated assurances from Rome officials that no such public ballot will take place.

insidethegames understands that having signatures from one per cent of the city's residents, so around 30,000 people, will be enough to force a referendum.

A referendum in Hamburg in November led to Germany dropping its bid for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics after local citizens narrowly voted against backing it. 

It left the Italian capital facing opposition from only Budapest, Los Angeles and Paris.

None of the other three are currently planning to hold referendums, although calls are growing for one to be held in the Hungarian capital.

It has become increasingly difficult for votes on Olympic bids to be approved in recent years, with ballots during the 2022 Winter Olympic race all failing in Davos, Kraków and Munich.

One did narrowly pass in Oslo in 2013, only for the Norwegian capital to withdraw the following year as Governmental and public support deteriorated.