2014 Commonwealth Games as the Scottish candidate city over Edinburgh (which hosted the Games in 1970 and 1986, and the inaugural Commonwealth Youth Games in 2000) following a cost-benefit analysis by the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland. The Scottish Executive under then First Minister of Scotland, Jack McConnell, with the support of the United Kingdom government and all main parties in the Scottish Parliament, formally announced Glasgow's intention to host the games on 16 August 2005. In March 2006, the bidding process began, with the Glasgow Bidding team presenting their case to the Commonwealth Games Federation at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne,
2006 Commonwealth Games youthfully optimistic character of Melbourne city. The two figures in the logo joined together to form a letter M, which is the initial letter of Melbourne, the games host city. Karak was the mascot for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. He was modelled on a red-tailed black cockatoo, a threatened species within the host country, Australia. On 20 March 2006 it was reported that two athletes had gone missing from the Commonwealth Games village: Tanzanian boxer Omari Idd Kimweri and Bangladeshi runner Mohammad Tawhidul Islam. On 22 March 2006 it was reported that seven athletes from Sierra Leone (three women and