Birmingham hosts the 2026 European Athletics Championships

Birmingham hosts the 2026 European Athletics Outdoor Championships. A special meeting was held at the end of last week to discuss the lack of resources and financial challenges facing England’s second largest city.

After deliberation, it was considered prudent to take all necessary steps to fulfil the contract despite the resource constraints. Previously, the Council and UK Athletics (UKA) had signed the Organizing Agreement contract with European Athletics (EA), following which an application for funding from the Commonwealth Games Legacy Fund, administered by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), was approved for a total value of 13.7 million GBP (about 17.43 million USD) towards the estimated total delivery cost of 30 million GBP (38.16 million USD).

Within the current context and economic challenges, and recognizing the importance of the event to the region, a decision was was taken to re-plan and refine the budget to ensure it could be delivered within the available resources. More recently, this decision has been influenced by the financial circumstances of the Council and the additional governance involved in approving new expenditure.

Birmingham hosted the 2022 Commonwealth Games.