Commonwealth Games Federation delays confirming host city

Birmingham’s hopes of hosting the 2022 Commonwealth Games remain in the balance after a vague announcement by the governing body.

The city had thought it had secured the sporting event after it was the only city to submit a bid before the September 30 deadline.

However a week later the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) reopened the bidding for the 2022 Games after it judged Birmingham’s bid as not “fully compliant”.

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

The CGF has said “updates have been received from Australia, Canada, England and Malaysia” and thanked the four countries for “the interest” they had shown in hosting the 2022 Games.

But it stopped well short of confirming whether any other bids had been received and no other potential host cities have announced they have submitted a bid.

The CGF Executive Board will meet on Wednesday and will provide “an update” after the meeting.

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Games has been chaotic because it was originally awarded to Durban, South Africa, in 2015, only for the right to be withdrawn earlier this year.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.