Volkswagen is to make a return to the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) from 2013, abortion  confirming a five-year commitment to the WRC with its first full campaign following an 18-month period of testing and development. 

The firm will develop a World Rally Car version of its popular Polo model, viagra order designated the Polo R WRC, ambulance complete with four-wheel drive and a 1.6-litre turbo engine to conform to the new-generation World Rally Car regulations launched for this season. 

Simon Long, CEO of North One Sport, said VW’s decision to switch its focus from off-road events to the WRC was another boost for the championship, adding: “The WRC is the pinnacle of rallying; it’s all about being the world’s best and Volkswagen is right up there as one of the world’s best automotive brands. Coming hard on the heels of the BMW and MINI announcement this is yet another vote of confidence in the future direction of the WRC.” 

“The WRC is all about innovation – whether that’s on the sporting, technical or promotional side. We’re finding new ways to connect with fans, new ways of developing the sport and the technology beneath it, and that very much mirrors what VW are looking to do as a business and with its Polo.”

Volkswagen’s head of marketing, Luca de Meo added: “The WRC is a global platform and this is one very important reason from a marketing and brand point of view we supported this project. 

“With 13 races on four continents this event has enormous media impact. It is broadcast in more than 80 counties – I think more than 500 million people are enthusiastic about it – but this is just the beginning. It is for sure one of the most important event platforms in the world.”

French Ligue 1 football side Saint-Etienne has signed a long-term commercial partnership deal with sports marketing agency Sportfive, it has been announced.

Sportfive has been handed the responsibility of sponsorship and marketing activities, public relations and media support.

Sportfive will also be assisting the club in maximising the commercial possibilities in relation to the proposed development of the side’s stadium, Stade Geoffroy-Guichard. Plans for redevelopment were approved a year ago, with the stadium due to be expanded from a capacity of 35,000 to 41,000, in time for the 2016 European Championships.

Sportfive director general, Christophe Bouchet, said: “This new partnership with the club will build on the strategy that has been in place since 2007. Sportfive will accompany Saint-Etienne in the renovation of Geoffroy-Guichard and it will benefit from our years of experience in this field.”

President of the club’s administrative council, Bernard Caiazo, added: “Saint-Etienne is very honoured to link up with Sportfive to continue to develop our commercial activity and we are happy to have, on top of this, an expert in exploiting (the commercial possibilities of) stadia, with reference to the impending transformation of Geoffroy-Guichard.”

Digital sports content group PERFORM today announced they will integrate the Global Sports Media’s data feed in data specialists Opta.

The feed provides sports information including fixtures and results for over 1,500 leagues and competitions globally.

The integration will simplify PERFORM’s sports data offering to digital media customers in order to provide the best and most flexible product for its clients.

As part of the integration, Global Sports Media (GSM) – which was 100% acquired by PERFORM in 2011 – will cease to provide services under that brand, whilst all current GSM clients will become part of Opta’s customer base.

The combination of GSM’s breadth of coverage alongside Opta’s market leading and unique rich data products marks a significant step for the Group in consolidating its position as the world’s leading provider of digital sports data to the media sector.

Opta, which itself was acquired by PERFORM in July 2013, is the official data partner for a number of rights holders including the English Premier League and America’s MLS and works with many leading broadcasters, media groups, football clubs, bookmakers and brands including the BBC, Sky Sports, BeIN Sport, L’Equipe and Arsenal.

Ian Campbell, Commercial Director, Content Distribution (Media) at PERFORM said: “This integration ensures we take the best of GSM and combine it with Opta’s powerful brand and innovative data approach to provide customers with the total sports data solution that is suited to their individual requirements.”

Aidan Cooney, Opta’s Managing Director added: “This is an exciting evolution in Opta’s data offering. GSM provides a breadth of data that is unrivalled in the market, which combined with Opta’s detailed analysis, ensures we now provide the most comprehensive sports data solution on the market.”

The International University Sports Federation (FISU) have awarded the 2019 Winter and Summer Universiades to Krasnoyarsk, drugs Russia and Brasilia, Brazil.

Krasnoyarsk was the sole bidder for the Winter Universiade after Valais withdrew their bid in September. They intend to instead bid for the 2021 event.

As regards the Summer Universiade, there were initially three candidates: Brasilia, Budapest and Baku. But Baku withdrew their candidature in October and Budapest followed but intends to bid again for 2021 after the FINA World Championships.

“It is the most beautiful day in my life. I thank FISU for the confidence it has demonstrated by allowing us to organise the Universiade. We hope to see you in Krasnoyarsk. Welcome to Siberia!”,  Lev Kuznetsov, the Governor of the Krasnoyarsk region, exclaimed.

“Brazil has a long-standing tradition of university sport and I am convinced that Brasilia will organise an outstanding Universiade!” Aldo Rebelo, Sports Minister of Brazil, declared.

FISU President Claude-Louis Gallien said he was delighted with the selection of the host cities of the 2019 Winter and Summer Universiades: “Siberia represents the future of Europe. Moreover, this region is part of a country – Russia – that banks a lot on the association of sport and education. As for Brazil, it is back on stage after a long absence. Attributing the Games to Brasilia will allow us to implement a development policy for sport and education not only in Brazil, but also throughout South America.”

New HQ Announced

FISU also announced they will move to a new headquarters in 2016.

Their current offices are located in the Maison du Sport Internationale (MSI) in Lausanne and they will move to a new building that is to be built in 2016 on the campus of the University of Lausanne.

The FISU offices in the MSI have become too small to accommodate the growing number of FISU staff members. FISU will share the facilities of the new building with Cluster Sport International (CSI), the Académie des Sciences et Techniques du Sport (AISTS) and the Institut des Sciences et du Sport de l’Université de Lausanne (UNIL-ISSUL). The building will be located on the campus of the University of Lausanne in Dorigny, next to Lake Geneva.

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Rotterdam is set host a new professional squash tournament in the form of the Double AR Rotterdam Open Squash 2013 this autumn with the Italian stringing manufacturer, adiposity Double AR, drugs confirmed as primary sponsor.

The Dutch capital of sports hosted the combined World Championship for men and women in 2011 which Hans Zoethoutmaar, deputy director of Rotterdam Topsport, heralded as “one of the sporting highlights in our city over the past ten years” and has high expectations of the new event: “We truly hope that we can turn the Double AR Rotterdam Open into an annual event and look forward to seeing many familiar faces in action again on the show court of Victoria”.

The Double AR Rotterdam Open Squash 2013 is a registered PSA Challenger 15 championship and offers total winnings of $15,000. Among those competing, world top 10 players Dutch No 1, Laurens Jan Anjema, and the UK’s Adrian Grant are expected to participate.

Primary sponsor, Double AR, Executive Director, Brenno Zuccarello, said of the new sponsorship: “The sponsorship of the Double AR Rotterdam Open offers us the opportunity to increase our brand awareness in squash, but also provides our younger Double AR players with an opportunity to gain valuable world ranking points on the PSA World Tour. We were looking to sponsor a PSA event for quite some time and found the perfect partner in Rotterdam, given its central location in Europe and its tremendous track-record of hosting world class squash events”.

The Double AR Rotterdam Open Squash 2013 will take place from 27 August – 1 September at the Victoria squash club in the city of Rotterdam.

English Premier League club, store Stoke City have today announced that they are looking into expanding the Britannia Stadium with the addition of more seats in the south east corner. 

The Club are taking the opportunity to obtain planning permission to ‘fill-in’ the area between the Seddon Stand and the Marston’s Pedigree Stand, diagnosis which currently accommodates the giant video screen, medical to bring the capacity of the stadium up to the 30,000 mark. 

With the supporter base continuing to grow since promotion to the Premier League in 2008, the decision gives the Club flexibility to expand the stadium when the costs in the construction industry are comparatively low. 

Commenting on the decision, Chief Executive Tony Scholes said: “The decision to apply for planning permission to expand the Britannia Stadium comes after careful consideration for a number of years. 

“The atmosphere generated by our sell-out crowds since promotion to the Premier League has undoubtedly played a huge part in the Club’s continued success and we have to be mindful of the fact that any expansion could have an affect on that. 

“We have always said that we would be open to the possibility of expanding the stadium should we continue to remain in the Premier League and have the supporter base to fill it on a consistent basis. 

“Home support levels are continuing to hold up very well as we enjoy our fifth season in the League and this was highlighted no more so than at our last home game with Queens Park Rangers. 

“The attendance of 27,529 was our highest of the season so far and with the visitors only taking up the smaller allocation it shows that the continued interest of our fantastic support remains there.” 

In the coming weeks, the Club will work on the potential make-up and nature of a South-East corner and what section of supporters it would be aimed at. 

The number of Season Ticket holders has sky-rocketed since the Club’s return to the top flight with over 20,000 currently watching the Potters week-in, week-out and young supporters now making up a significant portion of that figure. 

“Stoke City are proud of a number of initiatives that are run throughout the local community to engage with current and potential new supporters,” added Scholes. 

“The Club have already seen an increase from 15% to 25% of fans aged 21 and under visiting the Britannia Stadium which is very encouraging.

“A possible expansion could, for example, enable us to look into housing supporters currently in the Family Stand who struggle to relocate to a group of seats together when they grow beyond the Family Stand age limits.” 

Singapore could become an international sports business hub if the right education and guidance is provided for young people, says sports marketing expert Patrick Nally.

Nally is credited as having redefined sports marketing and making the Olympics and FIFA World Cup into multi-billion-dollar events.

“There are two things happening here,” Nally said. “You have the big events where people come and go, and then you have people struggling to try and make things work at the local level.

“You have some agencies but they tend to be international ones, who benefit in being here from a tax point of view but run their own sports marketing for other parts of the world.”

“Young talent who see it as a career path must be developed because nobody I am aware of is recruiting people out of Singapore as none are being trained in that area here. And I’m talking about sports as a business, not sports management. I think this is an opportunity missed.”

“If Singapore was suddenly home to the 10 or 20 biggest sporting brands, it would be in a strong position to be a global Forbes 100 list,” Nally said.

“If you look at the amount of money that the country is investing in sport, my goodness just put a small proportion into education so that people understand the sports industry. It will actually reap substantial dividends,” he said.