This year’s Race of Champions, an annual event in December featuring winners from various motorsport series will be hosted in Bangkok, Thailand.

Organisers said on Friday the Rajamangala Stadium, home of Thailand’s national soccer team, will follow Beijing’s ‘Bird’s Nest’ Olympic Stadium as the second venue outside of Europe to put on the event.The event, which has featured champions like Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, has been held in Duesseldorf, Germany, for the last two years.

“This race will be a perfect opportunity for Thais to see some of the world’s greatest drivers and represents another step by the government in its efforts to promote racing and automotive sports in the Kingdom,” Thailand’s Minister of Tourism and Sports Chumphol Silpa-archa said in a statement.

“We aim to bring Formula One to Thailand as well.”South East Asia already has two races, with Malaysia and Singapore on the calendar.

The minister was quoted in March as saying Thailand could meet the conditions to host a Formula One race as early as 2014.

Formula One teams are looking for justification from F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone over the schedule of next season’s race calendar after it was already signed off without their support, according to media reports.

Under the Concorde Agreement, which divides up the commercial revenues of the sport, teams have to give approval to a calendar if it contains more than 17 races and if more than half of these events take place outside Europe and the United States. 

The 2012 calendar was published recently by the FIA, motorsport’s world governing body, and contained 20 races – 11 of which can be classified as ‘flyaways’.

The Formula One Teams’ Association has reportedly written to both F1’s commercial rights-holder Ecclestone and FIA president Jean Todt in the belief the calendar was drawn up without the Concorde Agreement procedure having been followed. 

There are concerns about the logistics and costs of the final sequence of races, with the sport set to visit Singapore, Japan, Korea, India, Abu Dhabi and Brazil, as well as the inaugural US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas between the 23rd September to 25th November. 

Ecclestone reportedly rejected the teams’ concerns, stating they have the choice of competing. 

According to media reports, the F1 boss said: ‘They don’t have to go if they don’t want to. They are lucky we have got races. Otherwise they would all go out of business’

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced that the England v West Indies Test Match, medic due to be held in Cardiff next year, symptoms will be put back out to a competitive tender process for bids by other host international venues.? ?

The decision was taken by the ECB Management Board after Glamorgan County Cricket Club advised the ECB that it would be late in making its payment of the staging fee for hosting the recent England v Sri Lanka npower Test Match in Cardiff. ?It has now been agreed that the club will be given an extended period in which to meet the financial terms of its staging agreement.  ? ?

ECB chief executive David Collier said: “This decision has been taken following close consultation with Glamorgan CCC and with a view to assisting the club in developing a sustainable long-term business plan for staging international cricket.? 

“ECB recognises that the club has made considerable investment into developing and upgrading the SWALEC stadium and that this has brought considerable benefits to the wider game in England and Wales.” 

No decision is expected on the awarding of a new venue for next summer’s West Indies Test Match until the ECB has finalised the international match schedule for 2012 in its entirety. Glamorgan CCC was awarded the 2012 test match by ECB’s management board last December acting on the recommendation of the Major Match Group and following a competitive tender process.  ?

Collier added: “Glamorgan CCC has assured ECB that it will fully comply with the terms of the staging agreement in relation to its future international matches and further discussions will take place between both parties to ensure that the club continues to remain on a sound financial footing.? 

“While it will not be permitted to stage the West Indies Test Match next year, the club will continue to host a One-Day International against India later this summer and South Africa next year.

“It will also be free to bid for the ECB’s new match packages for 2013-2016 along with all other international venues and any application received will be considered on its merits.”’.

National Basketball Association (NBA) team owners have authorised a lockout of the league’s 450 players if a new labour accord isn’t in place when the existing collective bargaining agreement expires tomorrow.

The 30 owners made the decision during almost five hours of meetings at a Dallas hotel yesterday

The owners’ 11-member labor-relations committee can enact the lockout when the labor accord with the National Basketball Players Association ends tomorrow night.

NBA Deputy Commissioner, shop Adam Silver, capsule said: “The owners authorized the labor relations committee to do whatever steps were necessary to effectuate a new collective bargaining agreement and so that committee has the full authority of all 30 teams to act in whatever way they deem appropriate.”

Further talks with the players’ union are scheduled for tomorrow.

NBA Commissioner David Stern said: “I sure would like to see us make a deal. Not making a deal should give everybody apprehension.”

With a work stoppage, the NBA would join the National Football League, which locked out its players in March following the expiration of a labour contract. That dispute has continued for more than three months.

Without an agreement, the league is likely to lock the players out on July 1, creating the third work stoppage in NBA history.

The dispute stems from the disagreement on how to split revenue from a league that made about US$4.3bn last season.

The National Football League (NFL) have been enforced into a third offer of compensation to those fans who were not seated at this month’s Super Bowl. Having offered to refund tickets to triple their face value, many of the upset supporters were unsatisfied.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has offered a new option to the 400 fans who were denied seats at the showpiece event and now intends to offer them US$5,000 or more as compensation.

In an emailed statement to the unhappy spectators, Goodell stated that he would offer $5,000 “or the total of their verified expenses for Super Bowl XLV, whichever is greater.”

In previous attempts to compensate those involved the NFL offered $2,400 plus a free ticket to Super Bowl XLVI or a ticket to a future Super Bowl with airfare and accommodations.

The International Olympic Committee have reiterated the safety of the Sochi 2014 ski and snowboard venues by revealing the International Ski Federation and competing athletes are all “very happy” with the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.

A number of athletes have sustained injuries at the venues in recent days, including Russian freestyle skier Maria Komissarova fracturing and dislocating her spine and her British counterpart Rowan Cheshire suffering concussion and facial cuts and bruising, both in training accidents.

Asked about that at a press conference on Monday, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said: “We monitor and collect data on the illnesses and injuries at each Games to develop ways of keeping up health and prevention strategies and so on.

“At the moment our figures are that there is no significant difference at all from Vancouver (the 2010 Winter Olympics).

“Winter snow sports are not without their risks, but we don’t see any difference between this Games and the last one.”

Adams emphasised that any decision on action to be taken if the venues are deemed to be dangerous will lie with the FIS.

But he added: “At the moment we are very happy and the federation is very happy, and from what I can see, from the comments of the athletes who are competing, they are very happy too – in fact, many of them have said it is the best course they have ever been on.”

ESPN have announced the international X Games will be discontinued in Tignes, France; Foz do Iguacu, Brazil; Munich from 2014, ESPN announced Thursday.

“We are proud to have run world-class competitions for both the athletes and spectators; however the overall economics of these events do not provide a sustainable future path,” ESPN said in a statement.

The network said domestic X Games events in Aspen, Colo., and Austin, Texas, will be held in 2014, as scheduled.

The X Games is the longest-running event in action sports, featuring competitions in snowboarding, freeskiing and snowmobiling in the winter and skateboarding, BMX, motocross and rally car racing in the summer. The event has featured some of the most historic feats in action sports history, including the first double backflip on a dirt bike, landed by Travis Pastrana in 2006.

ESPN announced the expansion to six sites in April 2012. With the expansion came new events, including Mountain Bike Slopestyle, Women’s Skateboard Park and Gymkhana GRID. The global tour also included a new emphasis on music and culture, with film screenings and concert headliners such as 50 Cent, Awolnation and Major Lazer.

The international events in 2013 provided some milestone performances. In Tignes, Iouri Podladtchikov landed the first-ever YOLO Flip in Snowboard SuperPipe. In Foz do Iguacu, Jake Brown landed the first 720 ollie in Skateboard Big Air, and in Barcelona, Alana Smith surpassed Shaun White to become the youngest X Games medalist ever with her second-place finish in the debut of Women’s Skateboard Park.

In 2014, the 19th year of X Games, competitions will be held in Aspen from Jan. 23-26 and Austin from May 15-18.

Next year will be the first time Austin hosts a summer X Games, ending the event’s 11-year tenure in Los Angeles.

The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has suspended the membership of the Pakistan Basketball Federation (PBF) for supporting the interim committee of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA). 

The PBF has been in good standing with the interim committee against the IOC-recognised Arif Hasan-led POA which has already held the 32nd National Games in Lahore last year.

The decision of banning the PBF was taken by the FIBA in its central board meeting held on June 20 and 21, herbal 2013.

The letter that FIBA sent to the PBF and POA stated: “The FIBA Central Board [in its meeting of 20-21 June 2013] has taken a firm approach considering that — in breach of Article 9.1 of the FIBA General Statutes — your federation no longer is in good standing with the National Olympic Committee (POA) officially recognised by the IOC and that the actions taken by your federation cannot be considered in line with Article 9.7.

“Your direct participation in chairing this interim committee further confirms that you are acting against the efforts of the IOC to establish a Sports movement in Pakistan that functions in an independent manner free from interference.

“In view of all the above facts and in application of Article 9.10 and 10.2 of the FIBA General Statutes, we have the regret to inform you that the Central Board has approved the suspension of your Federation from FIBA with immediate effect, the letter further said.

“As a result, your federation forfeits its rights under Article 8.1 of the FIBA General Statutes and your teams and officials are no longer allowed to organise and/or participate in official competitions or activities,” it said.

The FIBA also clearly gives in its letter an outline for restoration of the PBF’s affiliation with the international body, saying it won’t restore PBF’s status until “it (FIBA) receives an official confirmation from the duly recognised POA that the BFP recognises and support the POA and its duly elected officers as per the general assembly elections of Feb 4, 2012.”

It needs to be noted that the main reason behind PBF suspension is the active role of PBF president Asif Bajwa in the interim committee which is actually headed by him in defiance of the Olympic Charter.

The FIBA letter further states: “Much to our regret, we have also been informed that this illegal interim committee is headed by the president of the PBF, Mr Asif Baiwa.”