Hold scaled-down Commonwealth Games in various states, says senator

 

Hisamudin Yahaya said hosting the Commonwealth Games in states with  existing facilities will negate the need to spend on building new stadiums and sports venues. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: The 2026 Commonwealth Games should be hosted in states with existing facilities and not be focused solely in Kuala Lumpur should Malaysia accept the offer to play host, a senator said.

Hisamudin Yahaya said doing so would put existing facilities to use without the need to spend much on building new stadiums and sports centres.

Hisamudin said the government could limit the number of events, instead of rejecting the Commonwealth Games Federation’s offer to host the games.

“If we reject this opportunity, our country will lose out. To me, we can accept, but we limit the number of events.

“I’m convinced that we can organise 18 out of 21 events with our existing facilities,” he said, while interrupting a suggestion by A Kesavadas to reject the offer during the debate on the royal address in the Dewan Negara today.

Kesavadas had urged the youth and sports ministry not to host the games, saying the organisers of the 2022 Birmingham games in the UK suffered losses of RM4.6 billion.

The media quoted youth and sports minister Hannah Yeoh as saying today her ministry would also consider the suggestion to jointly host the games with Singapore.

Yeoh said the matter would be discussed in detail at Friday’s Cabinet meeting and all views would be considered then.

She said there was also a possibility that a decision could be put off if more input was needed.

Malaysia, which hosted the games in 1998, has been offered the chance to host the 2026 edition, with the CGF offering an injection of £100 million (RM602 million). - FMT