Birmingham has been announced as the host city for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Birmingham's bid was the only one submitted to the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) before the September 30 deadline, making it the default choice to host the games in four years' time.

Liverpool had previously been in the running for Britain's candidate city, but the Birmingham bid was backed ahead of Liverpool's by the UK government.

However, further complications arose when the CGF ruled that Birmingham's bid was "not fully compliant", leading the federation to offer previously interested cities such as Victoria and Kuala Lumpur a further two months to re-submit a bid.

No more bids materialised, though, and Birmingham have now been confirmed as the hosts for the £750m Games, which is expected to be the most expensive sports event in Britain since the London Olympics.

The Games had initially been awarded to Durban in South Africa two years ago, but they were stripped of the event after failing to meet the CGF's criteria.

Birmingham will be the second British city to host the Games in the space of eight years following the Glasgow event in 2014.

The 2018 Games will be held in April on the Gold Coast of Australia.