Sportradar, one of the world’s leading supplier of sports related data, has announced its new partnership with The Football Conference.

Sportradar has signed a three-year deal with The Football Conference to become “Official Sports Data Partner of The Skrill Premier, North and South”.

The supply of Official Data will further support integrity measures by creating a framework for more extensive information exchange and cooperation with the legal gambling industry.

Brian Lee, Chairman of the Football Conference said: “We believe that Sportradar will be an excellent partner for The Football Conference and we look forward to working with them. As an established market leader in the field of sports data services they will become a very welcome addition to our portfolio of official partners. More information on match day impact will be supplied to our members shortly but an important element to recognise is a financial benefit from this arrangement, which will go into central funding to our clubs.”

Carsten Koerl, group chief executive officer, Sportradar, said: “We are very pleased to begin this cooperation with The Football Conference. Our market leading betting and sports data services will engage fans in new ways across all platforms.”

The International Handball Federation (IHF) has announced eight applicants reached the next stage of the bidding process to host the Men’s and Women’s World Championship in 2019.

After an overall of 13 National Federation had subscribed their letter of interest for championships only eight, including Norway bidding for both events, moved to the next round of the process and will present their ideas to the IHF.

The countries bidding for the men’s event are: Denmark, Germany, Norway, Poland, Slovakia/Hungary and Sweden while Japan and Norway will fight for to host the women’s edition.

The remaining National Federations either withdrew from the bidding phase or did not meet the indicated deadline set by the IHF. 

The International Handball Federation will hear the concepts of the bidding countries on 11 October at the IHF Head Office in Basle, Switzerland.

University of Central Arkansas’ athletic department has signed a deal with a sports management company Peak Sports MGMT worth $3.3 million.

The deal will see Peak Sports sell corporate sponsorships and work to give UCA sports a greater presence in the region.

UCA says the deal is for five years with three one-year renewal options.

The pact includes a provision for revenue sharing once certain thresholds are met, and UCA says that will mean revenues will be greater than the $3.3 million guarantee over the life of the contract.

UCA says Peak Sports is to build an enhanced radio or television network to further promote UCA sports in the Conway-Little Rock area.

Peak Sports has moved from the Dallas area to Conway.

World Soccer’s governing body, FIFA, have extended Mohamed Bin Hammam ban according to the qatari’s lawyers.

Bin Hammam has been suspended for a further 45 days by the game’s governing body, despite having his lifetime ban overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in July.

FIFA responded to that ruling by immediately suspending Bin Hammam for 90 days after it announced a fresh investigation into his conduct by their ethics investigator Michael J Garcia.

The 63-year-old former president of the Asian Football Confederation has reacted angrily to the fresh ban, issuing a statement through his lawyer Eugene Gulland.

It read: “It is astounding that FIFA is able to keep extending its ban on the football activities of Mr Bin Hammam, as it sees fit. FIFA’s latest extension order fails to give any reasons to justify its action.

“The basic tenet of law is that a person is innocent until proven guilty after a trial conducted according to due process. The situation that Mr Bin Hammam is facing is even more bizarre – a man who has prevailed in a trial by an independent legal body continues to be punished in an arbitrary manner.

“The judgment of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) found not only that FIFA failed to establish adequate evidence that Mr Bin Hammam was the source of the funds, but FIFA had also failed to establish any intent to influence votes. In short, FIFA failed to establish both evidence and motive.

“Yet here we are some four months later with FIFA continuing to extend its ban while it, in conjunction with the Asian Football Confederation, conjures up further jumped-up charges.”

Gulland claimed the reasons for FIFA’s actions were political because Bin Hammam stood against Sepp Blatter in last year’s presidential election.

Global design and consulting firm, Woods Bagot, have announced that the architect behind the Staples Centre and Paul Brown Stadium will lead the firm’s new global group, Woods Bagot Sport.

Dan Meis, the award-winning sports and entertainment architect who is also known for his work at Safeco Field in Seattle and Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, will become the new Global Director of the new group.

Meis’s new role will be to expand his Los Angeles-based team to include design and technical experts in New York, London and Sydney.

The new group will continue Meis’s current projects including the new NFL Stadium at Grand Crossing in Los Angeles and a 50,000 seat, multi-use venue for the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

Meis is also leading conceptual design efforts for a new stadium for Serie A club AS Roma and Sports City Stadium in Doha, Qatar, for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Ross Donaldson, Woods Bagot’s Global Managing Director, said: “The formidable economics of sports development is spurring new models for state-of-the-art, year-round destinations and innovative approaches to their development, design and delivery.

“With Dan’s deep expertise in the sports sector and Woods Bagot’s diverse capabilities—from planning mixed-use urban districts, to advanced technical design, to supporting public-private partnerships—our Global Studio now offers the breadth of knowledge this new era requires.”

The architect, who was previously a co-founding partner of NBBJ Sports and Entertainment, said: “One challenge of being an expert in anything is recognizing when to think outside the box of the proven approaches.

“And this unprecedented sea change in the sports-entertainment experience driven by advancing display and mobile technologies, social media and 24/7 sports networks, calls for fresh thinking.

“We’ve tuned Woods Bagot Sport to deliver highly creative and innovative solutions that recognize the opportunity this evolving building type represents and help owners to develop new revenues.”

About Woods Bagot

Woods Bagot is a leading global design and consulting firm, with a team of over 800 people working across Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. The firm’s unique ‘Global Studio’ philosophy drives unprecedented knowledge sharing and true collaboration across time zones, producing innovative, inspired and functional design solutions for clients. Underpinning Woods Bagot’s knowledge culture is Public, their research arm, created in collaboration with leading thinkers and academics.

With a 140-year legacy of design excellence, Woods Bagot has been recognised with nearly 50 global awards over the past two years, including WAN 2012 winner for St Vincent’s Private Hospital Young Adults Mental Health Unit (Healthcare Centre); Asia Pacific Property Award 2012 for Shijiazhuang International Exhibition & Convention Centre (Best Public Service Architecture, China); AJ 100’s International Practice of 2009 and the Asian Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) award in 2011.

The firm’s diverse portfolio of high-profile projects includes: China Southern Airport City (Guangzhou), South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), National Australia Bank (Melbourne), 100 Bishopsgate (London), Qatar’s Science and Technology Park (QSTP), Melbourne’s Convention and Exhibition Centre (in joint venture with NHArchitecture), Ivy, Sydney (in collaboration with Merivale, Cornwell Design, Hecker Phelan and Guthrie), the Nakheel Tall Tower (Dubai) and Sunshine Insurance Tower (Beijing) and Shijiazhung Convention Center in China

London Welsh will be playing in the Aviva Premiership next year after winning their promotion appeal resigning Newcastle Falcons to relegation.

The Falcons finished bottom of the table last season, and should have dropped to the Championship automatically. However, London Welsh were denied promotion to Rugby Union’s top flight after the club failed to meet the criteria set by the Rugby Football Union.

London Welsh appealed against the decision and have now won, sealing the Falcons’ fate.

According to the Telegraph the Welsh won their appeal based on the idea they would use alternative venues to their Kassam Stadium if that didn’t meet the minimum standards criteria. 

Welsh back-up venues to the Kassam were Brentford, MK Dons and Newbury.

The Kassam Stadium initially didn’t meet the criteria due to Welsh not having a primacy of tenure.

But the fact that clubs like London Irish, Saracens, Sale and Wasps did not enjoy primacy of tenure last season appears to have been an influencing factor in the panel’s decision.

Soft drink company Coca-Cola has suggested its sponsorship of the European Championships and London Olympic Games has helped push the brand forward as it reveals a 1% sales revenue increase for 2011.

The brand has revealed that in 2011, abortion the company made €6, therapy 854 million ($8,976m), an increase of 1% of 2010, with a decline in net profit of 27%, falling from €453m ($593m) to €330m ($432m).

There was mixed growth experienced across its differing categories, with Sparkling beverages and energy drinks volume increasing by 2% and 29% respectively, last year, while water and juice categories declined by 7% and 8%, respectively.

Premium brands grew ahead of total volume however, with Coca-Cola growing by 5%, Coca-Cola Zero growing by 7% and Fanta and Sprite each experiencing 1% growth.

The rising cost of materials however was blamed for the 21% decline in comparable pre-tax earnings.

Dimitris Lois, Chief Executive Officer of Coca-Cola Hellenic, commented: “We grew revenue ahead of volume both in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2011. Despite extremely challenging economic conditions in most of our markets, net sales revenue per case grew by 4% on a currency neutral basis in the full year. This result was achieved whilst growing or maintaining our volume share in sparkling beverages in twenty five out of twenty eight markets in 2011.

“We expect the economic environment and consumer sentiment to remain weak in 2012. We also anticipate another year of significant input cost pressures. In this environment, we will continue to optimise our operations to reduce our ongoing costs. We remain committed to our revenue growth strategy, and we expect to further improve currency neutral net sales revenue per case while we continue building sustainable leadership in the marketplace.

“We will sustain a strong free cash flow generation trend in 2012 through our focus on working capital management and set a competitive cost base through our operating efficiency initiatives.”

Coca-Cola also highlighted both the Euro 2012 and the Olympic Sponsorships as its aimed to ‘stay relevant’ to customers and partner with customers to drive cost leadership and grow the company’s market position.

by Ismail Uddin

Marian Rae, a prominent figure in English women’s golf has accepted the nomination to become President Elect of England Golf for 2015 with a view to becoming President in 2016.

“I’m honoured to be invited to take on this prestigious role and equally I am humbled by the list of my predecessors, both men and women,” said Marian, who chaired the championship committee of the former English Women’s Golf Association (EWGA) and continued in the role after the merger which formed England Golf. 

She has also been the High Sheriff of South Yorkshire, holding the office in the year of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, and is a Deputy Lieutenant for South Yorkshire. “There is a great contrast between golf and civic life and they have both put each other in perspective.” she said.

Marian points out that there is much to look forward to in her year of Presidency which will include the 90th birthday of the Queen, who is patron of England Golf; the Curtis Cup will be played in Ireland; golf will return to the Olympics at Rio 2016; and it will be the 125th anniversary of her club, Lindrick, in Yorkshire.