Bidding re-opened for 2022 Games as Birmingham bid ‘not fully compliant’

The Commonwealth Games Federation has reopened the bidding for the 2022 Games just one week after it confirmed Birmingham had been the only city to submit a bid before the September 30 deadline.

The Federation has said Birmingham’s bid is not “fully compliant”, after a meeting in Sri Lanka to review the submission.

It has decided to create a fresh deadline, of November 30, for “all interested parties to enable the submission of fully compliant proposals”.

Bids had been expected from Malaysia, Canada and Australia but failed to materialise.

Commonwealth Games Federation President, Louise Martin said: “I must congratulate the Birmingham Bid team for the work that has been undertaken in preparing a comprehensive proposal for 2022.

“We have carefully reviewed the bids and updates received as part of the ongoing 2022 Candidate City Process and have agreed – noting the challenging timescales and no fully compliant bid – that further time should be given to all interested parties to enable the submission of fully compliant proposals.”

Commonwealth Games England chief executive Paul Blanchard remains confident Birmingham’s bid “demonstrates that the city has the ability to stage a fantastic Commonwealth Games in 2022”.

He said: “It was a huge effort to put such a comprehensive bid together in such a short timescale. We’ve always said that even though Birmingham was the only city to submit a bid there would still be a few hurdles to clear before a decision was made on formally awarding the Games.”

The selection of a host city for the 2022 Games has been chaotic because it was originally awarded to Durban, South Africa, in 2015, only for the right to be withdrawn earlier this year.

Birmingham, along with Liverpool, had been building a business case for the 2026 Games but then accelerated the process once 2022 became an option.

The UK Government selected Birmingham as the bid it wanted to support and put forward for selection.