Ron Gauci Appointed Chairman of ABL’s Melbourne Aces

Former Melbourne Storm CEO & MD, sale Ron Gauci, will serve as the new Chairman of Australian Baseball League Melbourne Aces.

Gauci has served as a Board Member for the Aces for the past two years and brings significant experience and expertise to the role. He successfully oversaw the restoration of the Melbourne Storm after it was embroiled in the salary cap scandal, taking it to its most successful level since its inception in 1998, to become one of the NRL’s powerhouses.

Gauci takes over as Chairman from Andrew Baxter, who was one of the Aces’ inaugural Board Members and Chairman for the club the last three seasons.

Baxter will stay on with the Australian Baseball League as one of the first members of the league’s new National Advisory Board, which will consist of a cross-section of Australian business leaders passionate about baseball who will help drive the continued growth of the sport.

“It’s a very exciting time to be taking on this role at the Aces,” Gauci said. “The new season that is upon us will see a number of changes around the club that, in itself, brings an air of excitement and expectation. I also want to thank Andrew for his leadership and commitment to the Aces over the past five years.”

FA Chairman Dyke Rules Out Bidding for Future FIFA World Cups

FA Chairman Greg Dyke has revealed England will not bid for a future World Cup under the current FIFA leadership.

The FA chairman appeared before the Culture Media and Sportselect committee on Tuesday to answer questions over the bidding process for the 2022 tournament, denture which has been plagued by allegations of corruption and bribery.

Dyke said the FA would focus on bidding for Uefa rather than FiFA tournaments in the future but said that withdrawing England’s membership of the world governing body was not an option.

“We’ve already taken the decision that we will not bid for FiFA tournaments – our decision is we will concentrate in the years ahead on bidding for Uefa tournaments. We wouldn’t win,” Dyke said. England are competing with Germany to host the 2020 European Championship final and semi-finals.

But Dyke stopped short of suggesting a walk out by the FA.

“I don’t think we should walk out of FIFA because within a week everyone has forgotten you. I don’t think that sort of gesture-politics would help. I think trying to reform through Uefa and from the inside is the better way forward.”

Last month the 78-year-old president Sepp Blatter announced he would run for a fifth term as FiFA decided not to impose an age limit nor maximum terms for officials.

Dyke called for widespread reform of FIFA but admitted it was unlikely to occur under Blatter.

“We think there’s a limited amount of time people should sit on the Fifa executive,” Dyke said. “We voted in favour of that but most voted against it. It’s that sort of reform that is needed to make sure we get proper turnover.

“Hopefully a new president coming in would take a look at the whole structure. A lot of the European FAs made it clear they didn’t support Blatter but I’m afraid from the rest of the world he has overwhelming support.

“If he runs again he will win, but I think it’s unlikely we at the FA would vote for him.”

FIFA Delay Corruption Findings Report

FIFA are in the midst of an investigation into allegations into corruption but the report, which was expected to come out in late July, has been delayed several weeks.

FIFA investigator Michael Garcia’s report is looking into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar. 

Former US attorney Garcia set an original timeframe of late July for delivery of his confidential report to Joachim Eckert – the judge for the adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee – but is now expected to do so in September. No explanation for the delay has been provided. 

It is also not clear whether Garcia has taken into account the findings of the Sunday Times newspaper, which printed a detailed report that alleged Qatar’s bid to host the tournament was corrupt, with large bribes allegedly made to FIFA officials in exchange for their votes. 

Qatar bid officials have denied any wrongdoing and say Qatari Mohammed Bin Hammam, the disgraced former FIFA committee member at the heart of the claims, played no official or unofficial role in their bid.

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Scottish Golf Union Announce All Square Partnership

The Scottish Golf Union has signed a new strategic partnership with Silicon Valley based All Square, viagra 60mg the social network for golf.

The SGU is working with Scotland’s 576 golf clubs to help them reach out and engage international golfers in Ryder Cup year and All Square, cialis ed which is establishing a business base in St Andrews, is seen as an ideal platform.

Ross Duncan, Marketing, Media and Sponsorship Manager at Scottish Golf Union, said: “The All Square platform gives golf clubs an opportunity to enhance their online presence among a very targeted audience and we are happy to endorse the product to help All Square get a foothold in the Scottish golf market. The platform has a potential global reach and creates a very strong marketing avenue that forward-thinking clubs can use to attract new visitors.

“Our partnership with All Square comes at a time when the SGU is encouraging clubs to develop social media strategies, and reach out to overseas visitors on the back of our ‘Ryder Cup Ready’ activity. We will certainly be recommending clubs take advantage of the free registration to market their courses on All Square’s global digital platform.”

With a base in Silicon Valley, California, All Square, supported by Troon Golf and KPMG, uses the latest social media and app technologies to harness the passion for golf on a community level and focuses on the massively fragmented golf market that currently has myriads of golf-specific, sporting products. 

Arthur de Rivoire, co-Founder of All Square, will be relocating to Scotland, to assist in introducing the product to clubs and businesses. He said: “The Home of Golf, with its near 600 golf courses and 220,000 golfers, is the ideal market in which to test and develop our platform before rolling it out globally.

“We also chose Scotland as a base because of The 2014 Ryder Cup and the huge volume of social media activity this will generate. Working alongside the SGU, we are offering clubs the opportunity to raise their online visibility and enhance customer engagement.”

British Basketball Decide Against Fighting Funding Cut

British Basketball have conceded defeat in their funding battle and have decided against launching a formal appeal against UK Sport’s decision to withdraw funding from the sport.

UK Sport announced in February that it was cutting basketball’s funding to zero having determined that it stood little prospect of winning medals at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

British Basketball made representations to the UK Sport board in March and considered its options after the decision was reaffirmed.

“Having taken legal advice, it became clear that whilst there may be a case for an appeal, the costs associated with making that case successfully had to be considered alongside other matters, such as delivering on the commitment made to enter national teams into European Championships,” a statement said.

“As a result of that process, British Basketball has decided that it will not submit an appeal to the SDRP (Sports Dispute Resolution Panel) against the UK Sport decision to withdraw funding.”

Performance chairman Roger Moreland said British Basketball would continue to fund both the men’s and women’s senior teams during the EuroBasket qualifying process as well as maintaining the Under-20 programme which has focused on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

“We have been faced with making difficult decisions because the funding decision has made our situation challenging,” Moreland said.

“As well as giving the senior teams the chance to qualify for next year’s EuroBasket finals, it is equally important to give the next generation more international experience and that is why the case for the under-20 teams has been prioritised above off court issues.”

Cologne Remains EHF FINAL4 Host Until 2016

The European Handball Federation has revealed Cologne, health Germany as the location of Europe’s biggest handball event, erectile the VELUX EHF FINAL4 for a further two years until 2016.

With the current agreement due to expire following the 2014 event, generic event organisers EHF Marketing GmbH, the City of Cologne and LANXESS arena have now reached an agreement that will bring Europe’s top teams to the cathedral city until at least 2016.

Jean Brihault, EHF President, commented: “Cologne and the LANXESS arena have offered us perfect conditions for the organisation of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 right from the first event back in 2010.

“I am sure that handball fans will share my delight at the decision to return to Cologne for a further two years.”

Peter Vargo, Managing Director of EHF Marketing GmbH, said: “Every year tens of thousands of fans travel to Cologne to witness the huge handball and entertainment event which the VELUX EHF FINAL4 has become.

“We are really looking forward to building on what we have already achieved and to provide the fans an even better event in the coming years.”

FFR Withdraws Application to Host 2014 Heineken Cup & Amlin Challenge Cup

The Federation Française de Rugby (FFR) has withdrawn its application to host the 2014 Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup finals, due to the ongoing uncertainty regarding the availability of the Stade de France.

The Board of ERC will now seek proposals from the other participating nations in the tournaments and will aim to confirm the host city and venues by the end of June.

Dublin 2013 was the third successive season that both the Amlin Challenge Cup and Heineken Cup finals were staged in the same city as a part of European club rugby’s showpiece weekend.

A total of 1,068,878 spectators have passed through the turnstiles at the 18 Heineken Cup finals to date. Since 2003, the venue for the Heineken Cup final has been selected before of the start of the tournament, while from 2005, tickets have been on sale from up to 12 months in advance with the objective of maximising attendances and building ERC’s weekend festival of European club rugby.

PSG Changes Brand Identity with New Logo

French football giants, asthma Paris Saint-Germain, order sale | today unveiled its new brand identity with a updated logo translating their work carried out on the strategic foundations of the new Paris Saint-Germain brand.

The new logo, denture which will be officially launched at the beginning of next season, expresses the position of the club around the legacy of excellence in reference to Paris, and his two universal values: ethics and aesthetics.

The new Paris Saint-Germain logo capitalises on the strongest element of the brand, Paris.

The city of light is an undisputed icon throughout the world. The new logo uses the name ‘Paris’ clearly with the Eiffel Tower at the heart of the logo. The base of the logo has the name ‘Saint Germain’ along with the fleur de lys emblem.

The designers of the logo have paid special attention to the identity of the club and its history – while keeping the standards of excellence of the city of Paris in hindsight. As a result of which, the font is inspired by the major brands in Paris.

Paris Saint-Germain president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, said: “The evolution of the Paris Saint-Germain logo marks an important stage in the implementing of our ambition.

“Namely making Paris Saint-Germain one of the world’s greatest sporting brands.”

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LPGA Major Wegmans Championship to Return to Rochester in 2013

The LPGA have announced the Wegmans LPGA Championship will return to Rochester, N.Y.at Locust Hill Country Club the week of June 3-9, 2013, marking the fourth-straight year the major championship has been played at Locust Hill Country Club and 37-consecutive summer the LPGA has played in the Rochester suburb of Pittsford.

The summer of 2013 will give golf fans in Western New York the opportunity to witness two major championships on golf’s biggest tours with the women’s LPGA Championship and the men’s PGA Championship played just two months apart.

“We are both proud and excited to bring the Wegmans LPGA Championship back to Rochester, and perhaps the best golf fans in the world“,” said LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan. “Rochester is uniquely positioned as ‘Golf’s Titletown’ next year with the LPGA and PGA Championships played just two months apart, giving golf fans in Western New York a unique opportunity to see the best females – and males – in golf compete on the biggest stage. For the LPGA, the combination of a world-class, top-notch partner like Wegmans and the passionate and knowledgeable fans of Rochester is simply as good as it gets.”

“Rochester is a favorite spot for us and we are happy to return next summer for the Wegmans LPGA Championship,” said 2010 champion Cristie Kerr. “There are no better fans in golf than the thousands who come out to support us each year at Locust Hill. I would like to personally thank Wegmans for their partnership.”

The LPGA Championship has been in existence since 1955. Last year’s winner, Shanshan Feng, made history as the first player from China to win on the LPGA Tour with her two-stroke victory over Rolex Player of the Year contender Stacy Lewis, 10-time LPGA winner Suzann Pettersen, former U.S. Women’s Open champion Eun-Hee Ji, and Mika Miyazato, who went on to become a Rolex First-Time Winner at the Safeway Classic in August.

“It’s great to hear that we are going back to Rochester,” said Pettersen. “It’s a great stop for us and we get awesome crowds. It’s great to keep a long tradition going. I’m looking forward to be playing Locust Hill again in 2013.”

World Rally Championship to be Promoted by Red Bull

Red Bull have been revealed as the new promoter of the World Rally Championship, link the FIA has confirmed.

The sport has been without a promoter all season after North One Sport tumbled into administration before the 2012 campaign even kicked off – with the FIA left to try and promote the championship itself.

Eurosport were linked with the role having successfully run the Intercontinental Rally Challenge but talks with the FIA failed to lead to a deal being struck.

That left Red Bull as the most likely option, with the World Motor Sport Council confirming a deal has been agreed that will the energy drinks company take up the role from 2013 onwards.

“The WMSC approved for the FIA to proceed with an agreement with The Sportsman Media Group and Red Bull Media House to become the new global Promoter of the FIA World Rally Championship from 2013,” an FIA statement read. “The Promoter will be responsible for investing and developing the WRC with a view to increasing its profile, reputation and commercial value. 

“In particular, the Promoter, working in close collaboration with the FIA, will be focused on introducing live television and an innovative digital media strategy in the next years.”

Formula 1’s Stock Market Flotation On Track

Formula 1’s stock market flotation in Singapore is still on course according to the man who may oversee the listing.

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, a board member of Delta Topco, Formula 1’s commercial rights holding company, confirmed in an interview with Austrian newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten progress towards the flotation was ongoing.

“We intend to float F1 in Singapore soon,” said Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman and former CEO of Nestle. “Some roadshows and presentations have taken place already.

The flotation has been tipped to go ahead in June with around $2-$3billion of shares in Delta Topco due to be offered.

Brabeck-Letmathe also confirmed rumours he may take over Delta Topco, after Nestle’s board of directors gave their approval for his appointment.

“It’s true that I said I would be ready to chair the board in a non-operative function. If F1 goes public it will be important to have an independent chairman.”

It is thought Bernie Ecclestone will continue in his role as Formula 1’s Chief Executive after any flotation but Brabeck-Letmathe knows he has to be prepared for all eventualities.

“We all hope that Bernie stays healthy for a long time and continues. I am impressed by his efforts,” he said.

“However, it is the duty of a board to secure the succession. At Nestle, I always made sure that any executive board member could be replaced within 24 hours. This would also apply to F1 when it becomes a public company.

“We have to consider the future long-term, with new structures, new individuals, possibly both.”