Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson said that the city "is planning a bid to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games," according to the BBC. Anderson said that "the city council would launch a feasibility study before submitting a bid." He said that hosting the event "would reflect the city's growing confidence and expertise in organizing large events." The U.K.'s nomination for a host city "will be decided in 2018, with the successful host named by the Commonwealth Games General Assembly in 2019" (BBC, 8/2). In Liverpool, Liam Murphy wrote former Liverpool player Jamie Carragher, Olympian Katarina Johnson-Thompson and boxing champion Tony Bellew were "among sports stars backing Liverpool’s bid to stage the Commonwealth Games." Gold Medalist Beth Tweddle and former Everton player Graham Sharp "also signed up as ambassadors" as the city bids to stage the competition in '26. The first steps of the potential bidding process "will see a Project Director appointed to oversee the entire bid and an independent consultancy firm recruited to carry out a full feasibility study" (LIVERPOOL ECHO, 8/3).
