Be careful what you wish for

And so we learn that Birmingham has been awarded the right to stage the 2022 Commonwealth Games against (it must be admitted) not many other bidders, most of whom seemed to pull out of the competition anyway before the decision was made.

I have long been in favour of doing away with our world sports bodies’ traditional and well-loved (by them) costly jamboree-fest whereby cities and countries around the planet attempt to out-do each other and in the process bankrupt themselves desperately trying to gain the prestigious gig of hosting a major championships.

If you asked me, the UN should get together and given £50 billion to Greece to build a super-area of sporting stadia in Athens – complete with a fantastic state-of the art airport and seven-star rail, hotel and traffic facilities – so that the Olympic games can be awarded permanently to Athens, thereby not only saving everyone else the trouble but probably reviving at a stroke the Greek economy for all time.

On which context, here’s a link to an article by Tim Wigmore on the award of the 2022 Commonwealth Games to Birmingham that highlights some of the issues, as appears today on the website of – THE INDEPENDENT