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Games chiefs reopen 2022 bidding contest

London - The bidding contest for the 2022 Commonwealth Games was reopened on Friday after a proposal from the English city of Birmingham was declared not "fully compliant".

Birmingham, the sole candidate, stepped into the ring when in March the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) stripped Durban of the right to stage the four-yearly showpiece for failing to meet "key obligations".

READ: Durban 2022 fiasco: What a shambles!

The British government had given Birmingham its official backing at the end of September and would have been the major funder, with Birmingham City Council contributing 25 percent of the costs.

However, the CGF issued a statement following a two-day meeting of their executive board in Sri Lanka stating that Birmingham would be given further time to make their proposals compliant but also that other bidders would be welcomed.

The CGF did not state publicly what the problems with the dossier were.

"I must congratulate the Birmingham bid team for the work that has been undertaken in preparing a comprehensive proposal for 2022," said CGF president Louise Martin.

"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 Birmingham team reacted calmly to the decision and said they had been expecting bumps in the road due to the short timescale.

"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," a spokesperson said.

Durban had originally secured the right to host the Games in 2015 after Canadian city Edmonton dropped out and other potential bids from Cardiff and Singapore failed to materialise.

Once Durban was stripped of the Games, Birmingham competed with Liverpool to be England's nominated bidder, which was confirmed on September 29.

Bids from Victoria in Canada, Adelaide in Australia and Kuala Lumpur, which successfully hosted the 1998 edition, never saw the light of day.

The federation's final decision on where the Games will be held is expected by the end of the year.

The Games are open to countries that are members of the Commonwealth, a collection of nations and territories that were mainly once part of the British empire.

The 2018 Games will be staged on Australia's Gold Coast.

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