Birmingham Commonwealth bid judged to be ‘non-compliant’
THE team behind Birmingham’s 2022 Commonwealth Games bid are confident the event will still be won by the city despite a major setback.
A bidding contest for the 2022 Games has been reopened after Birmingham’s bid was declared not “fully compliant”.
The £750 million pitch was the only one to be submitted by the Commonwealth Games Federation’s (CGF) deadline of September 30, with mooted bids from cities in Australia, Canada and Malaysia failing to materialise.
But having reviewed Birmingham’s bid at a meeting in Sri Lanka in the last week, the CGF’s executive board decided to give rival bids until November 30 to come forward.
It means more time has been given to other potential bidders such as Adelaide, Kuala Lumpur and Victoria to come up with rival plans.
However, Paul Blanchard, chief executive of Commonwealth Games England, said his organisation was still “confident” Birmingham will stage a “fantastic” Games.
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.
“As was always planned, we will be working with the Commonwealth Games Federation closely over the coming weeks to demonstrate that Birmingham would stage a world class Commonwealth Games in 2022.”
A spokesperson for the bid said: “Birmingham worked closely with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to present a compelling and low-risk bid for the city to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games. This was delivered within a very tight, but pre-agreed timeframe because of the proximity of the 2022 Games and this was communicated to all interested parties. We expected a period of discussion and negotiation with the CGF following submission and we await further clarification from the CGF about the next steps.”
While making clear its gratitude to Birmingham for its punctual work, the CGF has given no clues as to what is wrong with the English bid in its current state.
In a statement, CGF 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.”
The Games were originally awarded to Durban in September 2015 after Canada’s Edmonton withdrew its bid and earlier interest from places such as Cardiff and Singapore faded away.
But the CGF was forced to strip Durban of the Games in March this year when the South African city ran into financial problems, kick-starting an abridged bidding race that soon became a two-horse contest between Birmingham and Liverpool.
That appeared to have been settled last month when the UK government announced Birmingham was its approved bidder.
Commonwealth Games England (CGE) formally submitted the bid on September 29 and a day later it was confirmed that Birmingham’s was the only bid still on the table.