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Dusseldorf (dpa) - CDU boss Armin Laschet and Olympic initiator Michael Mronz looked for the escape ahead full of self-confidence.
After the presumed failure of the prestige project of the Olympic Games 2032 in the Rhine-Ruhr region, they assured: The attempt to bring the mega-event to North Rhine-Westphalia - even if it is not until 2036, should continue.
«We are prepared.
We will continue to fight, ”said NRW Prime Minister Laschet on Friday.
The IOC welcomed this move and encouraged an application for 2036.
Laschet and Mronz also distributed in the direction of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) - which the latter promptly rejected.
"The amazing thing is that you have no sense of what is going on at the IOC," said Laschet, referring to the German sports umbrella organization.
He also criticized the IOC.
It was only on Tuesday that the CDU boss and Mronz, the initiator of the Rhein-Ruhr-City project, invited the media to the Düsseldorf football arena for Friday.
Actually with the aim to strongly promote the Olympic idea.
But after the surprising decision by the executive branch of the International Olympic Committee to choose Brisbane as the preferred candidate for 2032, Laschet and Mronz now spent around 40 minutes explaining how this could come about.
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Laschet complained that the DOSB was not in a position to enter into an "intensive and ongoing" dialogue with the IOC regarding the Rhine-Ruhr application.
That is why the initiative from North Rhine-Westphalia played no role at all in the IOC decision.
IOC President Thomas Bach informed him personally about the preselection.
“I was told that Brisbane would be a good candidate for the IOC in uncertain times.
I don't share this view, ”said Laschet.
The DOSB rejected the allegations that it did not cooperate with the Rhine-Ruhr Initiative.
"Since the understandable disappointment in the region has triggered questions and interpretations about the previous processes, we make it clear once again: All steps in the past weeks were taken by DOSB and Rhein Ruhr City 2032 without exception," said DOSB President Alfons Hörmann.
One wants to present "the entire procedure again in detail and transparently from the DOSB's point of view" at a digital press conference on Monday.
For the 2.5 million city on Australia's east coast, the fact that, according to the IOC, its Olympic concept is fully in line with the so-called Agenda 2020 and that it already has 80 to 90 percent of the required sports facilities.
In addition, Australia was last in 2000 with Sydney and could be back after 32 years.
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The Mronz-Initiative Rhein-Ruhr had not yet officially applied, but there was a lot of support from the cities concerned and the state government.
According to the plan before the IOC initiative, there should have been a public survey on the project in September.
With approval, it would have been up to DOSB to actually get the application off the ground.
It gave the signal that a public survey in September would have been sufficient.
It should be clarified whether the IOC is as transparent in the process as it claims to be.
"We would have delivered everything that was needed if we had known that a decision would be made at such short notice," said Laschet.
The Prime Minister left open how the citizens' survey should proceed.
It is also conceivable in May 2022 in the NRW state election.
But he made it clear that if the Games in 2032 should not come to NRW, Rhein-Ruhr would still be a candidate for the Games four years later.
He does not see a staging 100 years after those in Berlin under the Nazi regime as an obstacle: “The message that these games have is also a content-related one.
The world is a different 100 years later than it was at the 1936 Games. To show this, to make this visible, would fit every game in the 1930s. "
If there is a candidacy for 2036, Berlin could also become a competitor for the games.
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IOC director Christophe Dubi encourages this.
«I have a clear opinion on this: The wish for a German application for 2036 is absolutely welcomed from the IOC's point of view.
I can only say once more: We have worked extremely well with Michael Mronz and his team, and we are happy to continue that.
If the will exists, we will go into the future in partnership, ”said the IOC director for the Funke media group's Olympic Games.
But if Germany were to come back empty-handed, the story of the disappointments and defeats of German attempts to bid for summer games with Berlin (for 2000), Leipzig (2012) and Hamburg (2024) or for winter with Berchtesgaden (1992) and Munich (2018 and 2022) would turn out to be the story ) extend.
Mronz criticized the fact that after the defeats in Hamburg and Munich, the DOSB had never properly prepared mistakes.
The association must come out of a "trauma."
He reiterated his arguments in favor of the Olympic Games in the cities of the Rhineland and the Ruhr area: most of the sports facilities already existed, and "the idea is an opportunity for the region".
It is important to get up again now.
"When you go out on the pitch, you lose and you win," he said.
In addition, it is good not to give up option 2032 yet.
"To say today that you pull the plug, although no official award has yet taken place, would be wrong."
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210226-99-611871 / 2
Rhine Ruhr City initiative
IOC announcement dated February 24, 2021
Information on the commission for future summer games