Pakistan has been awarded hosting rights for 2015 Squash World Cup.

This development follows Pakistan successfully hosting the 17th Asian Squash Event. Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) had provided top class facilities and security to sportsmen and their representatives from 9 different countries in Asian championship, arthritis 2013. 

A press release said the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) has been able to show the world that Pakistan is a safe country and can play a leading role in the promotion of the game by arranging such international tournaments on regular basis.

Also AVM Razi Nawab’s election as ASF Vice President has also started paying dividends and the Asian Squash Federation has shown its confidence in the PSF by giving the 17th Asian Individual Squash Championship to Pakistan.

International advertising agency, M&C Saatchi has acquired a majority 60% stake in UK-based talent management agency Merlin Elite, in a deal worth an estimated £1.5m ($2.4m).

Launched in 2003, Merlin Elite represents a host of sports and entertainment stars including former English cricketer and professional boxer Andrew Flintoff, former English footballer Jamie Redknapp, former supermodel and actress Jodie Kidd and British Olympic athlete Denise Lewis.

Through the deal, Merlin Elite will become M&C Saatchi Merlin and sit within M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment. The agency’s founder Richard Thompson will remain as chairman and report into M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment global chief executive Steve Martin and M&C Saatchi UK head Lisa Thomas.

“With the quality of people I have met, to the level of creativity and professionalism, I have no doubt this merger of talents will help create a new breed of Management Company – the first of its kind anywhere in the world,” says Thompson.

Martin, added:“This is not about selling Merlin’s talent portfolio back to our existing clients. It is a pioneering business model and the combination of creativity with strategic personal management will really freshen up a part of the industry that has been doing the same thing for a long time.”

SNTV, allergy | the joint venture between IMG Media, capsule a division of IMG Worldwide, the sports, entertainment and fashion company,  and The Associated Press, announced it will open a new bureau in Rio de Janeiro.

The world’s leading television sports video news agency will locate its new bureau at AP’s office, as the city readies itself for the 2016 Summer Games, a major event in the country’s sporting history.

Ahead of hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Games in 2016, the city will also welcome the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, as well as the Soccerex Global Convention later this year and the Sportel Rio conference, the international sports program market for television and new media, in March 2013.

The Rio de Janeiro bureau will be the fourth permanent location SNTV has outside London.  Its other offices are located in New York, Beijing and Singapore.

Martin Kay, managing director of SNTV, said: “Rio de Janeiro will consistently provide the biggest news stories in sport in the run-up to the next Olympic Games so it is essential that we have a presence on the ground as the stories break. Opening the Rio bureau will make sure we continue providing the unrivalled sports news service that our customers expect.”

Founded in 1996, SNTV has become an indispensable service for more than 400 international broadcasters. In January, the company became the first and only sports news agency to operate in high definition.

Mark Rigby, London Wasps chairman has revealed the sale of the club will be concluded “imminently”.

The terms to sell the former Heineken Cup champions to a consortium headed by former Wasps player Ken Moss were agreed back in June. 

The deal was due to finalised at the end of July – however there were fears the takeover was close to collapsing as an official announcement was delayed.

However on the eve of the new Aviva Premiership season, Rigby has revealed the sale process is set to be completed.

“As we approach the first game of the season, it is an important time to assure all of our supporters and stakeholders of the on-going nature of the sale process behind the scenes” Rigby told the club’s official site.

“As communicated in recent months, terms were agreed on the sale earlier this summer but it is fair to say that there have been some complex financial issues to resolve since that time which has prolonged the process much longer than anyone involved would have liked; but such is the nature of this transaction.

“I am pleased to say that we are nearing the end of the process now and we anticipate that we will complete imminently and a further statement will be issued at that time.”

iSportconnect Directors’ Club have announced three new dates for its London, ambulance New York and Munich Directors’ Club events, erectile returning to London on 3^rd October and Munich on 17^th October. New York will also host the event for the first time on the 5^th November.

iSportconnect Directors’ Club London, in partnership with Generate Sponsorship and Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP, continues to secure high profile speakers with Roger Draper, Chief Executive of the Lawn Tennis Association, and Barry Hearn, Chairman of Matchroom Sport, the Professional Darts Corporation, World Snooker and Leyton Orient Football Club, already signed up to take part in the panel discussion.

“The iSportconnect Directors’ Club provides a high quality forum for a challenging and open debate amongst some of the leading people in British sport about the opportunities and issues facing our industry, as well as a great networking platform, and so I’m delighted to be part of the panel for this event,” said Roger Draper.

Founder and CEO of iSportconnect, Sree Varma, said, ‘Following the success of our inaugural London and Munich events, we are pleased to announce further dates as well as New York as a new venue. We’ve received an excellent response from the first events, attracting high profile speakers from across the industry.  Many guests said the Question Time-style discussion panel was a unique feature and something that the sports industry has lacked.  We’re also delighted Roger Draper and Barry Hearn are able to join us for our next London event and we’re looking forward to making further speaker announcements in the coming weeks.”

iSportconnect Directors’ Club is an exclusive event for sports industry leaders to share market insight and best practice and invites senior decision makers in the sponsorship industry to share high level insight and opinion on business trends and relevant industry news.

A specially invited audience of premium iSportconnect members will offer questions to speakers through a ‘Question Time’ style panel, followed by a networking opportunity in a relaxed environment.

Further panellists will be announced in the coming weeks.

Long-time Champions League sponsor, discount MasterCard, has made public their desire for the final of the competition to be earlier in order to maximise the viewership.

European soccer’s governing body UEFA says 150 million viewers globally tune in to the final, which this year started at 7:45 p.m. in the UK. It’s the most-watched annual sporting event, ahead of the National Football League’s Super Bowl.

Hany Fam, president of Purchase, New York-based MasterCard’s strategic partnerships division for Europe, said he’ll speak to UEFA about the possibility of an earlier kickoff to meet demand in Asia, a region where the competition is followed by millions.

“We are always working with each other to maximize the benefit and to maximize the impact of this program,” Fam said in a May 18 interview in Munich ahead of the publication of a sponsored study into fan behavior. “So really there’s very little that’s off the table in terms of how we engage and what we engage around.”

Asked if this could specifically mean an earlier start to European club soccer’s championship match, which two years ago moved from Wednesday to Saturday, Fam said, “Maybe.”

The Champions League attracts international companies such as Ford Motor Co. Japanese consumer electronics brand Sony Corp., Uni Credit SpA and Dutch brewer Heineken NV.

Sponsors seeking an earlier kickoff are likely to be disappointed, said David Taylor, chief executive of UEFA Events SA. Taylor took over the post after working as general secretary in 2009 when UEFA spun off its commercial arm because of the growth in the business.

“I don’t think we would be organizing European football specifically for an Asian audience,” Taylor said in an interview. “It’s European football first and foremost.”

Fam said die-hard supporters in Asia set their alarms for the middle of the night to watch the biggest European soccer games. Taylor said the Champions League final would have to be switched to a lunchtime start to maximize Asian viewership.

“That’s not our main objective,” Taylor said.

Regardless of when the final begins, MasterCard will keep renewing its relationship with UEFA, which currently runs through 2015, Fam said.

About 10 years ago, the credit card company lost its sponsorship of soccer’s World Cup following competition with Visa Inc. (V) that ended with world governing body FIFA paying millions of dollars to MasterCard. Fam said the Champions League is the best soccer property for MasterCard, which will also sponsor European Championship matches in Poland next month.

“This is a nine-month event, not two weeks or three weeks like other sporting events,” Fam said. “It’s a nine-month opportunity and that’s fantastic for any sponsor.”

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has announced the qualifying school route to membership will be cut off from next year and instead the Nationwide Tour will be the primary way of getting into the PGA Tour.

Finchem confirmed the cards made available annually to compete on the lucrative circuit will be awarded through the second-tier Nationwide Tour.

Currently 25 places are on offer through ‘Q-school’, with another 25 PGA Tour cards available through the Nationwide Tour. That will remain the case at the end of the current season, before the changes are implemented for 2013 going into the 2014 season.

The final three Nationwide Tour events in each season will feature a field of players featuring the top 75 players on the Nationwide Tour and those ranked 126th to 200th on the PGA Tour, as they battle it out for the valuable right to compete on the most lucrative North American tour.

Those who finish in the top 125 on the PGA Tour points list will continue to automatically have their memberships renewed.

The qualifying school will continue to function but only offering access to the Nationwide Tour.

Finchem hopes the move enhances the status of the Nationwide Tour, and confirmed talks are ongoing with potential title sponsors.

“We believe strongly this is a very exciting moment for the Nationwide Tour, and for the PGA Tour, as well,” Finchem said at a press conference in Orlando.

“Since 1990, we have studied year in and year out the comparative performance of players off the Nationwide Tour versus players off the qualifying school. And this is a reaffirmation that we have great confidence based on this many years of history what the Nationwide Tour does to prepare a player for the competitive challenges of the PGA Tour.

“Secondly, I think this process clearly makes the Nationwide Tour the primary path to the PGA Tour, and in doing so, it will tie the Nationwide Tour in the minds of fans, particularly, much more strongly, tie them much more strongly to the PGA Tour, to the PGA Tour brand and what the PGA Tour is all about.

“Thirdly, we think that the three final events create an exciting and dramatic finish to the season.”

The current season will be unaffected by the changes which Finchem believes will enhance both tours.

He said: “Anytime you make a change, human nature is to ask: Why are we changing? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

“There’s another way to look at things – that when things are going pretty well, that’s the time to get better. That’s the philosophy we’ve embraced.”

by Ismail Uddin

What’s your opinion on recent PGA Tour changes? Click here to comment

Williams Formula 1 began the stock flotation of their team yesterday, March 2, seeing their shares fall on the first day of trading on the Frankfurt bourse.

Williams Grand Prix Holdings ended the day 3.8 per cent lower at US$33.68, after starting at $34.99, but had been as low as $32.64 at one point.

A 24 per cent stake in Williams has been floated, raising about $83m for the team and co-founder Sir Frank Williams, who will remain majority shareholder and team principal, said the share listing would help Williams remain an independent company.

Williams stated “Our listing marks a new era in the history of the team.”

“Williams’ future as an independent constructor is sustained by this listing, providing us the base from which to further grow,” he added.

Williams chairman Adam Parr cautioned against reading too much into the early falls in the shares, stating to Reuters news agency: “Its not an easy moment to be born into the financial market.”

He added that early trading was not usually indicative of the general growth potential of the company.

The International Cricket Council has formed a three-member tribunal under the leadership of Michael Beloff QC that will look into the case against three suspended Pakistani cricketers allegedly involved in “spot fixing”.

“The International Cricket Council (ICC) can confirm that, during a telephone hearing earlier today, the Chair of the ICC’s Code of Conduct Commission, Mr Michael Beloff QC, formally appointed an independent Anti-Corruption Tribunal to determine the alleged breaches of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Code by three Pakistan players – Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif,” the ICC said in a statement.

Apart from Beloff the three-member tribunal will be made up of Justice Albie Sachs from South Africa and Sharad Rao from Kenya. The hearing is scheduled to take place from 6-11 January 2011 in Doha, Qatar.

“The three-person tribunal will be made up of Mr Beloff QC (as Chair), together with two other Code of Conduct Commissioners – Justice Albie Sachs from South Africa and Sharad Rao from Kenya – as per the appointment procedure described in the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Code. During the telephone hearing it was also agreed that the full hearing would be scheduled to take place from 6-11 January 2011 in Doha, Qatar,” the statement said.

According to AFP, the decision to shift the hearing to Doha was taken as Asif is barred from entering in United Arab Emirates after he was deported in 2008 on possession of banned drugs.

“The three players were charged under Article 2 of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code on 2 September 2010 and have been provisionally suspended since that date. Two players –Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir – had an appeal against that provisional suspension dismissed on 31 October 2010. All three players remain suspended from all cricketing activities,” the statement concluded.

Salman and Aamer had accused the ICC of delaying the verdict on the case last month but the ICC denied the accusation, saying they wanted an urgent solution to the case.

The scandal broke after a report by British tabloid The News of the World prompted Scotland Yard to launch an investigation into allegations of spot-fixing during the Lord’s Test against England in August.

Police raided the team’s hotel in London and questioned Salman, Aamer, Asif and bowler Wahab Riaz, but they have yet to level any charges. The International Cricket Council (ICC) suspended the trio and late last month rejected appeals from Salman and Aamer while the third Asif withdrew his appeal.