Stakes raised in race for 2014 Games

The Nigerian city of Abuja has outbid Glasgow by offering US $125,000 per country as a "sports development" fund, whereas the amount offered by Glasgow would average out at $100,000. Every country would receive the same under the Nigerian plans, but Glasgow intends to be more flexible, offering more help where it is more required.

Despite the financial discrepancy the leaders of Glasgow's bid are increasingly confident of success following a ceremony in London yesterday at which they and Abuja lodged their official proposal documents. Although the vote to decide the host will not be held until November, no substantial changes can be made to candidates' plans, and the Glasgow team are convinced their bid has more substance than that submitted by the Nigerian capital.

Nevertheless, it was a surprise when it emerged that Abuja was offering more to each nation than Glasgow. The bids were submitted 'blind' so neither city knew what the other was offering.

Abuja intends to provide each of the 71 Commonwealth Games Associations with a US $125,000 training grant and fund the transport of every athlete and official to Nigeria. The money is to encourage sports development, allowing nations to send well prepared teams to Games.

However, Derek Casey, the Glasgow bid director, does not believe the small difference will outweigh other ways in which his team are superior. "The difference in money is so little it should have no influence on the voting," Casey said. "It's a two-horse race and so in a sense it's 50-50, but I'm growing in confidence that what we're putting forward is hitting the mark."

Certainly, the difference in cash incentives will make little impression on most nations, with the sums involved amounting to a drop in the ocean to the likes of Australia and New Zealand.

Casey and Louise Martin, the official who handed over the Glasgow bid document to the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), have spent much of this year visiting member countries to canvas support. Both agree with the notion that the Games should be held in Africa at some stage, but are confident that practicalities will count for more than an abstract principle when most of the 71 delegates come round to casting their votes. "Africa should have the Games some time, I firmly believe that," said Martin, the chair of the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland. "But it's nobody's right to host the Games just because they've never had it before."

The vast majority of countries visited by Martin have said they will vote for Glasgow, and, while she knows such promises may not materialise, she is sure that many believe Abuja 2014 is not the right time and place for Africa to host the Games for the first time. South Africa is one country from the continent which has committed itself to supporting Nigeria, but others would prefer to wait, watch, profit from the failure of the Abuja bid - and then step in with a better offer for 2018.

Certainly, Martin does not think the voting will split into white Commonwealth versus black. "Absolutely not," she stated. "We don't see colour in the Commonwealth. It's never come down to political blocks. Some of the smaller countries may group together simply because they're so small, but I honestly don't believe there will be block votes. The ten countries in the European group don't vote together. It's been very hard work with one or two, although we have persuaded England and Wales that we have the best bid."

A simple majority of 36 is required to win the vote, with every member of the Commonwealth having one vote. Asked which countries' votes might swing the decision either way, Martin mentioned four. "There are a number of countries in the Caribbean that we never got a definite yes or no from. Guyana and Grenada are two that could be important.

"In Oceania, we're not sure about Tonga and Samoa. They say yes, but they haven't seen anything else. "A lot [of voters] will come with a mandate. That's what should happen. What's in that bid book stays, so everyone will know what is on the table. One of the big pushes will be when countries come to visit Glasgow in the summer."

If yesterday's ceremony were the deciding factor in the casting of votes, Glasgow would surely have won by a crushing majority. Although there were echoes of Britain's colonial past when a brass band and a pipe band marched into the room, its presentation was also very strong on the theme of basing the Games around the athletes.

"People now understand how important that is," Martin said. "Like everyone else, they need sponsorship, and athletes being enabled to do their best is the best way of attracting sponsorship. I'd say 90 per cent of Commonwealth countries really believe in making the Games athlete-centred."

Whereas Glasgow had copies of its full bid available to read three hours before the ceremony began, the Abujan team were unable to come up with so much as a single-sheet summary of their plans even long after the event was over. Both cities have most of the required infrastructure already in place, but beyond that boast Abuja did little other than make the claim that its bid represented "the hopes and aspirations of all Africans".

While the Scots presentation had music, the Nigerian favoured dance. As a group milled around a representation of the globe with the signs of four continents attached, one dancer wielded a placard with the slogan "Without me the circle is incomplete". Once Africa had been symbolically included, the slogan changed to: "The circle is now complete. Let's celebrate."

Where Glasgow's presentation was slick, Abuja's was stuttering. Delegate using the ceremony to gauge the relative efficiency of the two teams can only have concluded that the bid fronted by Martin and Casey was superior by far.

There will be no premature celebrations, however. The Scots know there is a long way to go, even if they are sure they have done a thorough job so far.

"I'm very pleased with the way things are going," Martin concluded. "We have a fantastic document, and the backing of our athletes' commission has made this an athlete-centred bid. I'm happy, but we've got to fight, fight, fight."

VOTE COUNT

Africa: 19 nations

Americas: 6 nations

Asia: 8 nations

Caribbean: 15 nations

Europe: 10 nations

Oceania: 14 nations

Total: 72 nations

Security fears impair Abuja's Africa factor

IN CERTAIN respects, the bid by Abuja to host the 20th Commonwealth Games is strikingly similar to that of Glasgow, its only rival following the withdrawal of the third original candidate, Halifax in Nova Scotia. There is only one difference, for example, in the list of 17 sports proposed by the two cities, with the Nigerian capital preferring basketball where Glasgow favours triathlon.

When it comes to stadiums and infrastructure, too, the picture is similar. Around 80 per cent of the venues proposed by Abuja are already built and in use. But Abuja has decided its loudest sales pitch will be its status as an African city. Since their inception in 1930 the Games have been in Australasia, North America, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean but not in Africa.

The undoubted idealism of the wish to break that duck is in part designed to detract from some of the shortcomings of the city and the country.

"Abuja is a very safe and welcoming city", we were told at yesterday's bid ceremony, but many national associations have yet to be convinced. Unlike Glasgow, the Abuja team have not toured the Commonwealth on a mission to explain their plans. Indeed, if their sparse presentation yesterday were anything to go by, they are loath to make any such plans public. For that reason, and because of continuing security fears, Abuja would appear to have fallen behind, where once it seemed the Games were its to lose because of the Africa factor.