Ron Froehlich, President of the International World Games Association (IWGA), announced the IWGA Executive Committee's decision to award The Ninth World Games 2013 to the two German cities of Duisburg and Duesseldorf.

'Pending ratification by our Annual General Meeting, and subject to the signing of the corresponding Host City Contract in June 2008, our executive has decided to award the games in 2013 to Duisburg and Duesseldorf,' Froehlich told the press today.

'We are pleased to have two strong candidates opting to host the games together, as one family,' Froehlich continued at the Duisburg City Hall.

'We celebrated magnificient World Games here in 2005: a true sports festival. But I'm convinced that Duisburg AND Duesseldorf will be hosts to an even better event in 2013.'

Duisburg Mayor Adolf Sauerland concurred with Froehlich: 'With Duesseldorf as our partner we can add even more quality to The World Games and certainly top our success from 2005.'

'Duisburg and Duesseldorf entered the bid race last. And the remaining challenges will be tackled without delays,' Sauerland alluded to the finalizing of contractual agreements between the two cities, and the signing of the Host City Contract in early June.

Sauerland will meet his counterpart, Duesseldorf Mayor Joachim Erwin, on 28 March to discuss how the 30+ sports are to be assigned to venues in the two host cities.