The U.K. Independent newspaper reports that when the German Olympic Committee meets Saturday to select the German candidate city for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, Leipzig will be selected over Hamburg as the German candidate city.
Following the German Olympic Committee’s evaluation of the five bid cities – Hamburg, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and Stuttgart – Hamburg was rated first with Leipzig a close second.
But according to the newspaper’s Web site, Hamburg now looks like a non-runner because of concerns of possible disruption’s by Muslim extremists and neo-Nazi elements.
The Web site also reports that one of the ringleaders of the September 11 terrorist attack was Hamburg-based and the city, “something of a political hotbed, is reluctant to become the focus of world attention”, giving Leipzig the German bid candidacy.
According to the Web site, because Leipzig was formerly an East German city, “the novelty value could make it a potential winner when push comes to vote in 2005″.
