The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) has announced today that it has reached an agreement with TTXGP to promote a new series of electric powered motorcycle road racing events.

This agreement lays the groundwork for growth and a higher profile for the sport.

The new series will initially be run as a World Cup and as a support class to other FIM Championships events. For the inaugural season in 2013, it will consist of four events in both Europe and the USA, and a Final in Asia. And for 2014, it will revert to a championship calendar with a minimum of six events over three continents.

The next milestone of this new concept comes in 2015, when this FIM Championship becomes a headline event in its own right with a global calendar.

Since first FIM World records in 1994 and the first Road racing event held in 2009 by TTXGP, electric powered motorcycles have shown huge improvements in both range and power. The new e-Road Racing series will provide an intercontinental platform for the development of electric powered two-wheelers and showcase their great potential as clean sports and road vehicles.

FIM President Vito Ippolito said: “Through this agreement, we are taking another important step towards the growth and promotion of clean electric road racing. The FIM is committed to furthering sports events for electric motorcycles which will certainly be a major component of the motor sport of the future.”

TTXGP founder Azhar Hussain considers the agreement a milestone in the development of electric motor sport: “This partnership with the FIM clears the way for a single destination for all the world’s innovators to drive the next generation of technologies for competitive motor sport beyond the grid. We look forward to working with the FIM on this exciting project.”

The name of the series and the 2013 calendar will be released shortly.

Winged Foot will again host the US Open after the United States Golf Association (USGA) announced they will host the event in 2020.

The New York venue will host the major for the first time since 2006, when Geoff Ogilvy lifted the title after one of the most infamous final days in the tournament’s history.

“We’re thrilled to bring the US Open back to this outstanding club,” said USGA vice president Thomas J O’Toole Jr.

“Winged Foot offers a spectacular setting in a dynamic market and has justifiably earned its reputation as one of the premier US Open venues in the nation.”

The course, located 25 miles north of New York City in Westchester County, last hosted the U.S. Open in 2006 when Australian Geoff Ogilvy won.

Thailand are looking to rival Singapore after revealing they are close to securing a Formula One night race around the streets of Bangkok for the 2014 season.

Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT) Governor Kanokphand Chulakasem met Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone during the Singapore Grand Prix last week and it was agreed “in principle” that Thailand would host the race, Bangkok Post reported.

“It will be a city race like those in Singapore and Monaco. It will be a night race like the Singapore Grand Prix,” Mr Chulakasem was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Fees and other aspects of the deal were yet to be finalised, Mr Chulakasem added.

Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silpa-archa had earlier assured the government would bear 60 per cent of the total cost and the rest would come from private companies.

In 2010, more than 100,000 people turned out to watch Mark Webber driving a Red Bull demonstration car along the capital’s Rajadamnoen Avenue.

NBA player Raja Bell will visit India from July 12 to 17 to participate in basketball events in Delhi to increase the popluarity of  basketball and the NBA.

Bell will attend the Junior NBA/ Junior WNBA National Skills Challenge Finals at Thyagaraj Stadium on July 14. The school-based programme has taught basketball to 10,000 students and 800 coaches in five Indian cities.

Bell will lead an NBA Cares clinic at Thyagaraj Stadium on the same day in conjunction with Love in Action – a New Delhi-based NGO that uses basketball to provide life-skills education to children from slums in East Delhi.

On July 15, Bell will hold  clinic for select Mahindra NBA Challenge participants, the largest community league in India, at DPS Vasant Kunj.

He will train with India’s Senior Men’s and U18 Men’s National Basketball Teams at the IG Stadium in Delhi on July 16 and 17.{jcomments on}

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has appointed sports psychologist Magbool Babri to work with its players.

Pace bowler Mohammed Amir, who is serving a five-year ban following the spot-fixing scandal in the 2010 Lord’s Test against England, had his first session with Babri today.

“I had a good two-hour session with Amir today and the good thing is he responded well and realises how he has damaged himself and Pakistan cricket with his actions,” said Babri.

A PCB spokesman said the board decided to appoint a sports psychologist to try to prevent regrettable behaviour by young players.

“Amir’s case is a classic one. He went down the wrong path and took the wrong decisions because of his young age. We hope the players can be reformed with proper counseling,” the spokesman said.

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Lou Imbriano former Chief Marketing Officer of The New England Patriots and iSportconnect Advisory Board member has suggested today the NFL did not do everything in their power to promote the social media side of the Super Bowl and thus lost out on a potentially lucrative commercial opportunity.

Speaking from his exclusive article with iSportconnect, Imbriano questioned the NFL’s tactics: “Why is it that the NFL dropped the ball on promoting and monetizing their social media initiatives during this year’s Super Bowl? Social media promotion for the league, in-game, was conspicuously absent. Where was the @NFL moniker on the field? Why were there no #NFL, #sb46 or #SuperBowl hashtags included in the broadcast during play? Why didn’t the NFL insist that while Roger Goodell was being interviewed, that his Twitter handle, @NFLCommish, be included in the graphic under his name? Why wasn’t there a co-branded sponsor hashtag, such as #NFLPepsi, to support a promotion or initiative and generate revenue? How could the NFL leave their hashtags or Twitter handles off press conference backdrops?”

Imbriano who is now Professor of Sports Marketing at Boston College acknowledged the exponential amount of tweets about the Superbowl but refused to give plaudits to the NFL.

He said: “I did notice that the #SuperBowl hashtag was promoted on Twitter itself, so there were people thinking about the NFL’s social media strategy, but even that left me scratching my head. I would think that particular hashtag would trend regardless of being promoted or not. To top things off, the Social Media Command Center was the brainchild of the Host Committee in Indianapolis, and not the NFL.”

To read more on what Lou Imbriano has to say go to his expert article here.

The Turkish chairman of The Soccer Club Fenerbahçe Aziz Yıldırım has denied to a court any involvement in the match fixing scandal engulfing Turkish football. At the same time he has revealed he will step down from his position once the issue has been concluded.ue.

The new season is scheduled to start in two weeks and there is no plans for an alteration however a final decision will be made on July 29th.

This the most serious match fixing scandal within Europe with many other investigations throughout the Soccer world taking place in recent time.

A number of arrents have been made within last season’s champions Fenerbahçe. They have been alleged to have fixed the result of their last day of the season clash with Sivasspor last season

If Fenerbahçe are found guilty, they may lose their title from last season, and possibly face relegation.

FIFA, who are the Sports World governing body has a range of sanctions at its disposal, including the suspension of associations, though this would seem unlikely at this stage.

The Russian capital of Moscow is set to replace London as the host city for next year’s Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) General Assembly after the British Olympic Association’s (BOA) cash problems forced it to pull out.

The BOA had to give up the opportunity last month, to stage one of the most important events on the Olympic Movement’s calendar because they could not afford the US$8m it would have cost to stage.

Now that Moscow has offered to stage the event, the deal is expected to be finalised when a delegation from the ANOC travels to Russia at the end of July to finalise arrangements for the Assembly, which is due to be held between April 12 and 17.

The bi-annual event is attended by more than 200 National Olympic Committees and is held in conjunction with a meeting of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) ruling Executive Board.

It is the second time in recent weeks that Moscow have stepped in to offer themselves as a replacement for a major event after they were chosen to replace Tokyo as the host city of the World Figure Skating Championships.

Russia is due to host several important Olympic meetings in the build-up to the 2014 Winter Olympcis and Paralympics in Sochi.

They include this year’s European Olympic Committees (EOC) General Assembly and the annual SportAccord convention in 2013 with both events due to be held in Sochi.

Police at the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup have clashed with hundreds of fans once again, this time seeking tickets for India’s World Cup showdown against South Africa on Tuesday, highlighting the country’s inability to handle the huge demand for seats.

Twelve days after similar scenes were witnessed in Bangalore when fans were lathicharged when caught in a frenzy for the host nations game against England, stick-wielding police battered fans in front of the ticket counter at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium.

Ticket sales for the February 19-April 2 tournament have proven to be a major headache for Indian organisers, who are unable to meet demand for the high-profile matches, especially those featuring the home team as well as the April 2 final in Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.

Tuesday’s episode is likely to raise further questions about the way tickets are being distributed in the cricket-crazy nation.