The Perform Group has today announced a deal with Optus that will see the company represent the advertising media sales across Football Federation Australia’s (FFA) official network of online sites.

The deal which covers the official footballaustralia.com.au site alongside the network of Hyundai A League sites, cements the sports media organisation’s position as the largest and most influential platform to engage with digital football fans and joins current Perform properties Goal.com, the world’s largest football website and PremierLeague.com, the official site of the English Premier League.

Delivering the ultimate online football portal, Optus has injected exclusive news, sneak-peek videos, behind-the-scenes photos and a host of multimedia opportunities into the FFA’s websites for fans to get closer to their favourite teams and players. Fans are also able to carry their passion for the A-league and Socceroos with them through two new dedicated mobile apps developed by Optus.

Perform’s reach in digital football in Australia is now over 1m unique fans per month.

Perform is also one of the leading global providers of football video content to news publisher websites through its video player ePlayer and in Australia streams news content from a range of the world’s leading leagues and competitions including English, Italian and European club competitions, across news publisher websites.

A recent research project conducted by Kantar Media and Perform into sports media consumption found that football is now the fourth most popular sport in Australia with 25% of fans following the sport – cricket (33%) was the most popular, followed by AFL (29%), tennis (26%) and Rugby League (25%).

James Peel, Sales Director at Perform Australia & New Zealand commented: “This is a really exciting addition to our network. The official nature of the sites and the quality of content really complements the rest of our football products. We know football is becoming an increasingly more popular sport in Australia and are committed to providing brands with the best available digital sports content to reach and engage with connected male audiences.”

Perform owns and powers Sportal.com.au and also represents the Australian inventory on NBA.com, Eurosport.com and Cricbuzz.com and recently announced an exclusive deal to broadcast all NBL matches for 2012/13 season across PC, Tablet, mobile & IPTV. The addition of the FFA sites takes Perform’s overall reach in sport to over 2m unique fans per month.

Chelsea’s chief executive Ron Gourlay has claimed the club’s bid for Battersea Power Station does not mean they have given up on Stamford Bridge.

The Blues last week announced plans to transform the power station into a 60,000-capacity ground and have made a formal bid for the 39-acre site.

The move follows an unsuccessful attempt in October to convince the Chelsea Pitch Owners group to return the freehold of Stamford Bridge.

But Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay claims no decision had been taken to relocate and a redevelopment of Stamford Bridge remains a possibility.

“What we’ve all got to do is keep our feet on the ground as far as Battersea is concerned,” said Gourlay.

“When we met with the Chelsea Pitch Owners shareholders back in October, we indicated that we were doing everything in our power to stay at Stamford Bridge, to extend Stamford Bridge, and we’ve looked at potential opportunities of a new-build around the Stamford Bridge area.

“Not only does that cause us issues with economics, it also causes us major challenges around potential planning applications and all the rest.

“We do feel, as a club, that to stay among the elite, we’ve got to have a bigger stadium.

“And one of the things that we discussed with the shareholders was to look at opportunities within a three-mile perimeter of the current site at Stamford Bridge. One of them is Battersea.

“There’s a long way to go, there are other bidders in there, and we just need to see where it goes from there.

“But if we didn’t enter into that bidding process then we would have lost that as an opportunity if we need it one day down the line. We’ve got to be in a position to make the move quickly.

“But we’ve still not said no to Stamford Bridge and we’re still looking at other alternatives and are working very hard behind the scenes to achieve that.”

Ricardo Teixeira, who quit as head of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) and 2014 World Cup local organising committee, will remain on FIFA’s executive committee.

“At the time of writing, Ricardo Terra Teixeira remains a FIFA executive committee member,” FIFA said in a statement.

“FIFA has not received any official communication from Teixeira or from CONMEBOL (the South American Football Confederation) regarding this position.

“It is worth recalling that Ricardo Teixeira has been elected to the FIFA Executive Committee by CONMEBOL (for the first time in 1994).”

FIFA also confirmed that it recognised Jose Maria Marin as Teixeira’s successor both as president of the CBF and the local organising committee.

by Ismail Uddin

The Rugby Football League (RFL) has helped secure Odsal Stadium’s future after they agreed a deal to buy the property.

The former council tip has been the Bradford Bulls home since 1934 but the Bulls have recently been under pressure to sell to housing developers. They will now pay rent the premises from the RFL, with the League having paid an undisclosed price.

“This arrangement is absolutely the right thing to do, because it safeguards the future of one of the sport’s most famous stadia,” said the RFL chairman, Richard Lewis.

Bradford Bulls Chairman Peter Hood was delighted by RFL’s decision to save the historic stadium.

“The Bulls approached the RFL with the idea, which was subsequently explored and developed over several months, he told the Telegraph & Argus.

“It’s a deal that the RFL has done on its own merits and in the interests of the wider game.

“We have sold them our lease for a capital sum and then we have entered into a new agreement to rent the ground back from them.

“From our point of view, everything about this deal will benefit the club in terms of securing our future at Odsal and ensuring that we retain our spiritual home.

“There is not a downside to this deal as far as we are concerned.

“The opportunity to safeguard the Bulls’ future at Odsal is priceless – that sums up how important it is.”

Macesport have secured a lucrative deal as the NFL’s new retained UK public relations agency.

The specialist sports communications consultancy has won the tender to provide a full range of sports media and public relations support services to the NFL’s in-house UK team for the 2011-12 campaign.

Macesport will have specific responsibility to help promote the forthcoming International Series fixture featuring the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chicago Bears at Wembley on Sunday October 23.

As well as promoting the Super Bowl to a UK audience, Macesport will focus on maximising television and radio audience figures for NFL coverage cross their Sky Sports, BBC, Channel 4 and ESPN portfolio.

Macesport Managing Director Paul Mace said: “Winning a contract with one of the world’s greatest and most successful global sports leagues is a very proud moment for us. On a personal note, I have been hugely impressed by the NFL’s approach to marketing and public relations for many years.

“As a guest of the NFL over a decade ago, I was able to see their Super Bowl programme in operation at first hand and back in my early days running a communications department at Leicester City, I was eternally grateful for the support the NFL head office and clubs afforded me.”

NFL UK Director of Public Affairs David Tossell said: “Macesport have a good knowledge of the NFL and understand our requirements in the UK media arena. As we enter our fifth year of playing live regular-season games and continue to enjoy a broad and deep broadcast presence, we are looking to Macesport to help cement our place as an important part of the UK sports agenda.”

The NFL is the most-watched professional sport in the United States and has played four sold-out regular-season games at Wembley Stadium over the past four years. The fifth International Series game takes place on Sunday October 23 at 6pm. The NFL can be followed in the UK on Sky Sports, Channel 4, ESPN, BBC TV and BBC Radio 5Live and 5Live Sports Extra.

As Britain’s leading independent sports communications agency, Macesport handle sports PR for Vauxhall Motors’ football Home Nations sponsorship of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

They also act as the retained agency for leading football events Leaders in Football and the Grass Roots Football Show, Pukka Pies and sports brands including Precision Training, Mantis and ACA Sports.

The USA Triathlon Board of Directors have elected four of its members to officer seats at the organisation’s board meeting in Tempe, doctor Ariz., held in conjunction with the 2014 USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships.

After serving as the Vice President since May 2012, Barry Siff (Boulder, Colo.) was elected as Board of Directors President, replacing Bob Wendling, who had been in the role since 2011. Other elected officers are Vice President Mike Wien (Marietta, Ga., Southeast Region), Secretary Kevin Sullivan (Chelmsford, Mass., Northeast Region) and Treasurer Jack Weiss (Euless, Texas, South Midwest Region). All officers were elected to a two-year term.

“It is a thrill and an honor to be charged with continuing the positive direction of USA Triathlon as President,” Siff said. “On behalf of the organization, I’d like to thank Bob Wendling for his immense contributions and strong leadership over the past three years. USA Triathlon, which will host more ITU events this year than any other federation in the world, is as strong as ever and I look forward to working with all my colleagues on the Board of Directors, as well as CEO Rob Urbach and the National Office Staff, to build our commitment to every constituency we serve.”

“Our priorities are unchanged: growing the sport in a safe and professional way, reaching out to youth, expanding diversity, and excelling at the highest levels internationally,” Siff said. “Spending this past weekend among 1,250 collegiate triathletes in Tempe I again witnessed firsthand the unbridled enthusiasm for our sport, and it only furthered my commitment to spread that passion.”

The National Olympic Committee of Turkey and the 2013 Mersin local organising committee have reiterated the Mediterranean Games will be ‘unaffected’ by the violent protests across several major Turkish cities.

The demonstrations have spread to several major cities, including the capital Ankara, with under-fire Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warning that his patience was running out.

In a joint statement the NOC of Turkey and Mersin said: “The Mersin 2013 local organising committee and the National Olympic Committee of Turkey can confirm that the Mediterranean Games is unaffected by the largely peaceful protests that have taken place in the Adana-Mersin area, after an exhaustive review of the current situation with leading experts found that there is no elevated risk to the event participants.”

Mersin will host the international multi-sports event between June 20-30 and their is a worry about the safety of the Athletes in the region.

“The safety and security of athletes and participants at Mersin 2013 has been our top priority from the very beginning,” the statement continued. “Under the direction of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, we have worked hand-in-hand with all the necessary authorities and drawn on international best practice to create rigorous safety and security models to deal with all eventualities. Turkey has an excellent safety and security record when it comes to major sporting events over the last decade, and athletes, officials and fans can be confident of experiencing those same high standards.

On Sunday the newly built venues were opened by Prime Minister Erdoğan on schedule, after Mersin stepped in as hosts less than two years ago and successfully compressed a six-year delivery programme into just 18 months. 

Badminton is optimistic that the sport will be one of the 22 included in the 2020 Paralympic programme.

The sport’s governing body, the Badminton World Federation had unsuccessfully tried to gain inclusion for Rio 2016, with the International Paralympic Committee(IPC) choosing to include canoe and triathlon instead.

If the BWF are to have any success, they would need to present their sport against stiff competition, such as powerchair football, golf and taekwando.

A statement released by the BWF reads: “It’s clear that Badminton must be a part of future Paralympic celebrations of sport.

“Para-Badminton would be a positive addition to the sports programme for the 2020 edition of the Paralympic Games.

“In its 2009/2010 bid for inclusion in Rio 2016, the BWF learned that it needed to do more for Para-Badminton and to position the sport well for inclusion.”

Upon hearing the recommendations made by the IPC, the BWF have taken the sport under their wing and integrated it into their management structure, as well as providing additional funding for disability sports, altering the games’ rules and implementing new regulations concerning classification.

Speaking to the exclusively to iSportconnect, Thomas Lund, BWF General Secretary and Chief Operation Officer, said: “Para-Badminton is very much a part of the ‘BWF Family’ and we are confident that we are on the right path towards inclusion in the 2020 Paralympic Games.

“We can point to a number of key achievements since 2010 that demonstrate our commitment – for example, formally integrating para-badminton into our governance and management structure; including para-badminton as a core activity area in our Strategic Plan 2012–2016; implementing a new classification system and becoming an IPC-Recognised International Organisation.

“Most importantly, we are developing the systems to support the main actors in our sport – the players. We saw inspiring performances and stories in London at the Paralympic Games and these stories and amazing performances are in our sport too.

“We want people all over the world to be inspired by our Para-Badminton athletes and we hope to see this in 2020.”

 

The Olympic bidding process to decide who takes over the London 2012 stadium after the Olympic Games has been extended by eight weeks to address “a number of issues”, seek the London Legacy Development Corporation said on Monday.

West Ham United, medicine who are one game away from a return to the Premier League, medstore were one of only four confirmed bidders for the 500 million pounds ($804.85 million) venue by the original deadline in March.

However, the London Legacy Development Corporation said in a statement they were extending the process to allow all parties who registered to receive the Invitation to Tender (ITT) additional time to submit bids.

It said some had been discouraged because of governing body approvals, naming rights issues and technical improvements.

“We are determined to run a process that is fair to all and delivers the best possible legacy for the Olympic Stadium,” chief executive Andrew Altman said.

“We have been very encouraged by the quality of the bids so far. However, a number of issues have arisen during the process and we believe it is sensible to give everyone more time so they can be addressed.”

What happens to the stadium after the Games has become a long-running saga with some fearing the 80,000-seater venue, which will be scaled down, could become a white elephant.

Initial plans to sell the stadium to West Ham after the Games fell apart last October with the government citing “legal paralysis” after a challenge from Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur whose initial bid was turned down.

Whatever happens, an athletics track will remain in place as the 2017 world championships will be staged in the stadium that will now remain in public ownership.

Despite the eight-week extension, it is still hoped the future of the stadium will be decided by October.

“Extending the competition period will allow all parties that registered an initial interest in the stadium another chance to bid,” Altman added.

“The fundamentals have not changed and it remains our intention to sign construction contracts for converting the stadium at the end of October, with the intention of re-opening in 2014 as previously announced.”