The Commonwealth Games: searching for relevancy, a host and a reason to exist

Next year’s Games in Birmingham will likely be the last on such a grand scale and some changes to safeguard the event’s future smack of desperation

It’s nine months until the start of the XXII Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, which also means it’s four years and nine months till the start of the XXIII Commonwealth Games in, well, nobody knows. The Commonwealth Games Federation was due to announce the host city for 2026 in September 2019, but the decision was postponed until 2020, and then again to 2021, and has just been pushed back again until 2022. The CGF says it expects to make an announcement in March. At the moment there’s not a single confirmed bid.

The CGF president, Dame Louise Martin, says the organisation is working closely with “a number of potential host countries, who have asked to keep our discussions confidential”, which makes it sound like throwing a surprise party rather than a multisport mega-event.