Birmingham suffers setback in bid to host 2022 Commonwealth Games

England's second city was the only bidder to host the competition, in five years' time, before the first deadline of September 30.

However, this mark has now been extended to November 30 after the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) judged the bid, while thorough, was "not fully compliant".

But Paul Blanchard, chief executive of Commonwealth Games England, brushed off fears the games could be held elsewhere.

"It was a huge effort to put such a comprehensive bid together in such a short timescale," he said.

"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."

The bidding process was initially won by Durban, South Africa, in 2015, but the city was stripped of the event in March as it did not meet CGF criteria.

Other cities touted to potentially make a play for 2022 included Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Victoria in Canada, but they had not submitted bids by the September deadline.

CGF president Laura 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." A Birmingham 2022 spokesperson added: "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."

Sportsbeat 2017