Indonesia is “99 per cent” certain to be named as the host of the 2019 Asian Games after Vietnam’s withdrawal, drugs the influential Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced on Thursday.

Vietnam had initially been picked to host the 2019 edition of the games, abortion but it was announced in April that they would be withdrawing for financial reasons.

Indonesia is now considered the favourite to stage the games, viagra coupon the world’s biggest multi-sport event after the Olympics.

During a visit to the capital Jakarta, OCA vice-president Wei Jizhong all but confirmed that the city’s bid was on course for success.

“It’s 99 per cent it will be Indonesia,” Wei told reporters.

“We consider that Jakarta already meets all the requirements of the OCA for hosting the Asian Games.’’

Indonesia’s president-elect Joko Widodo said: “We are completely ready… If we start working on the infrastructure now, there won’t be any problem.”

The new host will be confirmed in Septembr in Incheon, South Korea, during its time as host of the games.

Southeast Asia’s biggest nation has staged the Asian Games once before, in Jakarta in 1962 and they built new sporting facilities in 2011 to host the Southeast Asian Games.

With the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games set to begin next week, medic the organisers are confident they will deliver the event within budget. 

First Minister Alex Salmond, asthma chaired the final meeting of the Glasgow 2014 Strategic Group at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow this morning. The venue is going through its final preparations to transform into a spectacular sporting stage for the Commonwealth’s top rhythmic gymnasts who start competing there from next Thursday. 

It was confirmed that a provision of £5.2 million would be put in place to be managed at Games time by the Games Executive Committee (GEC) which has the delegated authority of the Strategic Group. 

Following the meeting the First Minister also announced a £3.5million investment from the Special Reserve to improve the spectator experience by increasing transport and traffic services, including enhancements to Park and Ride facilities. The Special Reserve was created as a fund of £23.84m which forms part of the Games’ overall budget. 

First Minister Alex Salmond said: “Around 4,500 athletes from 71 competing Commonwealth nations and territories will compete in Glasgow and it gives me enormous pleasure to say Scotland is ready to host the greatest Games ever. 

“A tremendous amount of work has gone into delivery of this sporting event over the last seven years and I’m delighted to announce that these Games are on time and within budget. That is an almost unprecedented position for a major event of this type and is testament to the immense planning, knowledge, expertise and sheer determination that everyone involved in the Games has shown.

“The eyes of the world will be on Scotland and we are ready to shine! With over a million tickets sold and 15,000 clyde-sider volunteers starting to play their part in making the Games a great success, the city is abuzz with anticipation. 

“This is the biggest sporting and cultural event Scotland has hosted and this Government is determined to maximise benefits beyond 2014. The delivery on the Games is on track and the economic impact is already being felt across our communities. Glasgow 2014 is something for the whole country to be proud of and I for one cannot wait for the action to begin and to get behind Team Scotland.” 

Lord Smith of Kelvin KT, Chairman of the Glasgow 2014 Organising committee said: “With five days to go until the start of Scotland’s biggest and most popular sporting festival the people of Glasgow and Scotland can take real pride in the history-making Games that, together, we have created for the Commonwealth.

“As an Organising Committee we set out with a vision of delivering an athlete centred, sports focused Games of world-class competition that would be celebrated across the Commonwealth and create enormous pride in Glasgow and Scotland and leaving a lasting legacy.

“Thanks to the people of Glasgow and Scotland, a world-class stage is now set. We are redefining the Commonwealth Games for a new generation.”

The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games will take place between 23 July – August 3.

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The Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) has today unveiled its brand new logo.

The logo – made up of five interlocking ribbons forming a globe, apoplectic each one representing one of the five Continental Associations – reflects the dynamism of the organisation and the universality of its global membership of 204 NOCs.

Speaking about the new ANOC logo, anesthetist ANOC President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah said: “This is a very significant moment in the history of ANOC and our Association’s evolution. We wanted our logo to reflect the modern and professional era that ANOC began at the XVIII General Assembly in 2012 and this logo does just that.

“It symbolises many of our values such as cooperation, price innovation, transparency and respect while keeping at its very heart what is most important to us: serving the world’s NOCs and their athletes.

“The logo was unanimously approved by the ANOC Executive Council in Kuwait in March and the feedback we have received has been excellent.  Our members can see that it is yet another example of ANOC delivering on its promises to reform for the benefit of the NOCs. We worked in very close collaboration with the IOC during the approval process and now that it has been ratified by the IOC we look forward to implementing it with immediate effect.”

The logo is one of many tangible reforms ANOC will be delivering in the coming months as part of its ongoing commitment to modernisation. The new look will feature heavily in the launch of ANOC’s new website later this month and in July’s inauguration of ANOC’s new headquarters in the heart of the Olympic Capital, Lausanne.

The iSportconnect Digital Media and Technology Masterclass sessions in association with LG Electronics proved to be a huge success, no rx with around 50 delegates debating best practise.

Attendees included 50 IT / Digital Media Directors from Arsenal, ambulance AS Roma, viagra AC Milan, AEG, BOA, Bwin, European PGA Tour, England & Welsh Cricket Board, FINA, IRB, Liverpool FC, Man United, Man City, NBA, Premier League, QBE, Red Bull & UEFA.

The day started with presentations from Paul Rogers, Head of International Digital Development at Liverpool Football Club and Jonathan Levy, Global Business and Communications Director of The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.  The pair offered great insights on how they have tapped into the potential of digital media.

Rogers (pictured above) talked to the delegates about how Liverpool has created an international digital presence that satisfies their global fan base. The club have localised their content rather than simply translating the main English site into different languages. This means that content is more relevant to fans across the world. The same has been done on Facebook and as a result Liverpool have incredible engagement on the social media website. As Rogers said, research shows “the Thailand Facebook page is more engaged than the other 19 Premier League clubs combined.”

For Levy (pictured above) and the Clipper Race, digital media needs to be used differently. Levy explained how a niche sport is making use of new technologies to keep their fans, sponsors, partners and crew members happy and engaged. Levy commented that they are “driven by our followers” on social media and that the race has learned to respond rapidly, be transparent and far more.

Following the presentations, the room of delegates, who all work in digital media and technology, gathered to listen to the Digital Media Panel discussion, sponsored by Omnigon. The panel consisted of Richard Clarke, Managing Editor at Arsenal FC, Jo Binding, Head of Media at Manchester City and Mark Lichtenhein, CIO – Head of TV, Digital Media and Technology for the PGA European Tour.

The panel brought their collective experience from two vastly different sports to talk about how they are engaging with fans and the business models they are applying to monetise digital media as best as they can. Clarke used examples of various Arsenal videos that were well received by fans including a short clip of their fans celebrating victory over arch rivals Tottenham. The panel agreed that sometimes content can come out of nowhere and as long as you have great members of staff, this can be turned around quickly and do surprisingly well on social channels.

Lichtenhein also highlighted the difficulties that golf has and said it was critical for golf to find ways of enhancing the user experience, when they do not have stadiums to engage with their fans. Interestingly Binding said she looks at other brands from outside sport to take ideas from, including the Science Museum and Tesco.

Technology, monetisation and CRM

(Pictured L-R Sanjeev Katwa, IT Director at City Football Group, David Jones, Vice President of IT for AEG Europe & Daniel Marion, Head of IT at UEFA.)

The second session of the day was the iSportconnect Technology Masterclass in Association with LG Electronics. With a panel of Daniel Marion, Head of IT at UEFA, Sanjeev Katwa, IT Director at City Football Group and David Jones, Vice President of IT for AEG Europe.

Despite “everyone expecting to be connected in a stadium” according to Marion, sports venues in Europe are far behind their US counterparts in this field. The discussion focused on how sports and entertainment venues can make a business case to install technology including LED screens and Wi-Fi.

As Katwa highlighted, “Wi-Fi is very popular in US venues, but that is not the same in European stadiums.” One of the difficulties that was discussed in depth was the cost of installing Wi-Fi in venues like The O2, which is run by AEG, when technology is constantly changing. Then the panel discussed the importance of knowing your customers and how CRM is helping them build a technology business model.

(Pictured L-R Matthew Baxter, Liverpool FC Chief Media Officer, Paul Rogers & Xavi Garcia, Euroleague Head of IT)

The panel also informed delegates of initiatives they have implemented to try and enhance their technologies and improve fan engagement. Jones said The O2 is looking at airline style upgrade packages, which will allow both them and the fan to benefit from discounted prices and a better experience.

Over at City, Katwa described their fanzone as on a different level to most teams in the Premier League. The fanzone means supporters are staying and engaging with Manchester City for around six hours on a matchday, with food, drink and entertainment before and after the game.

iSportconnect would like to thank all of our panellists, delegates and partners for another fantastic Masterclass session. Video highlights will be available through iSportconnect TV soon. We look forward to seeing you all for the iSportconnect Stadia Masterclass in association with Populous.

( Pictured L-R Charlie Greenwood, AEG Europe Director of Digital, Chris Pearson, NBA & Chris Ault from LG Electronics)

(Hywel Sloman, Arsenal Football Club IT Director)

( iSportconnect partner, Huggity CEO, Mike Sikorski & Neal Herman, Manchester Utd Head of Mobile Products)

(Daniele Sano, Bwin Party Head of Sponsorship & Events)

(Pictured L- R Giuliano Giorgetti, AC Milan Head of Digital with Paul Rogers & Matthew Baxter from Liverpool FC)

(Nick Mott, Sponsorship Manager – Corporate Communications at QBE)

(Harold De Vries, B2B Marketing Manager at LG Electronics)

(Shergul Arshad, AS Roma Head of Digital)

(Elizabeth Liebenhals, Stadium Vision Project Director at Wembley Stadium)

(Leah Davis, Marketing Manager at British Olympic Association)

The exclusive, invitation only Masterclass series, is a unique gathering giving sports technology executives the chance to learn from other top level executives, hear industry insight based on pre-submitted questions, join in on group debates, network in a relaxed environment and book one on one meetings with our top quality panellists.

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