Malaysia has rejected an offer to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games, the country’s sports ministry has announced.

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) has provided Malaysia with £100m in support after the Australian state of Victoria withdrew from hosting the event.

However, Malaysia’s Sports Ministry said the proposal “does not cover the entire cost of hosting large-scale sporting events.”

“Furthermore, the economic impact could not be determined in this short period of time,” it added.

The future of the Olympics was thrown into doubt after the state of Victoria withdrew from hosting the event last July, citing rising costs.

Birmingham has bid to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games after the South African city of Durban ran into financial difficulties and was stripped of its hosting rights after failing to meet a key deadline.

Malaysian Federal Games Association president Mohamad Norza Zakaria said the chance to host the Games in 2026 is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build on the success of 1998” and is the only time the country has hosted the Olympics in the past. said.

However, Malaysian Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said on Thursday that if public funds are needed to host an event, it may be best not to hold it in Malaysia.

Government Spokesperson and Minister of Communications Fahmi Fazil said: “If we had more time we would definitely do that, but we have such a short period of time that [amount of preparation] Time is absolutely impossible.

“When we assessed the possibility of hosting the Olympics, we found that the time period and costs involved were particularly prohibitive.”

Alberta’s withdrawal means there are currently no other strong candidates to bid to host the 2030 Olympics.

A CGF spokesperson said: “A confidential process to determine the host country is ongoing with other interested Commonwealth Games Associations.”