The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) Executive Board set today as the latest deadline in October and warned Northern Ireland they risked losing the event.

Belfast were awarded the Games in February 2016 but have so far failed to secure the political support or funding necessary to stage it.

The CGF have now given the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games Council (NICGC) more time to find a solution. 

"The Commonwealth Games Federation is confident that Belfast remains fully committed to hosting the Youth Games in 2021," a spokesman for the CGF told insidethegames. 

"We continue to receive regular assurances from the sporting authorities in Northern Ireland, and there is no doubt that the broad political and stakeholder support to bring the Youth Games to the city remains extremely high.

"The CGF empathises with the current circumstances surrounding the Legislative Assembly and Executive, and we look forward to a resolution of the situation in the near future so that the country can fulfil its ambitions to stage the Games."

A power-sharing coalition in Northern Ireland between the pro-British Protestant Democratic Unionist Party and Irish Catholic Nationalists collapsed in January and a new deal has still not been brokered.

It means money for public services and projects is currently not being allocated. 

At the end of June, following a meeting in Belfast between Martin, CGF chief executive David Grevemberg and Northern Irish officials, the country was given eight days to agree a funding package or miss the opportunity to play a role at this year's Commonwealth Youth Games in Nassau in The Bahamas. 

As a result of the situation, Belfast were not be able to participate in the traditional handover at the Closing Ceremony in July. 

"We are working with Belfast City Council but Northern Ireland doesn't have a Government and we need someone to fill the void," Conal Heatley, the executive director of NICGC, told insidethegames. 

"We speak regularly with politicians and everyone is in support. 

"But we are caught up in bigger political machinations."

More than 1,000 athletes from 64 countries and territories competed at the last Commonwealth Youth Games in The Bahamas earlier this year. 

"We could organise it at short notice because we have the facilities but the reason for doing the Games is about the legacy and the engagement of the youth," Heatley said. 

"We would lose that and some of the exciting stuff we have planned for schools and universities."