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Almost unanimously was accepted the proposal for the Mediterranean Games in 2013 to be withdrawn from Greece and to be held either in Spain, or in Libya or Turkey. The news broke out unexpectedly after the end of the extraordinary meeting of the Executive Committee of the International Committee of Mediterranean Games on Friday, January 28, 2011 in Paris.

Out of the 13-member committee, 12 people voted "against" the games to be held in the Greek provincial cities of Larissa and Volos, as was the original decision. The thirteenth member of the committee is the deputy mayor of the city of Volos Isidoros Kouvelos. He is outspoken supporter of the idea for the small town to host the sporting event, but he voted with the white neutral ballot. GRReporter tried to get in touch with Isidoros Kouvelos for a comment or explanation about the reason for the withdrawal of the games from Greece, but he had clearly foreseen the reactions of journalists and had restricted incoming calls on his mobile phone - all day!

The official version for the withdrawal of the hosting of the two adjacent cities of Larissa and Volos is that due to the economic crisis, funding sources are limited and Greece at the moment can not allocate funds to "shelter" the event. To this concern, the Initiative Committee of Mediterranean Games in Greece responded with alternative solutions such as the reorganization of existing residential facilities of local universities and colleges. It would cost less and could house the volume of visitors who accompany sporting event. Another alternative was to use cruise ships to take four million athletes who are expected to arrive from 24 different countries. Although considered alternatives significantly reduce the budget for preparation, the proposals were not put into action.

The hosting for Greece was won in 2007 when the governing party was still New Democracy. Minister of Foreign Affairs at that time was the well known Dora Bakoyannis, who is know to have good relations with the International Committee of Mediterranean Games. After the fall of right government and after PASOK came to power, the country's economic crisis has grown to dangerous proportions, while the imposed fiscal consolidation has started to cut the state budget on the edges.

At the beginning of the International Committee received the most serious assurances that the games will be carried around and infrastructure projects will be completed in time. As expected in Greece, administrative and other delays dragged the signing of important agreements relating to the establishment of the Executive Committee of the Games. After the change of the government, the project was completely forgotten. As the date approached representatives of the International Committee of Mediterranean Games understood that the time has come for "Plan B" and withdrew the event from Greece.

The nominations to host the Mediterranean Games are three, after Larisa and Volos are off the charts: Tarragona in Catalan Spain, the Turkish city of Mersin and Tripoli in Libya. Currently Greek journalists estimate that Spain has the best chance to welcome sporting event between June 24 and July 3, 2013.