Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco and Mr Joseph Cassar, President and Secretary General of the Maltese Olympic Committee have attended the General Assembly of the Commonwealth Games Federation which was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka earlier this month.

During the elections, Mr Michael Fennel and Ms Louise Martin both were reconfirmed in their positions as President and Secretary General of the CGF.  Mr Joseph Cassar, Secretary General of the Maltese Olympic Committee was elected to represent Europe on the CGF Sports Committee for a second four year term.

Several important issues were discussed and decided upon during this meeting, most important of which was approval of the extensive report prepared by the CGF Sports Committee regarding the revision of the Commonwealth Games Sports Programme.

It has now been decided that there will be 10 core sports, and the host country can choose up to another seven sports from another list of sports with a maximum of four team sports.

In order for a sport event to keep its position on the programme, there must be a minimum of 10 athletes from six CGAs from three regions.

Failing this minimum participation, the event will be dropped from the programme of the following games, and the international federations will be asked to work further on the development of that particular sport and/or sports event with the respective Commonwealth Games Associations.

Updated reports about the preparations for the Delhi 2010 Games and also for the June 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games were presented.

The most exciting moments of this General Assembly were the presentations and eventual elections of the bid cities for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, seeing Glasgow winning the bid to host these Games in 2014 over Abuja (Nigeria) with 47 votes in favour against 24 votes for Abuja.

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Commonwealth Games: Glasgow wins 2014 race

Glasgow’s victorious 2014 Commonwealth Games bid team has pledged to deliver the “best Games ever” after Scotland’s biggest city beat the Nigerian capital of Abuja by 47 votes to 24 at a summit in Sri Lanka.

The decision by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) delegates destroyed Nigeria’s hopes of becoming the first African country to host the event. It will be the third time the Games have been held in Scotland, after the event was staged in Edinburgh in 1970 and 1986, and the opening ceremony will take place on 23 July 2014.

The result of the vote brought jubilation to the 75-strong Scottish contingent in Colombo, and to Glasgow where the news was broadcast on giant screens at public events (pictured right). Glasgow’s success is expected to lead to huge investment in sporting and housing facilities in the city’s deprived east end.

Along with Abuja, the Canadian city of Halifax threw its hat in the ring, but pulled out this year after rising costs. The costs of the Glasgow Games will be split 80-20 between the Scottish Government and the city, and the Games will be held over 11 days. About 6,000 athletes and officials will stay in an athletes’ village, and the Games will bring a new national indoor sports arena and velodrome to Glasgow.

CGF President Mike Fennell said: “Glasgow put forward a very strong, very professional bid for the Games and they were always going to be hard to beat. We are extremely confident that the country, the city, and its organising committee will deliver excellent Games in 2014.”

Fennell also praised Abuja for its bid. “We had two very realistic options before us and I hope that Abuja will consider renewing their candidature for the 2018 Games as it is important that the hosting of the Games involves all regions of the Commonwealth and we hope that we will see them in Africa in the not too distant future,” he added.

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MIA Olympic Special – What’s On

Friday, 23 November on E22 at 9pm, Sunday, 25 November on E22 at 10am (RPT) and on TVM at 5.25pm and Monday, 26 November on E22 at 2.30pm (RPT) will feature the following:

Featured event – Mediterranean Friendship tournament

The Maltese Olympic Committee in collaboration with the Sicilian Olympic Committee organised the first edition of the Mediterranean Friendship Tournament.

Ten disciplines were involved including Badminton, Dancesport, Fencing, Golf, Karate, Pool, Snooker, Table Football, Triathlon and Weightlifting.

A number of Maltese athletes competed against their counter-parts. Find out more about what happened at these games.

Highlighted events – Rugby International – Malta-Latvia

Following Malta’s 24-9 defeat to Croatia the national squad took on Latvia in the second round of the 2006/2008 FIRA-AER European Nations Cup. This will be the third time Malta faced Latvia but the first at home.

Malta first beat Latvia 10-8 on 24 April 2004 in the European Nations Cup, which was then followed by a 27-16 defeat on the 28 October of last year in the European Nations Cup 2B, both games played in Riga.

Latvia is currently ranked 41st in the International Rugby Board rankings, with Malta in 53rd. Find out more what happened during the MIA Olympic Special.

Olympic Archive section

In this interesting Section MIA Olympic Special takes us down memory lane and relives the interesting moments of the previous Olympic Games as a build up for the Beijing 2008 Games.

Schedule available every week on www.nocmalta.org and on The Malta Independent newspaper every Tuesday. Produced in collaboration with E22.