The International World Games Association (IWGA) and UFA Sports have signed an extensive international marketing cooperation.

UFA Sports will act as consultant and the exclusive international marketer of the IWGA, with focus on The World Games 2013 in Cali, Colombia and 2017 in Wrocław, Poland.

The IWGA and UFA Sports have agreed on a marketing cooperation containing all international media and commercial rights for a term including The World Games 2013 and 2017. The IWGA thereby wants to benefit from UFA Sports’ expertise in the field of international media rights distribution, sale of corporate sponsorships and strengthening brand identities in sport, to maximize the visibility of The World Games’ broadcast coverage. UFA Sports and the IWGA as entity of its Member Federations intend to further develop the popularity of the participating sports by providing the widest possible exposure to public and media with an international top class event organized and produced in high quality.

The World Games are a quadrennial global multi-sport event that offers competitions at the highest level in spectacular mix of traditional and modern sports, practiced on earth, in the air and on the water.

The next edition of The World Games will be celebrated in Cali, Columbia from 25 July until 4 August 2013. Under the slogan “Fair Play To The Planet”, The World Games will be held for the first time in South America. The World Games 2017 will be hosted by Wrocław, Poland.

The participating athletes of The World Games represent the absolute elite of their sport. To measure up to the performance of these world-class athletes, 15 hours of daily coverage will be produced in wide-screen high-definition format. In addition, two highlight formats of 30 minutes each will show the essence of the spectacular competitions.

Ron Froehlich, President of the International World Games Association: “Safeguarding the diversity in sport is vital to the international culture of the 21st century. Just imagine: a combined 1.2 billion people around the globe practice sports like e.g. inline-skating, karate, rugby or squash. Our goal is to further increase this number by improving the prominence of these spectacular sports through excellent sporting achievements under the umbrella of The World Games. With UFA Sports we are happy to have found a competent and experienced partner who will help us achieving this goal.”

Stefan Felsing, Managing Director of UFA Sports: “We are looking forward to becoming part of The World Games with its diverse and popular sports. The exciting pictures of world-class performances of the athletes at The World Games will inspire many people around the world.”

IndyCar, sickness the sanctioning body for the IZOD IndyCar Series, has announced today its scheduled Aug. 19 race in Qingdao, China, has been cancelled.

Bernard had been working with promoters in Qingdao the last several months to salvage the race, which was announced last November to run at the same time as the International Beer Festival. The inaugural race would have been held on a temporary 3.87-mile street circuit in the city that hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics sailing competition.

“We wanted to give the China race every opportunity to move forward and be successful, but IndyCar has been notified by the promoter that the event is cancelled for 2012,” said Randy Bernard, CEO, IndyCar. “We were informed that the promoter was trying to move the event to a different date and location. After ongoing discussions regarding alternative dates, as well as doing our due diligence in exploring alternate venues in China, the promoter cancelled the event. A decision had to be made to allow INDYCAR and its participants to plan accordingly for the second half of the season.”

IndyCar announced plans for its inaugural race in China on Nov. 10, 2011. Bernard said IndyCar is “not closing the door” on opportunities for a future race in China.

Bernard added that IndyCar is investigating a possible replacement event that will keep the IZOD IndyCar Series schedule at 16 races.

“We are working with our promoters that host events in the second half of our calendar to keep them apprised of how the date of a potential new race could impact our current schedule,” he said.

British team McLaren F1 has announced it has become the first carbon-neutral Formula 1 team.

Last year, the group became the first Formula 1 team to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard, following a three-year audit in which the team measured improved its carbon efficiency.

Thanks to a series of efficiency-driven measures within the McLaren Technology Centre, McLaren was able to achieve annual savings of more than 1,500 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

More recently, McLaren was recognised by the government’s Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme, which publishes a performance league table of more than 2000 participating British businesses. The team ranked 92nd overall.

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh, said: “I’m both delighted and proud that McLaren has become the world’s first carbon-neutral Formula 1 team.”

“It’s a considerable achievement: the result of a lot of hard work by a number of extremely dedicated individuals within our organisation, and a testament to our philosophy of continuous improvement within the workplace.

“McLaren was also the first Formula 1 team to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard for our efforts in improving carbon efficiency.

“Today’s announcement is the strongest possible proof that we’ve gone farther than any other Formula 1 team in becoming more environmentally sympathetic and efficient – an achievement that’s of great importance not only to our entire organisation but also to all our partners too.”

The National Basketball Association (NBA) have cancelled the rest of its preseason schedule and will vacate the first two weeks of the regular season if the league doesn’t reach a new labor agreement with its players by Oct. 10.

Yesterday’s four-hour negotiations at a Manhattan hotel collapsed when the players rejected the idea of a 50/50 split of basketball-related income (BRI), NBA Commissioner David Stern said at a news conference.

“We weren’t able to make the progress that we’d hoped we’d be able to make and we weren’t able to continue the negotiations,” Stern said.

The league told the players that if an agreement in principle isn’t reached by Oct. 10 it would have “no choice but to cancel the first two weeks of the season,” Stern said.

“There’s no meetings scheduled,” he said. “We were told that it’s not to be.”

As things stand, an agreement by that date is unlikely, National Basketball Players Association President Derek Fisher said at a news conference, standing in front of players including All-Stars Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett.

Union Executive Director Billy Hunter said it could be “maybe a month, two months” before the sides talk again. The regular season is scheduled to begin Nov. 1.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has threatened to stop its county teams from competing in this year’s Champions League Twenty20, hosted in India. unless the organisers of the event pay them the participation fees in advance.

The ECB insists that the two participant counties will have to receive the money to cover their costs from the BCCI before travelling to India for the tournament in September, a report in the Daily Telegraph stated. 

The ECB’s statement came after many of the participating teams in the first two CLT20 tournaments have alleged that they have either not received their payment on time or in full. 

Somerset and Sussex played in the inaugural CLT20 in India in 2009.

“The payment was late but was paid eventually, within about five months, and it was paid in full less about 20 per cent Indian government tax,” said Richard Gould, who was Somerset’s chief executive when they participated in CLT20 in 2009.

The CLT20 is currently allotted a window in ICC’s Future Tours Programme which schedules international cricket, unlike the Indian Premier League (IPL) which is regarded as a domestic competition. 

The third edition of the tournament begins in Hyderabad on September 19 with the qualification matches.

The first document in the so-called “lockout insurance” case between the National Football League and its players’ union (NFLPA) became yesterday, February 24.

The document regards the union’s brief to the federal court in Minnesota contending the court should overturn a special master’s decisions allowing the league to use US$4bn of media fees in 2011 if there is a lockout.

All documents have been sealed in the process since it began early last year, and the brief is redacted, with key numbers darkened out.

However, it does include excerpts of deposition transcripts and testimony, including from league execs like NFL Exec VP/Media and NFL Network President & CEO Steve Bornstein and Commissioner Roger Goodell conceding that the lockout insurance was a critical element in renewing the broadcast deals.

The news comes after late on Wednesday, February 23, DirecTV filed a motion in Minnesota federal court seeking to block the unsealing of its confidential records in the closely watched NFL media fees case.

Two local Minnesota newspapers are seeking a complete unsealing of records in the players union’s case against the NFL, in which the union alleges the league took lower media payments in return for guaranteed payments during a possible lockout. The arguments in that case were thought to be heard yesterday, February 24, but the DirecTV and the NFL could not prevent the unsealing.

DirecTV had said unsealing the records, which includes the contract and privileged communications, would expose the satellite channel’s NFL strategy, thereby impairing its ability to renew the deal in 2014.

The National Ice Skating Association (NISA) has revealed it has submitted a bid to bring the ISU World Figure Skating Championships to the UK for the first time in almost 20 years.

The bid in partnership with Glasgow City Council, medicine Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, EventScotland and UK Sport will be for the 2017 event in Glasgow.

A decision by the International Skating Union (ISU) is expected to be made after the organisation’s congress taking place in Dublin from 9 to 13 June.

Nick Sellwood, chief executive of NISA, which is the national governing body responsible for the development of the sport throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland, said: “The ISU World Figure Skating Championships were last held in the UK in 1995 in Birmingham, so it would be fantastic to bring this prestigious championship to Glasgow.

“It is one of the largest annual ice skating events in the world attracting more than 170 skaters from almost 40 countries in a superb showcase of figure skating.

“Our bid comes on the back of the hugely successful ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2012 which we hosted in Sheffield. We hope to build on this with the staging of the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2017.”

If successful, the ISU’s flagship event will be held in the new state-of-the-art SSE Hydro. As the biggest indoor sport and entertainment venue in Scotland, it will provide a campus-based Championship with all athlete accommodation, training and competition rinks on one site.

The 12,000-seater SSE Hydro will host 2014 Commonwealth Games events and the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships.

Men, Ladies, Pairs and Ice Dance couples from all over the world would travel to Glasgow to compete. It would be the first time the event has ever been held in Scotland.

Liz Nicholl, UK Sport Chief Executive said: “UK Sport is delighted to be working in partnership with NISA, Glasgow and EventScotland to bid for the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2017. We have been working hard over the last 18 months to be in a position to present a proposal to the ISU that is not only exciting and innovative, but which also has the development of Ice Skating within the UK at its core. The ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2017 being bid for as part of UK Sport’s Gold Event Series demonstrates our continuing significant commitment to winter sports following the unprecedented success of Sochi 2014 where our athletes provided so many inspirational performances.”

Paul Bush OBE, Chief Operating Officer for EventScotland said: “Scotland is the perfect stage for major events, and the SSE Hydro would be a fantastic venue for the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2017. We have an outstanding track record for delivery in Scotland, and that has been achieved through strong partnerships at national and international level. We have an exciting and engaging bid, backed up by robust plans and a wealth of experience developed from some of the biggest events in world sport.”

World Snooker have announced the Capital Venue in Gloucester will host the qualifying rounds of the 2014 China Open from next February 17 and 18.

The Capital Venue in the south-west of England has already staged events on the World Snooker Tour this season, and will once again host the best players in the world as they compete for places in the final stages in Beijing. 

All 128 players who enter the event will play one qualifying match, with the 64 winners to go on to China for the season’s penultimate world ranking event. 

A spokesman for World Snooker said: “The Capital Venue has proved an excellent location for staging professional events and we are delighted to hold the China Open qualifiers there for the first time. 

“These qualifiers are just before the Welsh Open so it is convenient for the players to make the short journey from Gloucester to Newport.”