After a long search Red Bull is set to become the World Rally Championship’s new promoter in 2013 after beating off competition to succeed North One Sport.

The energy drinks company’s motorsport involvement is amongst the largest for a non-automotive manufacturer, notably owning its multiple title-winning F1 squad, the Red Bull Ring circuit in its native Austria and sponsorship of countless race teams and drivers. 

Now it appears to have defeated early favourites Eurosport and an unnamed South Africa bid to succeed North One Sport, whose deal was terminated by the FIA in January. The company was said to have “conspicuously failed to deliver its contractual obligations,” placing it in “fundamental breach of contract.”

Red Bull already enjoy a strong WRC presence as sponsors to French powerhouse Citroën. The French squad’s boss Yves Matton said he was positive about the prospect of Red Bull becoming the series’ new promoter. 

“When they do something, they do it properly and they don’t just want to make a good name with the promotion,” said Matton. “If they choose to invest in the World Rally Championship then it’s because they want to make a proper job, otherwise they would not even attempt to do it.”

Giles Clarke, the chairman of the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), believes the “biggest danger” to the sport is pirate websites streaming live cricket.

This follows the ECB closing down more than 700 websites illegally streaming live coverage of England’s Test series against India.

The sites cut across the ECB’s exclusive broadcast deals with Sky and the BBC, worth almost £300m to English cricket.

The ECB announced today a new six-year contract with the BBC for live coverage on the radio, guaranteeing Test Match Special on the air until 2019.

A new contract with Sky is impending with another six-year deal likely as the ECB looks to guarantee its income until 2019.

But it is the fight against pirate websites which the ECB will continue to wage, working with other sporting bodies and the Government.

“We all have to be vigilant,” said Clarke. “There are a huge number of pirate websites that stream cricket on the internet taken from television broadcasts, we and our broadcasters closed down 700 during last summer’s series against India.

“These pirate broadcasters are the biggest danger to cricket because they take money out of the game without commercial benefit to the sport.

“It is an extremely complex procedure to close down websites but it can be done and has to be done.”

Are you all surprised by Clarke’s recent sentiments or is this a issue in sports that has been bubbling for a while now? Have your say here

The NBA players have rejected the deal proposed by the NBA owners and want more renegotiations before the Wednesday afternoon deadline with the owners adamant the next deal wont be so accommodating.

NBA players have until 5 p.m. Wednesday to accept an offer from NBA owners on a revenue split or the next deal that’s offered will be much worse.

On Tuesday, the NBA player’s union said they were not going to fold in the face of the owner’s ultimatum.

“There isn’t any player that wants us to take a bad deal,” National Basketball Players Association president Derek Fisher said.

NBA Commissioner David Stern has said the newest proposal gives players between 49% and 51% of revenues. If the players’ association does not change its mind by Wednesday, the NBA will offer up another proposal — one that offers players 47% of basketball revenues and a hard salary cap.

Fisher said Sunday that the offer was not acceptable, and he reiterated Tuesday that the players’ association is holding firm.

“That doesn’t mean we won’t continue to negotiate,” Fisher said at a news conference after a meeting of players representing all but one of the NBA’s teams.

The current proposal says that if the league exceeds certain revenue forecasts, the players would receive 51%. If it didn’t, the share would fall to 49%.

But Fisher said Sunday that “there’d be no way in the world we’d ever get to 51%” under the provisions.

The players’ association’s executive director, Billy Hunter, told CNN sister network TBS that Tuesday’s meeting was intended to spell out the details of the owners’ proposal, which they were “misunderstanding” based on media reports that focused on the revenue sharing offer.

Once they heard the details of the proposal, he said, “they were all horrified by it.” He said it would “decimate” gains made by players in recent years.

Hunter said he is likely to meet with Stern before the owners’ deadline Wednesday to see if there was any movement in their position.

Fisher, during the news conference, said the players are confident an agreement giving players a better deal would still be possible despite the owners’ ultimatum.

The NBA season has been canceled through at least November 30, and the two sides are hoping they can reach a resolution before more games are called off.

Stern has said the 2010-2011 season was not profitable for most of the league’s 30 owners, who want cost-cutting help from players. The league lost as much as $300 million last season, according to Stern.

One of the battles has focused on the owners’ rejection of calls by the players’ union for an average $7 million player salary in the sixth year of a new labor deal. The current average salary is about $5 million.

Other big issues include a fight over a move by owners to gain the bigger share of revenues and whether the NBA will strengthen its salary cap.

Read Stern’s offer here

It was confirmed yesterday, April 18, by the National Football League (NFL) that Wembley Stadium in London will stage a regular-season game for the fifth consecutive campaign in 2011 – as long as there is an end to the current labour dispute by August 1.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are to ‘host’ the Chicago Bears in the 2011 International Series game on Sunday, October 23 at 18:00pm local time. However, in announcing the fixture ahead of the full 2011 season schedule at midnight UK time on Tuesday, April 19, the NFL stated: “Should the current NFL labour situation be unresolved by August 1, the game will be played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.”

A lockout is currently in place in the league after talks over a new collective bargaining agreement between the players and League owners collapsed, therefore if progress is not made over the summer months, next season could be delayed or even cancelled altogether. However, despite the disruption, teams and NFL officials are pressing ahead with plans for the 2011 campaign.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated: “Our past four games in London have demonstrated the tremendous passion for NFL football that exists in the UK. We hope by staging another extraordinary game at Wembley that we can continue to grow our existing fan base and attract even more new fans.” The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, added: “Continuing London’s love affair with the hugely popular stateside sport, we are proud to once again welcome two of America’s top NFL teams to the capital.”

It will be a nostalgic return to Wembley for the Bears, on the 25th anniversary of playing in the first official NFL game staged in the UK. The Buccaneers also feature prominently in the NFL’s history at the stadium, having played a home game there against the New England Patriots in 2009.

Fox will provide live television coverage of the game in the United States, while live coverage in the UK will air on Sky Sports and BBC Radio, with highlights on BBC TV.

The two closest aides to sacked Delhi Commonwealth Games organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi have both been arrested on suspicion of corruption for their involvement in the running of last year’s event.

In an interview with the BBC, a spokesman for India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) stated that organising committee secretary general Lalit Bhanot and another leading executive, VK Verma, have been accused of inflating costs while procuring timers and scoring equipment from a Swiss manufacturer, Swiss Timing.

The alleged scam cost the Indian government nearly US$24m, but Swiss Timing has rejected all accusations against it with the company’s director general, Christophe Berthaud, insisting the claims were “absolutely wrong”.

Bhanot and Verma will appear in court later today, February 24, and have both denied the allegations.

Last month, new Indian Sports Minister Ajay Maken dismissed Bhanot from his role as secretary general, along with Kalmadi from the organising committee to enable police to conduct “impartial and unhindered investigations”. Pressure is now thought to be mounting on Kalmadi, with a number of similar corruption allegations made against him.

The Australian Olympic Committee has appointed lawyer Fiona de Jong as their new Secretary General, becoming the first woman to take up the role.

Ms de Jong, who assumes the role of chief administrative and financial officer, has spent 10 years at the AOC as their Director of Sport.

A former international triathlete, de Jong is a graduate of Harvard Business Schools Advanced Management Program.

During her time at the AOC, de Jong has assumed much of the AOC’s legal work particularly around team agreements, its many by-laws, selection disputes and anti-doping matters.

She replaces Craig Phillips, who resigned in June after 23 years with the AOC.

Currently on maternity leave following the birth of her first child, de Jong will start her new position on October 7.

“I thank (AOC president) John Coates and the AOC Executive for their trust and support and I will relish this new challenge.” de Jong said.

“I’ve always been passionate about sport and I have a huge desire to advance the AOC and the Olympic Movement. I can’t wait to get back to work.”

Coates said the AOC was very focused on succession planning and de Jong was totally prepared to assume her new role after a decade of operational experience with the organisation.

“Fiona has developed a close working relationship with our member sports, she understands perfectly their needs and she will continue to forge stronger ties with the sports and our other key stakeholders in her new role,” Coates said.

De Jong is looking forward to working with another senior female member of the AOC hierarchy, the 2016 Australian Olympic Chef de Mission Kitty Chiller.

The Women’s Tennis Association has launched a new app for Windows 8.1.

The app gives women’s tennis fans the opportunity to check out news, store photos, buy stats, unhealthy rankings and more of their favorite players.

“The official WTA app on Windows 8.1 is a great new addition to WTA community,” said WTA Chairman and CEO, Stacey Allaster.  “It was important for us to build an app for our fans that could provide rich content, while giving them compelling features to explore their favorite players making history on the Road to Singapore.”

“Windows is supported by a rich app ecosystem that offers a variety of quality apps and games that take advantage of the platform’s unique features and design such as Live Tiles, snap and share integration, allowing users to easily share content and stay connected,” said Todd Brix, general manager, Windows Apps and Store, Microsoft Corp. “The official WTA app on Windows 8.1 takes advantage of all of these features and more to help everyone from tennis enthusiasts to casual fans stay current on their favorite players, photos, stats and more.”

Rio 2016 Olympics organisers have revealed venue construction for the games is 38% completed just shy of two years from the commencement of the first Olympic Games on the South American continent.

Eleven of the 29 permanent venues scheduled for the Games are already operational, click while eight still need renovations. There will also be eight temporary venues constructed.

The Olympic Golf Course is being irrigated for the planting of grass to begin and the foundations of Olympic Halls 1, and 2, discount and 3 in the Barra Olympic Park continue. Depth studies at the rowing and canoe sprint venue of Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas have begun, and the design of the integrated route for athletics, road cycling, and paracycling courses in Flamengo Park have also started.

“We are advancing in the construction of competition venues for the Rio 2016 Games, with all of the basic and executive projects concluded or in the conclusion phase, and with foundation works in full flow,” Rio 2016 Infrastructure Integration Director Alexandre Techima said. “Even though they may not be highly visible, the preparative groundwork and foundation construction, that occurs underground, are extremely important for the final structure and often account for 20 percent of the total volume of construction.”

A tender process in Deodoro for Rio 2016’s second-largest venue cluster has now started. The renovation of the National Shooting Centre, National Equestrian Centre, and Modern Pentathlon Aquatics Centre will begin later this year, four new venues will be constructed, and two temporary venues will be installed. The Maracana Stadium, which will host the Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony at the Olympic Summer Games, is prepared to host the FIFA World Cup next month.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) have looked to protect its future events from issues such as match-fixing and corruption by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Interpol, medicine the International Criminal Police Organisation.

Interpol will work with the IOC to identify and address issues which could affect the security and integrity of matches and competitions, such as doping, match-fixing and illegal or irregular sports betting activities, and attempted corruption of match officials and players, particularly during the Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games.

IOC President Thomas Bach said: “Interpol has the ability and the necessary instruments to instigate cross-border investigations, coordinate different law enforcement bodies, and gather intelligence. In our determined fight to protect the integrity of sport on behalf of clean athletes, Interpol’s involvement is absolutely crucial. The MoU has further cemented the close relationship we already enjoy.”

The agreement also provides for the world police body to give additional support to the IOC in ensuring the security of international matches and competitions.

“As the world’s largest law enforcement organization, it is natural for Interpol to team up with the International Olympic Committee to secure and protect such universal events as the Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games,” said Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.

“It is by providing the widest possible law enforcement support to global sports events that fans, competitors and officials can enjoy them as safely and securely as possible. Without our collective commitment and action against threats such as illegal and irregular betting, the confidence in fair play by the public and our youth will erode and eventually vanish.

“Interpol’s agreement with the International Olympic Committee therefore represents a significant step forward in protecting the integrity of sport,” concluded the Head of Interpol.

English Rugby Championship team, Nottingham RFC have revealed they are looking for fresh investment as promotion to the Aviva Premiership could be a possibility.

The Meadow Lane club have already secured their place in the end-of-season shootout for a place in the top-flight – with Nottingham set to face one of Bedford, Bristol, or Leeds in the two-legged RFU Championship semi-final.

However Nottingham, who have guaranteed second spot in the table behind runaway leaders Newcastle, are seeking £250,000 of new investment to complete this season and build for next year after existing owners and investors Luke Jones and Jason Brewer announced they can no longer provide the necessary funding.

“We’ve had an excellent season, better than we expected when we set out our objectives this time last year,” said Nottingham chairman Alistair Bow.

“But achieving this success comes at a high cost and due to a change in their circumstances our owners can no longer meet the current financial demands of the club.

“Luke and Jason would both like to stay involved, but in order for us to carry on playing at the top of the RFU Championship challenging for promotion, we need to bring additional funding in.

“We have already identified one or two new investors, but we still need more funds to bridge the gap this season.”