Glasgow’s 2014 Commonwealth Games bid team has a new member. International adviser Dick Palmer, former general secretary of the British Olympic Association, is joining Glasgow’s team and will reportedly have a wide-ranging role with the bid.
According to the Scotsman his experience is expected to prove particularly useful in assessing the official bid document before it is sent to the Commonwealth Games Federation next year.
Bid director Derek Casey said, following the announcement of Palmer’s recruitment, “I am delighted that Dick has agreed to join the team. There are few people in world sport that have as much knowledge, expertise and experience of the budding process for major Games as he does”.
Halifax Canada and Abuja Nigeria are Glasgow’s competitors for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Glasgow’s bid team believes the Canadian bid, which they say is opposed by some people in Halifax, is slick but lacking in substance, reports the Scotsman. The newspaper says there has also not been the same level of visible political support from the Canadian government that Glasgow has enjoyed from Jack McConnell, Scotland’s First Minister, over the last couple of weeks.
The Scotsman says that by contrast Abuja looks like the tougher opposition since a substantial body of opinion within the Commonwealth thinks it only right that Africa should host the Games, and the Nigerians are relying heavily on that in their campaigning.
