A new motorsport global series has been given the green light and will start in 2014.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) okayed the ‘Formula E’ global series of city centre electric car races after motor sport’s governing body licensed the commercial rights to a Hong Kong-based consortium.

A statement on Monday said London-based Spanish businessman Enrique Banuelos will be lead investor in Formula E Holdings Ltd, with compatriot and fellow shareholder Alejandro Agag serving as chief executive.

British businessman Paul Drayson, a former Science Minister and amateur racing driver who runs Drayson Racing Technologies, is also involved in a project that will cost about 50 million euros ($62.59 million) to launch.

The promoters said that the series, sanctioned by the International Automobile Federation (FIA), aimed for races in at least 10 different cities – of which five will be in Europe.

Proposed locations worldwide include Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing as well as Mumbai, Sydney, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, Mexico City, Miami and Los Angeles.

Agag told Reuters that there was already an agreement in place with Rio while a race around Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate would be the first choice for Germany.

The plans are for a grid of 10 teams and 20 drivers in 2014, expanding to 14 teams the following year, with entrants able to use their own cars or one based on a Formulec EF01 prototype which has already achieved a top speed of 240kph.

Races will be an hour in duration but because the batteries will last only 15-20 minutes, there will be two pitstops scheduled with drivers having to change cars.

“This new competition at the heart of major cities is certain to attract a new audience,” FIA president Jean Todt said in the statement.

“The new events will provide a great way to engage the younger generation. This spectacular series will offer both entertainment and a new opportunity to share FIA values with a wide audience as clean energy, mobility and sustainability.”

The season-winning team will get 2.0 million euros and race winning drivers will share a 4.0 million euro prize fund.

Agag expected the championship to become the framework for research and development around the electric car.

“We don’t expect the big carmakers to step into Formula E in the beginning. The industry is not too familiar with electric racing. But I am sure they will come in in a second stage,” he told Reuters.

“We are open to any partnership with a big carmaker.”

Agag, a son-in-law of former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Aznar, already owns teams in the Formula One support series GP2 and GP3 under his Addax investment brand.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) have announced today that the current 50-Over League played by the top eight Associate and Affiliate Members (AMs) will now be renamed the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Championship (WCL Championship).

The WCL Championship, medic together with the ongoing global divisions of the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League (WCL), medstore provides a dual pathway for all AMs to qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2015.

The competing teams in the WCL Championship include Afghanistan, order Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands and Scotland – all with ODI status – along with the top two sides from WCL Division 2 in 2011, Namibia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The event is being played over a two and a half year period, and commenced in 2011.  It will conclude towards the end of 2013 after each team has played each other in two matches across seven home or away rounds.  Each team will therefore play 14 matches in total.

The top two teams in the WCL Championship will automatically join the ICC’s 10 Full Members in the CWC 2015, which is being jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

“The WCL Championship provides exciting ongoing competition for the top eight AMs through to the end of 2013, with all matches having an impact on ICC Cricket World Cup qualification,” said ICC Global Development Manager Tim Anderson.

The bottom six teams in the WCL Championship will receive a second qualifying opportunity when they participate in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier (CWCQ) in early 2014. This 10-team event will determine the final two qualifiers into the CWC 2015.

Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong, who finished third and fourth in WCL Division 2 in 2011, will also take part in the CWCQ 2014, while the other two competing teams will be decided via the ongoing WCL divisional structure.

WCL Division 5 will be hosted in Singapore from February 18 to 25, followed by Division 4 later in 2012, then Division 3 in 2013.  The top two teams in Division 3 will play in the CWCQ 2014.

“By both the WCL Championship and divisional events forming part of this qualifying process, not only do the top AMs have the opportunity to play against each other more regularly in matches with significant context, but all ICC Members have the opportunity to qualify for cricket’s flagship global event,” added Mr Anderson.

Round three of the WCL Championship begins on 18 February 2012, with Ireland taking on Kenya in Mombasa. WCL Division 5 commences in Singapore on the same day, and will be contested by Argentina, Bahrain, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Malaysia and Singapore.  The top two teams will then be promoted to Division 4.

The NBA labour lockout has officially ended after commissioner David Stern ratified a deal with the owners and the players on Thursday.

The deal, viagra buy which was agreed on in principle several weeks ago, ampoule includes a 12 percent reduction in player salaries, a limit to the length of player contracts and a host of other changes designed to shrink the gap between the strongest and weakest teams.

To that end, the owners also approved a new revenue-sharing formula that will roughly quadruple the amount of money paid by the teams that exceed the salary cap to the financially weakest teams.

“It will help us move toward a better business model, a more competitive league, and better alignment between compensation and performance,” Stern said after 25 of the league’s 30 owners approved the deal. “It’s a fair agreement, we believe, that had many compromises from both sides. While it’s not perfect, the deal addresses significant issues on both sides in a very productive way, we believe.”

More than 85 percent of the more than 200 players who voted agreed to ratify the agreement, according to the National Basketball Players Association. However, less than half the number of eligible players voted.

Still, the votes pave the way for teams to begin signing free agents. Already, there have been reports that the league’s financially strongest teams, including the Knicks, the Lakers and the Heat, are jockeying to sign the best free agents on the market, suggesting that the league’s goal of achieving more parity among teams is a work in progress.

Adam Silver, the league’s deputy commissioner, acknowledged that teams will continue to seek the best players. But he said that the new revenue-sharing formula and other elements of the collective bargaining agreement are being phased in over several years, so it will take time to gauge how and whether teams change the way they act.

“I think in terms of behavior of teams with this new harsher, more progressive tax, behavior is often difficult to predict,” Silver said. “We’ve been wrong many times before in predicting owner behavior. There might be a psychological barrier to surpassing certain tax levels in this deal in addition to economic disincentives. But we’ll see.”

The new revenue-sharing agreement, which will take full effect in the 2013-14 season, calls for a transfer of $196 million from the richest teams to the teams that generate the least revenue. Stern, who called the negotiations over revenue sharing “tortuous,” said he expected six to nine teams to contribute to the revenue-sharing pool. Under the new formula, the Los Angeles Lakers will pay the highest amount, as much as $50 million a year, followed by the Knicks at $30 million, according to a person who has seen the plan. About half a dozen teams would receive about $16 million each.

The agreement also calls for shorter contract lengths for free-agent signings and a rule that allows a team to waive one of its player contracts and have those salaries removed from the team’s salary-cap calculation.

Taken together, Stern said the changes reflected “a joint determination to restructure the league so that the dollars would be available for our teams to be more competitive” and “that teams could rebuild.”

Under the new agreement, the minimum age for new players will remain at 19. But the league and the union will form a committee once the season begins to study the issue further. There have been calls for raising the minimum age for rookies.

Silver also said that testing for human growth hormone will not begin this season, and there is no specific timeline in mind. The league and the union are waiting for a panel of independent scientists and experts to approve a valid and reliable test for H.G.H. before proceeding with mandatory testing.

After years of negotiations and an estimated $400 million in revenue lost during the lockout, it was not surprising that Stern and Silver were happy to be talking about games again.

“I think most importantly we’re back to basketball,” Silver said.

Yesterday, May 2, the National Football League (NFL) told a federal appeals court that its appeal regarding the legality of a lockout can “readily be resolved” before the start of next season.

At the end of last week a three-judge panel of the appeals court put US District Judge Susan Richard Nelson’s order to lift the 45-day lockout on hold, leading the owners to immediately reinstate the lockout. The League have now filed a brief with the eighth US Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, arguing that the lockout should remain on hold until the two sides have fought out their court battle.

NFL owners claimed that federal law barred an interference in labour disputes such as that of the US appeals court’s decision to delay enforcement of the lower court’s order stopping their lockout of players.

The NFL stated in court papers: “The absence of a stay would irreparably harm the NFL by undercutting its labour law rights. Federal courts may not interfere – on either side – in cases involving or growing out of a labour dispute.”

Attorneys for the players argued last week against a stay of Nelson’s order, suggesting that the players’ careers would be damaged by the continued lockout. However, the NFL has claimed in its new filing that the players’ alleged fears are exaggerated.

English League One soccer club Leyton Orient have confirmed that they will move to the courts next week asking for a judicial review of the Government’s decision to house Premier League club West Ham United in the Olympic stadium after the Games.

If successful, the club’s chairman Barry Hearn’s decision to go to the law could mean months of discussion are still to come, on an issue the Government thought it had finally settled last month.

Speaking at an International Sports Security Conference, Hearn confirmed: “Our lawyers, Mischon de Reya have been instructed to proceed with all haste to a full application of a judicial review. 

“We will make a written application next week. 

“We want the whole West Ham rubber stamping to be put on hold, whilst the parties have an opportunity to do something they haven’t done properly. 

“This is to consider the effect on Leyton Orient Football club and to consider whether the plans they have for West Ham’s occupancy of the Olympic stadium is a proper resolve of government application of funds.”

Hearn sees the judicial review as “part of his battle plan” to force the Government to change its mind, adding: “We hope the judicial review will be granted which gives all the parties, Government, Minister of Sport, Minister of Culture, West Ham United, an opportunity to judge whether this system was fundamentally flawed. 

“Or whether it was in breach of European law or British law. 

“It will also give an opportunity for Leyton Orient to put their case that West Ham moving into the Olympics stadium, under their current pricing arrangements, is a fundamental breach of law.”

The Orient case will be that by allowing West Ham to move into the Olympic stadium, “it puts the future of Leyton Orient football club seriously in doubt. 

“It is certainly a breach of competition law and predatory pricing law.”

Orient, says Hearn, will argue “West Ham are going to give tickets away, or make thousands of rickets available on a hugely discounted basis which gives them an unfair advantage under European competition law. 

“That is predatory pricing, a case of a large commercial entity moving into an area with a pricing policy aimed at putting other people out of business.”

Hearn admitted his growing fears for the club if their legal battle is unsuccessful, saying: “We will go out of business if West Ham, under their current rules operate out of the Olympic stadium and we are left where we are left.”

Hearn hinted that one way out of this potential impasse could be compensation, adding: “What is the way forward? Is it a compensation issue? Or should we be part of the Olympic Park itself rather than be the forgotten tribe of East London? 

“We are open to suggestions but we can’t get the dialogue started unless everything else is put on hold. The whole point of judicial review is everything stops.

“We are still holding fire on any future action against either the Premier League or Football League. 

“We have sent letters to them and we are waiting a reply from the Premier League on our case against them. 

“We believe the Premier League are fundamentally flawed as well in their decision making process under their own rules. 

“The Football League have been deafening in their silence. 

“I am sure common sense will tell them they have an obligation to represent and support a member club of their company. 

“Leyton Orient are one of the founder members of the Football League and we have rights within that membership of the Football League.”

Hearn feels it is the Coalition Government that is responsible for what he calls ‘the present mess’, stating: “I have to say I blame the incumbent Government. 

“They preach the big society, community values, family values. 

“They have totally ignored a community, family club with a history dating back to 130 years. 

“I blame people that have ignored us and tried to hide behind, ‘Oh the Premier League have sanctioned it’ without considering the Premier League rules themselves and have taken that as black and white as a job done. 

“I blame bullies in society, people who think they can ride rough shod over the little man.”

Nanjing of China has won the right to host the 2nd Asian Youth Games in 2013, allergy the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced.

Also at the OCA general assembly held here on Saturday, price Phuket of Thailand was picked to stage the 4th Asian Beach Games in 2014 and Nha Trang of Vietnam was chosen as the venue for the 5th Asian Beach Games in 2016.

OCA President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah signed host city contracts with representative of the three cities.

Nanjing will host the 2nd Youth Olympic Games in 2014, following the inaugural event in Singapore in August, so the 2nd Asian Youth Games one year earlier will give organizers the chance to test the venues and the cultural events program.

The Asian Beach Games began in Bali, Indonesia, in 2008 and is proving very attractive for National Olympic Committees due to its low cost of hosting in terms of venue construction and opportunities to promote tourism within Asia and beyond.

The 2nd Asian Beach Games will be held next month in Oman, from December 8-16, and the 3rd edition will be at Haiyang, Shandong Province, China, in June 2012.

The host of the 2013 Asian Indoor/Martial Arts Games has still to be decided. Incheon, Bahrain and Kaohsiung are all interested in staging the event, which combines two previous Games – the Asian Martial Arts Games and Asian Indoor Games.

Sportradar, medical a German sports and betting data company, has signed a multi-year data partnership with the Slovak League Clubs Union (ÚLK), the governing body of the two top-level football leagues in Slovakian club football.

As part of the deal, Sportradar will become the official data partner of the Liga top division and the 2.Liga second tier.

Sportradar will also acquire the worldwide and exclusive rights to collect, archive and distribute sports data from the two leagues, as well as distribute data to the media and betting industry.

ÚLK and Sportradar will also jointly implement an advanced data collection system for all matches in the Liga and 2.Liga.

Sportradar secured the agreement with UFA Sports Slovakia, the ÚLK’s exclusive marketing representative.

“Together we will enable all fans of Slovak football to be able to utilise the full breadth and depth of the content offered,” ÚLK president Dušan Tittel said.

“This partnership opens up some really interesting opportunities.”

Carsten Koerl, chief executive officer of Sportradar, added: “Today, Slovakia is a rising football nation developing with steady footsteps. Our market leading betting and sports data services will help to engage fans of Slovak football in new ways and across all platforms.”