Chief executive of the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) Gordon McKie has left his position, despite winning a confidence vote from the present board after an emergency meeting at Murrayfield last week.

The meeting was arranged after media speculation suggested that McKie would be leaving after six years in the job, however, the SRU has now confirmed in a statement that he is exiting Scottish rugby’s governing body “with immediate effect”.

The statement failed to state as to whether McKie resigned or had been forced to quit after the accountant reduced the SRU’s overdraft from £20m (US$32.6m) to about £15m ($24.4m) since taking charge.

McKie stated: “I will look back on my time at Murrayfield with a real sense of pride as much has been achieved since the dark days of 2005.

“I very much appreciated the board’s recent unanimous vote of confidence in the executive management team and I take this opportunity to thank them for their continued support.

“However, from a personal perspective, I instigated discussions last weekend after considering matters with my family, as the time is right for me to leave Scottish Rugby and move on to fresh challenges.”

World Sport Group agency (WSG) has agreed a five-year partnership with the Australian PGA for the Australian PGA Championship, Australia’s oldest professional golf tournament.

The agreement will see WSG responsible for the delivery of sponsorship and television coverage,as well as professional management and organisation for the season-ending championship on both the PGA Tour of Australasia and the OneAisa Tour.

Chief Executive Officer of the PGA of Australia, Max Garske, said: “The Australian PGA Championship is the oldest professional event on the PGA Tour of Australasia schedule, and our engagement with World Sport Group will ensure the future prosperity of this event for at least the next five years.”

The President of ASEAN & Australia for WSG, Mark Hardess, added: “We are delighted to have forged this long-term partnership relating to the Australian PGA Championship, one of Australia’s premier golf events and a highlight on OneAsia’s calendar. Together with the PGA of Australia, we are committed to continue growing the stature of this prestigious tournament, and delivering a world-class event for sponsors and fans.”

 

Kang Un-tae, the mayor of Gwangju, has apologized for the forgery scandal that blemished the South Korean city’s successful bid to host the 2019 swimming world championships and has promised to meet with leading government officials to resolve the issue.

The high ranking official has been accused of forging the signatures of former prime minister Kim Hwang-sik and former culture minister Choe Kwang-shik on a bid document that guaranteed public funding for the event.

Despite the allegations, world governing body FINA awarded Gwangju hosting rights for the 2019 event on Friday.

“I deeply apologize for a shameful thing,” Kang told reporters on Monday. “Discovered by the Prime Minister’s Office on April 29, I was informed by South Korea’s bid committee secretary general as he briefed me on the matter.

“In the process of submitting a bid document to FINA by April 2, a mistake by an official led to the signatures on the government guarantee and contents to be altered.”

Kang said he had apologized to the government, who were aware of the issue and subsequently promised to finance the organizing budget during a meeting with FINA in May.

“I will successfully carry out the first ever (swimming) event hosted in Korea after I iron out conflict and mistrust with the government,” Kang added.

“I will ask for cooperation through a meeting with the prime minister and the (culture) minister.”

The Turner Broadcasting System has bought the Bleacher Report website as it looks to enhance it’s digital offerings.

Bleacher Report, widely known as B/R, is an American digital sports media network serving a global audience of readers and several hundred niche communities of fans.

Turner, who owns TNT and TBS which includes NBA, NCAA, MLB and PGA Tour events, has added the site that claims over 10 million monthly unique visitors.

“Bleacher Report is a strategic acquisition that further enhances Turner’s portfolio of sports offerings, as well as reflects our continuing commitment to bring fans greater content across all screens throughout the entire year,” said Turner president David Levy.

The World Squash Federation has confirmed that the 2013 WSF World Junior Squash Championships have been awarded to the Polish city of Wroclaw.

The decision follows an inspection of the proposed venue and hotel options by WSF Chief Executive Andrew Shelley.

The events will feature the World Individual Under-19 titles for both men and women (16-21 July), ampoule followed by the Women’s World Junior Team Championship (22-27 July).

Deputy Mayor Michal Janicki commented: “We can truly say that you will have a great welcome in Wroclaw and we look forward to meeting the world of squash in our city next year.

“Squash is becoming very popular and, cough as far as I know, therapy the biggest facilities in any sport being built in the city are from squash,” he added.

The announcement – coming on the eve of the 2012 edition taking place in Doha, Qatar – sees the 2013 event being played at the Hasta La Vista Club, a new Wroclaw facility which is due to fully open next month.

Squash is already being played on its impressive twelve courts, which include a three-glass-wall ‘centre court’.

Owner Zenon Waniak explained that it was his love of squash that encouraged him to invest in the sport by building the centre. “It was a huge fondness for squash on one side and on the other side its very dynamic development in my country,” said Waniak.

Shelley underlined the expansion of the sport as he told the Deputy Mayor: “Poland is a great success story and is poised to become a European market leader in the sport in the coming years. To have the opportunity to bring a WSF World Championship to Wroclaw is only going to be the first of many, I am sure.

“The superlative facilities at Hasta La Vista, coupled with the plans to showcase squash by holding the finals on an all-glass show court in the city centre, make for something to really look forward to in a year’s time.”

The opportunity for Poland to host a world championship also delighted Polish Squash Federation President Tomasz Banasiak, who added: “We were privileged to host the European Individual Championships in 2011, and we are excited to take the step up to a world title next year as part of our strategic plan to grow squash as a perfect sporting activity in our country.”

These championships follow on from the city hosting matches in the European Football Championships and an announcement that Wroclaw will be the chosen host for the World Games 2017.

London’s Olympic Stadium field is not up to Premier League standards and will have to be ripped up after the games using public funds to enable a soccer team to use the venue.

The £486 million ($767 million) stadium has been built without the under-soil heating required in England to stage top soccer matches.

West Ham would have paid up to £2 million ($3.16 million) to install a new field with underground heating, clinic but its long-term tenancy agreement was ripped up last year due to legal challenges.

Instead, medic the Olympic Park Legacy Company told The Associated Press it will have to pay for the post-games transformation of the stadium, which West Ham could just rent.

“The Olympic Stadium is a white elephant and they now have to spend money to stop it being a white elephant,” London Assembly member Andrew Boff told the AP on Tuesday.

Renting the stadium to a soccer club is vital to ensuring the stadium’s long-term viability despite it originally being designed primarily for athletics.

“The problem is here is the stadium was never designed for football,” said Boff, who sits on a committee that scrutinizes the Olympic project. “We’ve seen the results of really bad planning, really shockingly, awful decisions made during the planning stage before the OPLC was around. They have been handled a real mess to sort out.”

About £35 million ($55 million) has already earmarked under the Olympic budget to downsize the stadium from an 80,000 to a 60,000-seat facility after the games.

One certainty is that the running track will remain in the stadium regardless of the outcome, with London awarded the 2017 world athletics championships.

“I would not think a Premier League team would want anything other than a stadium designed for football,” Boff said. “A Premier League team cannot survive in the Olympics Stadium as it is.”

Sixteen companies have expressed an interest in bidding for the use of the stadium after the Olympics, including West Ham, and have until March 23 to submit formal bids. The winning bidders will be announced in May, but the stadium won’t be ready until 2014.

by Ismail Uddin

Ex FIFA vice-president Lennart Johansson has called for Sepp Blatter to quit the FIFA presidency. Johansson made his feelings known in discussion with the BBC World Service.

“It cannot be that only one man should be dictating and taking all the decisions about world football”.

“There is not much more to do than to get rid of the man in question.”

Blatter has stayed in power over four terms since defeating Johansson in the presidential election of 1998.The Swede believes his opinion is one held by the majority of world soccer.

“Some will respect him but the majority will say he’s not good. It is not very easy to admire or respect him”.

Johansson insisted his feelings were not personal and rooted in his desire to improve the game.

“I don’t love [Blatter], we don’t do Christmas together but I respect his knowledge. I just don’t like his dictatorship”.

The Swedish ex-UEFA president advocates his replacement as UEFA chief, former France captain Michel Platini, as the ideal man to the head FIFA.

“[Platini] is to me closer to what I was looking for,” Johansson stated. “He has tried to be fair, he’s open-minded, he allows discussions and he obeys decisions made by the majority”.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has kicked off an exciting new advertising strategy which will see the brand on display at some of the biggest soccer matches around England.

The deal, mind which complements the brand’s new football-focused advertising strategy, allergist will see Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and the new Crafter featured on the dynamic LED perimeter boards around the edge of the pitches, as well as on fixed hoardings for fixtures in the Premier League, Championship, Scottish Premier League, FA Cup and Carling Cup throughout the season.  The brand will also earn its first international cap later this year as the advertising will feature during England’s 2012 European Championship qualifier against Bulgaria in September.

The latest addition to the Volkswagen squad, the new Crafter, joined the line-up over the summer break and has made an impressive first appearance. With a debut in front of Premiership crowds on the opening day of the season, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and the brand’s newest and largest load-carrier will now become a familiar sight for thousands of football fans throughout England and Scotland for the duration of the season.

Mark Hopkins, head of marketing, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles UK explained: ‘To be involved with a sport that has such a huge and loyal following, as football does both nationally and internationally, is very exciting.  This new strategy offers a great opportunity for us and uses a strong platform to build awareness of the brand to our core audience of van owners and drivers.  We are very proud that Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles will be involved with a sport that plays such a large part in the everyday life of so many of our existing and prospective customers.’

The head of the Rugby World Cup organising committee has announced that preparations for this year’s tournament are on track.

The seventh edition of the tournament begins on September 9 in New Zealand.

Snedden said that New Zealand is “very prepared” and the chief remains optimistic about projections of 85,000 international visitors to the country, despite New Zealand’s geographic isolation and current world economic issues.

He said: “One of our biggest challenges is that New Zealand is stuck away at the end of the world with really only Australia as our closest neighbour and a long way away from some of the international rugby markets that we’ve been targeting. But we’ve been absolutely delighted with the number of people who have committed to coming to New Zealand.”

Saturday’s win over Australia at Auckland was the final test for the country ahead of the tournament. Rugby World Cup police commander Grant O’Fee said policing of the game had “worked very well”, whilst everything else worked smoothly apart from a small transport glitch after the match.

Ticket sales are expected to bring in US$223 million in revenue and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has estimated that the influx of tourists will give the country’s economy a 0.33% boost.