UK Government has confirmed Birmingham as Britain’s candidate city to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games with a bid to be submitted on Saturday.
Birmingham beat Liverpool earlier in September as Britain’s sole candidate and has now been officially backed by the government.
UK’s Culture Secretary Karen Bradley made the announcement on Friday and said the government believes it would showcase the best of Britain to the world.
“The Commonwealth Games in Birmingham would be brilliant. Our focus now is to work alongside Birmingham’s excellent bid team and Commonwealth Games England to put forward the strongest possible bid to the Commonwealth Games Federation, while ensuring that we get maximum value for money for the taxpayer,” she said.
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“At its board meeting in Sri Lanka on 5 and 6 October, the CGF executive board will receive an update on the current status of the 2022 selection process. We anticipate that the collaborations will continue thereafter and a final decision on the host city for the 2022 Commonwealth Games is expected by the end of the year.”
Durban, South Africa should have been awarded the games but the city was removed in March after failing to agree to financial guarantees and losing government support.
Birmingham is now seen as the favourite to be awarded the Games.
Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur and the Canadian city of Victoria are also rival bidders but two cities have sent mixed signals in recent months concerning their ability to pay for the event.
The cost of staging the event is expected to be at least £750m which would be the most expensive sports event in Britain since London 2012.
