The Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games Council decreed last year that a maximum of seven track and field athletes would be included in the overall squad.

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Officials are known to be keen to do a deal similar to the one that Manchester City struck with Manchester City Council after the Commonwealth Games in 2002.

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The largest and most dramatic example of this trend is in Manchester, where the city council hopes that a stadium, now being built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, which will subsequently house Manchester City football club, will serve as a focus for the regeneration of a whole swathe of the east of the city.

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