KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s sports minister Hannah Yeoh said on March 21 that it may be best for the country not to hold the 2026 Commonwealth Games, if public funds are needed to stage the multi-sports event after the original host Victoria pulled out.
The Australian state withdrew in 2023 citing ballooning costs, placing the future of the quadrennial event for mostly former British colonies in doubt and raising questions about the benefits and continued relevance of the Games.
Its global governing body, the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), has offered Malaysia £100 million (S$171 million) in supporting funds – Victoria’s severance penalties – to host the event, Malaysian officials have said.
The Cabinet is set to discuss the offer on March 22 but the proposal has received a mixed response from officials past and present due to concerns about costs and the lack of preparation time.
The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) this week proposed holding a downsized Games, with limited spending on athletes’ accommodation and smaller opening and closing ceremonies.
Youth and Sports Minister Yeoh told Parliament on March 21 that the ministry would call for spending to be limited to the amount offered by the CGF if the government agreed to host, citing a need to protect public funds.
“If taxpayers’ monies have to be spent, then perhaps the best choice that will be made by this government is not to host the event,” she said. “But this will have to wait until the Cabinet makes its decision.”
The ministry would also seek to appoint a regulating body to audit the event’s accounts if Malaysia hosts the Games, she added.
It was reported on March 20 that Victoria had in fact overstated the costs of hosting the Games when it pulled out in 2023, the state’s auditor-general said in a report.
Then state Premier Dan Andrews said that the cost of the Games, which were to have been held in four regional hubs, could blow out to nearly A$7 billion (S$6.2 billion) from a budgeted A$2.6 billion if they went ahead.
The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) said in its report that the figure was not transparent.
“It added significant amounts for industrial relations and cost escalation risks. But it did not disclose that the budget already included A$1 billion in contingency allowances to cover these and other cost risks,” it said.
Still, the cost of hosting the Games will likely be way more than £100 million – the 2022 Birmingham Games cost £778 million – and Mohd Nazifuddin Najib, the secretary-general of the OCM, had also suggested that Malaysia could redirect some of its budget for the SEA Games, which it is hosting in 2027, towards the Commonwealth event.
“We can discuss all of this but it’s best for this decision to come from the government,” he added.
Malaysia previously hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1998, and the CGF has praised the country for its “fantastic track record of delivering sporting events”, referring to the event that year.
REUTERS
