English Rugby League club Bradford Bulls have entered into administration and are faced with the threat of “extinction” if a buyer does not come forward in the next ten days.

It is understood that the club currently owes around £600, generic 000 with £196, drugs 00 in PAYE tax for May and June, troche  as well as an outstanding VAT bill of £250,000 and the club’s monthly wage bill is believed to equate to around £200,000.

Of the situation joint-administrator Brendan Guilfoyle said: “We have just 10 working days to save the club from liquidation because there are no funds to carry on longer.

“If anyone is interested in buying the Bulls we need to hear from them, this club is on the brink of extinction.

“The directors made every effort to try to save the club within the 14-day timescale issued by the courts, but the moratorium ended on Monday without any potential buyer coming forward.”

The club shocked the rugby league community when they announced in March they needed to raise £1 million or face going afloat due to an impending tax bill and a changed banking lending arrangement leaving them in dire need of money. Supporters across the rugby league world rallied to help the club raise an initial sum of £500,000.

After unsuccessful attempts to raise further money, chairmen Peter Hood stepped down after disagreements with majority shareholder, Chris Caisley.  At the start of June director, Stephen Coulby admitted the club faced going into administration.

The news will come as a forceful shock to the sport, with the Bulls being one of the game’s leading clubs and brands. They were one of the leading lights at the start of the modern era, winning four of the first ten Super League championships and were renowned as one of the pioneers in off-field marketing.

Considering that they are the third Super League club to enter administration in three seasons, following Wakefield Trinity Wildcats last year and the now-liquidated Crusaders in 2010, serious questions of the game’s financial health need to be asked.

Bradford, who currently sit in 9th on the Super League table, still in contention for a play-off appearance, now face a points-deduction from the Rugby Football League. 

Twitter and global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget announced today the companies are partnering to host some of the world’s top brands for Super Bowl weekend at ExactTarget’s Global headquarters in downtown Indianapolis.

Building on a more than three-year relationship between the companies, allergist leaders from ExactTarget and Twitter will host executives from top consumer and technology brands, providing a central hub for socially savvy marketing leaders to connect in downtown Indianapolis.

“Twitter has been a catalyst for change, fueling brands’ ability to connect with consumers in real time online,” said Scott Dorsey, ExactTarget co-founder and chief executive officer. “Through our Social Media Lab in San Francisco and the continued evolution of our social media management solution SocialEngage, we’ve developed a deep relationship with Twitter and look forward to becoming Twitter’s Indianapolis headquarters for Super Bowl 46.”

Together, Twitter and ExactTarget plan to host more than 200 in Indianapolis over Super Bowl weekend.

The news of the partnership comes as Super Bowl-related tweets surged over the past 24 hours, topping more than 529,000 from 3 p.m. Wednesday to 3 p.m. Thursday – an increase of more than 65 percent over the previous 24-hour period.

Yamaha World Superbike team boss Massimo Meregalli will become director of their MotoGP team next season.

This season the team had two managers because of the garage being divided between former champion Valentino Rossi and new champion Jorge Lorenzo.

Seven-time champion Rossi will leave to join Ducati at the end of the season, taking with him the man who ran his part of the garage, Davide Brivio.

The final race of the season takes place in Valencia this Sunday.

Meregalli will start his new job after Sunday’s race, with the first testing session for 2011 taking place in Valencia on Tuesday.

He will work with team manager Wilco Zeelenberg.

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) has selected Logi Analytics as their Official Analytic Software Partner.

The LPGA first partnered with Logi Analytics earlier this year, providing business intelligence and analytics technology to power its all new “Online Media Center.” The Online Media Center powered by Logi Analytics will empower global media covering the LPGA Tour with analytical capabilities and tools to report on player statistics, tournament information, all-time LPGA records and additional LPGA information.

“Simply put, our job is to help the media tell our story,” said Kraig Kann, LPGA Chief Communications Officer. “There’s nothing more important than having the tools to do it and this is a big step forward for the LPGA. Logi Analytics has been a terrific partner in building something we’re all proud of and together, we’ll keep working to provide media members with an Online Media Center that serves their needs.”

The long-term partnership with Logi Analytics will ensure the Online Media Center continues to evolve with enhancements set to be added over the coming year including tournament-specific stats and the addition of other historically based information.

“After an extensive evaluation of Business Intelligence vendors, Logi Analytics was the clear choice to power the Online Media Center,” said Jack Sumner, Chief Information Officer for the LPGA.  “The key differentiators were the ease and speed of development and the ability to embed the reports inside of the SharePoint.”

“There’s no better way to promote a sport than to empower reporters with a tool that can help them write compelling, data-driven stories about the athletes they follow,” said Brett Jackson, president and CEO of Logi Analytics. ”The LPGA is taking the lead in bringing analytics to professional women’s golf, starting with its ‘Online Media Center.’ Logi Analytics provides an extremely easy-to-use tool that any reporter – with no expertise in data or technology – can use to uncover new insights, using both real-time and historical data. By partnering to support the LPGA media center, we can help evolve the game with analytics and drive interest among a much greater audience of sports enthusiasts.”

The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) announced today that it has accepted a bid from Traffic Sports for the commercial partnership rights to the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup and the 2013/14 and 2014/15 CONCACAF Champions League tournaments.

The multi-year agreement was reached after due process from the CONCACAF Evaluation Committee assigned to this bid, comprised of Mr. Pedro Chaluja, Panamanian Football Federation President, Mr. Dan Flynn, General Secretary of the United States Soccer Federation and Mr. Canover Watson, Treasurer of the Cayman Islands Football Association, who evaluated all  bids submitted.

“The strategic alliance with Traffic is the result of a long assessment process that showcases the vast and growing interest in the market for our Confederation properties and tournaments,” said CONCACAF President, Jeffrey Webb. “The number and quality of interested parties are also a true testament to all of our Member Associations’ efforts to elevate the game in our region.”

The agreement includes commercial partnership rights for the 2013 Gold Cup, CONCACAF’s biennial championship for national teams that continues to grow in popularity with fans worldwide, and also for the 2013/14 and 2014/15 editions of the CONCACAF Champions League, the regional club team competition.

Under terms of the deal, Traffic Sports acquires the right to package and market these CONCACAF properties globally with assets that include field of play branding, use of tournament marks, and hospitality, among others.

“We are honored to have been selected by CONCACAF to represent these prestigious competitions,” said Aaron Davidson, President of Traffic Sports USA. “Our company has been investing in soccer in the Americas for 32 years including being the commercial agency for CONCACAF from 1991 – 2003 and holding media and sponsorship rights to the majority of the CONCACAF Member Associations until today.  These are exciting times for football in the CONCACAF region and we look forward to globalizing Gold Cup and Champions League as we have done with Copa America, Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana over the years.”

Former FIFA presidential candidate and executive committee member Mohamed Bin Hammam has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over his provisional ban from football, bronchi the latest episode in a long-running saga.

Bin Hammam, impotent who challenged Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency last year, was provisionally suspended by the sport’s world governing body on July 26, only one week after CAS had overturned his life ban from football.

Bin Hamman’s lawyer Eugene Gulland said in a statement to Reuters that the former Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president had filed an appeal with CAS “challenging the provisional suspension ordered by FIFA.”

In overturning Bin Hammam’s life ban in July, CAS said FIFA had provided insufficient evidence over allegations that he tried to bribe Caribbean officials in the run-up to last year’s election.

However, it said the decision was not “an affirmative finding of innocence” for Bin Hammam, and that the case could be re-opened with new evidence.

One week later, FIFA said Bin Hammam would be banned for 90 days while its ethics committee collected further evidence.

Bin Hammam was accused of trying to buy the votes of Caribbean officials by handing them $40,000 each in brown envelopes at a meeting in Port of Spain one month before the FIFA election.

He withdrew his candidacy for the FIFA elections and was subsequently suspended pending an investigation.

Blatter was re-elected unopposed for a fourth term as FIFA president, while Bin Hammam was found guilty of breaking seven articles of FIFA’s ethics code, including one on bribery.

Proceedings against former CONCACAF president Jack Warner, also present at the meeting in Trinidad & Tobago, were dropped after he resigned his post.

The NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins have employed Los Angeles-based AEG Facilities to manage the Consol Energy Center.

AEG has a five-year deal to replace SMG effective Sept. 1. SMG had managed the Consol Energy Center since it opened two years ago and the Civic Arena, the team’s former arena, for nearly 20 years before that.

AEG runs the Staples Center in Los Angeles and more than 100 major arenas around the world, including O2 Arena in London, O2 World in Berlin and MasterCard Center in Beijing.

The trade publication, Venues Today, last month ranked Consol Energy Center 10th in the world in arena revenues.

Arena workers including ticket takers and ushers will retain their jobs, though AEG Facilities will decide whether to keep the SMG’s senior management team at the arena.

After years of planning and failed proposals, vcialis 40mg London Irish have sealed consent for a new training complex that will be “on par with anyone in Europe.”

Two earlier proposals had been rejected, but planning permission was granted by Spelthorne Borough Council, allowing the club to develop the Hazelwood Golf Course and the Avenue sites in Sunbury, Surrey.

Speaking exclusively to iSportconnect, London Irish Chief Executive, Andy Martin said: “We managed to get planning consent for a fairly major proposal that gives London Irish a new training complex which will be on par with anyone in Europe.

“It’s quite a ground breaking and game changing deal for London Irish.

“It secures the future of the club and it enables us now to build something that we’ll be proud of that will bring in both amateur and professional players in the future.”

Martin also told iSportconnect that plans to develop the centre of excellence were one of the ambitions of the club that originally attracted him to his current job.

206 new homes will be built on the site, and one condition of the planning consent is that the local community can use the facilites.

The club plan to have the centre up and running in good time for the 2015 rugby season.

Keep an eye on the Featured Profiles section of iSportconnect for the full interview with Andy Martin.