The new chief of the FIFA Ethics Committee has pledged to put the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar under scrutiny.

The awarding of the 2006 World Cup to Germany will also be thoroughly analyzed as part of the inquiries. The newly-appointed joint chief investigator of FIFA’s ethics committee Michael Garcia, medic made the comments on German television.

The American said his department will examine the relationship between FIFA and ISL, sale the marketing company which sold FIFA’s World Cup TV rights.

It has been revealed the now defunct ISL paid millions of dollars in bribes to former FIFA president Joao Havelange and ex-FIFA executive committee member Ricardo Teixeira.

“If you look at things, arthritis it is clear there is something to investigate and that is what we are going to do,” the 51-year-old Garcia told ARD.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s activity will also be investigated, Garcia said: “The more important the person involved is, the more important it is to examine them as well.”

Michael Garcia and Hans-Joachim Eckert of Germany were appointed joint chairmen of the Ethics Committee during FIFA’s extraordinary meeting in Zurich in July 2012. Russia and Qatar were selected as the host countries for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups on December 2, 2010, following the voting by the FIFA executive committee. This made Russia the first Eastern European country to host the World Cup, while Qatar would be the first Middle Eastern country to host the World Cup.

The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the Orange Bowl committee have announced a 12-year deal that runs through 2025 that will keep the ACC champion playing in the Orange Bowl, patient which is currently sponsored by Discover. 

Last year, order the ACC received $22.3 million as a result of Clemson’s participation in the Orange Bowl. That revenue is shared among the conference members and ACC Commissioner John Swofford has long saidthat arrangement will stay the same.

The Orange Bowl hasn’t yet struck a deal with another conference to provide an opponent for the ACC in the game, but an announcement on that front is expected in a few days. The Rose Bowl recently announced a broadcast deal with ESPN.

Last week, a committee of college presidents announced a four-team playoff for college football, with a rotation of six bowls taking turns hosting the semifinal games.

If the ACC champion is selected as a final four team in a year in which the Orange Bowl is not hosting a semifinal, another ACC team would play in that year’s Orange Bowl. Conversely, if the ACC champion is not chosen to the final four in a year in which the Orange Bowl hosts a semifinal game, that ACC championship team would participate in one of the other major bowl games.

The Atlantic Coast Conference also recently negotiated a $3.6 billion, 15-year contract extension with ESPN. The member universities will receive an average of $17 million per year in revenue from that deal.

The play-off system in the Rugby Football Union (RFU) Championship is set to be revamped from next season.

The Championship promotion and relegation pool stages have been abolished by the RFU. From next season the top four teams in the second tier will play a two-legged semi-final and a two-legged final.

There will be no relegation play-offs at all, with the bottom team automatically demoted to National One.The system is intended to streamline the league and reward the best teams throughout the regular season.

Since its inception in 2009, the Championship’s top eight clubs were split into two pool groups, while the bottom four clubs formed a separate relegation play-off.This format was adopted to increase revenue, as every club would end up playing an extra two home ties after the regular season had finished, and it is thought that these additional games will now be filtered into the British and Irish Cup fixtures.

The current system has received widespread criticism, especially from the best performing clubs, as their push for promotion was based on their performances after 22 rounds had concluded.

British athlete, James Ellington, is seeking a sponsorship deal via online auction site, eBay, as part of his race to compete in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Ellington, 26, from Lewisham in south-east London, will advertise on eBay, with a reserve of £30,000, for which he will wear a sponsor’s branded kit at training and press events in the run-up to and after next summer’s event.

He has turned to eBay to try to raise funds, without which he fears he risks being left behind his international competitors.

Four years of serious injury meant Ellington – a 100m, 200m and relay sprinter – slipped down the rankings, and has been passed over by the major sponsors who were looking for long-term tie-ups.

He has enjoyed his best season yet, running 200m in the fastest time by a British athlete this year at a non-altitude venue (20.52 seconds).

To train around the clock like his rivals, Ellington says he needs a £15,000 wage and a further £15,000 for expenses to cover travel and accommodation, nutritional support and kit.

Ellington said: “I’ve been passed over by potential sponsors in the past because of my injury, but that’s all behind me now. I’m peaking when it really matters, finishing my best-ever season and smashing my own personal bests just before the 2012 Games.

“All I need now is a commercial sponsor to get on board and I can commit myself full-time to getting into Team GB and hopefully win a medal for Great Britain at London 2012.”

The National Football League (NFL) has announced Frank Supovitz has stepped down as the NFL’s senior vice president of events to start his own event management and consulting business.

Supovitz, link who led the league’s events group for the past nine years, will depart in June. He will help run next month’s NFL Draft and the selection process for the site of Super Bowl LII.

“We will miss his leadership and expertise, which has been instrumental in raising the level of all of our events,” said Commissioner Roger Goodell. “From the Draft to Kickoff to the Super Bowl to all the other events he managed, Frank consistently delivered results that were – to use one of his favorite words – spectacular. We look forward to the opportunity to work with him again.”

“I have been honored to lead a team of dedicated professionals that work tirelessly behind the scenes to represent the NFL shield and stage its flagship events,” Supovitz said.  “I know that even more greatness is in store for America’s Game.”

A 35-year veteran of the event management business, Supovitz joined the NFL in 2005 after serving 13 years at the NHL as general manager of event marketing and group vice president of events and entertainment.

Supovitz began his professional career in events and marketing at Radio City Music Hall Productions in 1979. During his 10 years at Radio City, he managed numerous events, including serving as associate producer of the Super Bowl XXII Halftime Show in San Diego in 1988. From 1989 to 1992, Supovitz was vice president of marketing and coordinating producer of EVENTURES, a New York-based event production firm.

The Premier League of Darts have announced they will expand from eight to ten players for the new season.

The PDC have opted to change the format of the ever-growing competition with two extra places now being offered for the 15-night darting tour of the UK and Ireland.

16-time world champion Phil Taylor was already guaranteed a place along with the other top three in the world rankings – Adrian Lewis, James Wade and beaten World Championship finalist Michael van Gerwen.

Four other picks were expected, but that has now been increased to six with established Premier League stars Simon Whitlock and Raymond van Barneveld joined by Andy Hamilton after he made an impact in his debut season last year.

2011 champion Gary Anderson returns and he is joined by two new faces in the event with Wes Newton and Robert Thornton set to make their debuts in the 2013 Premier League.

“This new format for the McCoy’s Premier League Darts is going to take the tournament to a whole new level,” said PDC Chairman Barry Hearn.

“Fans across the UK and Ireland will experience five spectacular matches on each night, and all ten players have earned their spots with their achievements over the last 12 months.

“This new format will mean incredible competition both to avoid relegation and then for Play-Off places before the ninth McCoy’s Premier League champion is crowned at The O2 in May.”

The ten players will face each other once over the opening nine weeks of the tournament, over the best of 12 legs, before the bottom two players in the league table are relegated following the ninth league night in Brighton.

The remaining eight players will then face each other again over the remaining five league nights before the top four progress to the play-offs at The O2 in London on May 16.

The McCoy’s Premier League Darts will begin on Thursday February 7 at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast before travelling to Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Exeter, Nottingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow and Brighton for the first phase of the event.

The final five league nights will be held in Sheffield, Dublin, Birmingham, Liverpool and Newcastle before the top four players progress to the Play-Offs at The O2 in London on May 16.

Two Circles, treat specialists in enabling sports rights holders to drive commercial growth through customer centric marketing strategies, allergist has been tasked by the ECB to help develop a much better understanding of the needs of customers attending cricket matches.

The current economic climate, increased competition from different sports and other forms of entertainment, and most significantly from the option of staying at home and watching cricket on TV, have made it essential that the sport develops a greater understanding of its customers.  The proposition offered to the armchair fan in particular has improved significantly in recent years – new and improved technology, high definition and 3D television, super slow-mos, hawkeye and online interaction have significantly improved armchair experience providing an increased threat to attendances at matches.

Working in collaboration with the 18 First Class Counties & MCC, on behalf of the ECB, Two Circles designed and executed a major consumer insight programme. The programme ensured every cricket ticket buyer at every international and domestic Friends Life t20 fixture during 2012 was asked for feedback through an online survey, within 1 hour of play ending.

The survey was designed to gain a personal insight to what the cricket ticket buyer thought of their match day experience, and also to benchmark the cricket match day experience across all First Class Counties. Two Circles designed the experience to capture County specific feedback based on data known about the buyer.

Two Circles worked in partnership with Futures Sport & Entertainment to deliver a balanced scorecard of results from each game within 7 days. This was accessible to the First Class Counties to enable on-going timely monitoring and action on any issues raised by customers.

Tom Johnson, Event Brand Manager at the ECB commented: “It is vital that we generate as much information and insight about our paying spectators as possible. Improving match day experience is a goal shared by the ECB and the First Class Counties. Two Circles developed a complex project that delivered the information and the results that we needed.”

Gareth Balch, Director at Two Circles said: “We were delighted to extend our role with the ECB & the First Class Counties to include attitudinal insight.  Our approach was to put the ticket buyer at the heart of our thinking & create conversations between rights-holders & customers. Cricket has huge numbers of supporters and we wanted to know and understand how we can get more of these supporters to go to watch cricket live.”