Berlin and Hamburg are both hoping to be chosen but Alfons Hörmann, President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), has admitted they did not want to pick a city only for them to drop out later.

"The worst option would be that we firmly lay down on a city and its citizens, the project will not be supported," he said in an interview published today in the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"A second Munich must not happen to us."

Last year, a referendum held in Munich and the surrounding areas voted against backing a bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, leaving the DOSB unable to proceed.

A proposed bid from Munich for the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics was stopped in its tracks by a local referendum which voted no ©AFP/Getty Images

Hörmann told the newspaper that they did not expect to make a final decision on which city to choose until next year.

The original plan had been for the DOSB to pick a city at its General Assembly in Dresden on December 6. 

Hörmann also believes that they should wait until after the Extraordinary International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Monte Carlo on December 8 and 9 before making concrete plans.  

There, former DOSB President Thomas Bach, now head of the IOC, is expected to unveil sweeping changes to the Olympic bidding rules as part of Agenda 2020.

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