Lack of government support has seen American Samoa lose its bid to host the 2025 Pacific Mini Games after failing to meet the requirements.
American Samoa and Niue had both made expressions of interest to host at the mini games in Vanuatu last year.
Both forwarded formal bid documents which were scrutinized at the recent Games Council meeting in Apia.
“When the Executive Committee assessed both of the bids, we came to a unanimous decision that they were not compliant with the charter requirements,” said Andrew Minogue, PGC chief executive.
According to a report on Inside the Games Online service, some of these issues could have been dealt with through negotiation but critically the missing ingredient from both bids was a government guarantee.
“A financial underwriting of the Games is essential, we cannot run a Games without a government providing financial support to host the event,” said Minogue.
While Niue has never hosted before, American Samoa staged the mini games in 1997.
The Pacific Games Council is now set to make a decision at their General Assembly in Samoa during the 2019 Pacific Games.
Both countries, along with other member countries are eligible to make bids again at that time.
