Birmingham bid for Commonwealth Games ‘not fully compliant’

Birmingham faces an unexpected setback in its bid to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games after its application was described as “not fully compliant”.

The bidding process for the Games has been reopened by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) today (6 October), with a new deadline of 30 November.

Awarding the Games to Birmingham was expected to be a formality after it was the only city to meet the official deadline last Friday (29 September).

Entries were not forthcoming from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Victoria in Canada and a potential Australian entry, with their governments failing to approve their bids in time.

However, the new deadline means Birmingham is likely to face greater competition if other potential hosts improve their bids before December.

Durban, South African, originally won the bidding process in 2015 but was stripped of the event in March because it did not meet the criteria set by the CGF.

CGF president Louise Martin said: "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."

She congratulated Birmingham on a "comprehensive" application but said more time should be given to assess plans.