The Commonwealth Games Problem

      Last night England and Scotland's Commonwealth Games teams stated that they are concerned the poor quality of the athletes village in Delhi may put the whole event in doubt.  Scottish officials found their original accommodation to be "unsafe and unfit for human habitation" and England are "optimistic" they will compete, but say urgent work is needed before the Games begin on 3 October.   But this is not first time that the go ahead of the Delhi Commonwealth Games have been questioned.  There have been multiple reports on the sub-standard infrastructure, athletes village and and questions about the security and safety of the participants and their teams has also been thrown into the mixer.  Even the organisers have said "have got two days to do what's probably going to take about two weeks".   My questions are should of this edition of the Commonwealth Games been moved from Delhi?  If so when should it have be switched and where would it go?

      In November 2003 in Jamaica, the Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly meet and voted for Delhi to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games. India shifted the balance in its favour in the second round of voting with a promise that it would provide $100,000 to each participating country, along with air tickets, boarding, lodging and transport. The successful 2003 Afro-Asian Games held in Hyderabad was also seen as having showed India has the resources, infrastructure and technical know-how to stage a big sporting event.

      In November 2008, Officials in India in charge of the Commonwealth Games issued an urgent warning that the country could miss out on hosting the 2010 games.  They say that a dispute over the construction of the athletes' village needs to be resolved soon.  Critics say that improvements to infrastructure in the city are moving at an excruciatingly slow pace.  They argue that construction work on several stadiums due to be used in the games has been seriously delayed.

      In September 2009, Commonwealth Games federation chief Mike Fennell reported that the games were at risk of falling behind schedule and that it was "reasonable to conclude that the current situation poses a serious risk to the Commonwealth Games in 2010"

      Even now there are still questions about the viability of these games, it never should have got this far.  When should of these games been moved elsewhere it was clear from the summer of 2008 that these games would in all likelihood not be fit for purpose.  So someone in the Commonwealth Games Federation needed to take drastic measures, the games need to be moved from Delhi and handed to a place and a country that could host with only 2 years to prepare.  If they waited like they did in 2008 it meant that no other country could step in to host the game due to the lack of time, meaning that after 2008 it was always going to stay in Delhi no matter what happened, excluding so major disaster.

      There are only a few places in the world that could hold it on such short notice, only the sites of previous recent games could host it.  Melbourne and Manchester are possible the only places that could hold the games, with both countries have other major cities that could help out as well.  My main point is that this should have been dealt with along time ago and now we will have a sub-standard games which will disappoint.