The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is to get a major $191 million makeover following the decision to demolish three spectator stands in favour of one huge state-of-the-art grandstand.

Known as the city’s “grand lady”, the SCG began life as a military cricket ground in the 1850s and hosted its first Test, against England, in 1882.

The ground celebrated its 100th Test on Tuesday with Australia’s second Test against India, and Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a sweeping upgrade of the “iconic sporting arena” to mark the occasion.

“This is an exciting project, not only for Sydneysiders but for all Australians, who have grown up watching the New Year’s Test and relishing in the history and tradition of the ground,” Gillard said in a statement.

“Today marks the beginning of the next stage of SCG’s development to ensure it maintains its rightful place as a world-class sporting facility.”

Work is expected to begin shortly after Australia’s one-day international against India in February and the upgrade is scheduled for completion in time for the Ashes series against England in early 2014.

Three stands will be demolished to make way for one extended multi-level stand which will improve the view from many seats and bring up to 85 percent of them under cover as part of the Aus$186 million ($191 million) upgrade.

Making way are the M.A. Noble, Dally Messenger and Bradman stands, although the Noble stand’s famed clock tower will be preserved as it is officially listed as a heritage item.

A rooftop terrace with views of the city skyline, 700-person dining room and secure player arrival area will also be part of the overhaul, which will also see a high-tech upgrade of media and corporate suites and new dressing rooms.

The refurbished SCG will also feature what Gillard said would be the “largest video screen at any Australian sports ground”, with a new scoreboard almost double the size of the current screen to be part of the works.

The Australian government and the ground’s Trust will each contribute Aus$50 million, and the New South Wales state government Aus$86 million.

Total capacity of the ground, which also hosts Australian Rules Football and National Rugby League games, will be boosted from 45,000 to almost 48,000.

However the AFL’s Sydney Swans who play their home games at the SCG will bear the drawbacks of this development financially as capacity will have to be reduced to 34,000 during the development.

AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan said: “The AFL in conjunction with the Sydney Swans looks forward to working closely with the SCG Trust on the precise timing of the project and the effect of the logistics of the redevelopment on Sydney Swans members and supporters in particular, and other aspects of staging AFL matches at the SCG during the construction phase.”

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Two senior African members Lamine Diack and Issa Hayatou have escaped without serious sanction from the IOC on Thursday in the ethics scandal that led to the resignation of former FIFA President Joao Havelange.

IAAF President Lamine Diack of Senegal received a warning and African football head Issa Hayatou of Cameroon was given a reprimand after an investigation by the Olympic body’s ethics commission.

Both men received payments from FIFA’s former marketing agency ISL. Neither were members of the International Olympic Committee at the time.

The verdicts by the IOC executive board came just days after the 95-year-old Havelange resigned to avoid suspension in the decade-old case dating to his days as FIFA president.

In differentiating between the rulings on Diack and Hayatou, IOC President Jacques Rogge said “a warning is not a sanction, a reprimand is a sanction.”

In any case, both men remain full IOC members and are free to carry out their duties as normal.

Rogge said the fact that both were not IOC members at the time served as “mitigating circumstances” in the decision not to suspend them.

“The IOC has proven it respects its own rules, that we have high respect for ethical behavior and we do not hesitate to act when needed and evidence is brought to us,” he said. “The IOC means business. The IOC is accountable and transparent.”

Hayatou, an IOC member since 2001, reportedly received about $20,000 from ISL in 1995. He denied any corruption and said the money was a gift for his confederation’s anniversary celebrations.

Diack said he received money after his house in Senegal burned down in 1993. Diack said he did nothing wrong.

The last IOC member to receive a reprimand was Rene Fasel of Switzerland, an executive board member and president of the International Ice Hockey Federation. He was reprimanded in April 2010 for breaking conflict-of-interest rules by helping a friend profit from a sports marketing deal.

Havelange, the IOC’s longest serving member with 48 years of service, had faced a possible two-year suspension for allegedly taking $1 million from ISL in return for World Cup television contracts.

The IOC ethics probe stemmed from a BBC documentary last year into kickbacks allegedly paid by ISL, which owned World Cup television rights and collapsed with debts of $300 million in 2001.

The ISL case was the subject of a Swiss criminal trial in 2008. FIFA has blocked the court in Zug from revealing which officials repaid $6.1 million in kickbacks. The officials repaid the money on condition that their identities remained anonymous.

Blatter, who is also an IOC member, said in October that FIFA’s executive committee would “reopen” the ISL dossier at a Dec. 16-17 meeting in Tokyo as part of a promised drive toward transparency and zero tolerance of corruption.

But, on Wednesday, FIFA said publication of the court papers would be postponed because of “legal measures taken” by a party involved in the case.

Holding company for a number of public relations, advertising, digital, marketing and design companies, Chime Communications has announced its acquisition of 60 per cent of Brazilian sports marketing firm Golden Goal Sports Venues in order to expand its presence in the South American market.

Golden Goal’s main area of business is in sponsorship consulting and rights selling for major organisations and sporting federations having been founded in 2005. Major clients of the sports business company include Serie A giants AC Milan, Brasileirão clubs Flamengo and Botafogo and major corporations Petrobras and Banco do Brasil.

Chime Communications’ acquisition of Golden Goal Sports Venues is reportedly worth US$3.9m in cash and sees its co-founders Cadu Ferreira and Mauro Correa each retain a 20 per cent stake in the company.

Speaking at Chime Communications’ annual general meeting the group’s chairman, Lord Bell, said: “The group’s track record of growth has continued into the first four months of 2011, with good organic growth and growth from acquisitions.

“We are looking forward to Golden Goal providing a base for the services of our recent acquisition Icon which played a pivotal role in the city branding programmes at the last Fifa World Cup in South Africa.”

Jim Glover, chief executive of the sports marketing division of Chime Communications, added: “Sports marketing is growing rapidly in Brazil, and with the Fifa World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016 both taking place there, we are in a great position to capitalise on the opportunities around these major events.”

The free-to-air broadcast rights in Ireland to show the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand have been awarded to RTE Sport. The company will broadcast 13 live matches during the tournament which will include all of Ireland’s group matches, the opening game, all quarter and semi-finals, the third placed play-off and the final itself. The new deal will mean that the company will also carry the games on their online platform at RTE.ie, and live on RTE Radio.

The Rugby World Cup 2011 will commence from September 9 and run until the final on October the 23. The event will include 48 matches played out between 20 competing nations.

RTÉ’s group head of sport, Ryle Nugent stated: “The tournament showcases the best teams in the world and fans can look forward to following the Irish team’s progression every step of the way on all of RTÉ’s platforms. The awarding of these rights to RTÉ is recognition of the quality of our sports coverage and we look forward to sharing what is set to be a momentous sporting occasion with the Irish public.”

Rugby World Cup Limited (RWCL) managing director, Mike Miller added: “RWCL is delighted to be extending its association with RTÉ Sport to broadcast Rugby World Cup 2011 throughout Ireland.

“RTÉ is recognised as a leading broadcaster of quality sports coverage and with its extensive broadcast experience of Rugby and commitment to the game, RTÉ will ensure the perfect platform for RWC 2011 to reach out to an extensive audience across Ireland.”

Milan’s Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, also known as San Siro, has been selected to host the 2016 UEFA Champions League final.

The decision was made at Thursday’s UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Nyon and it will be the fourth time the European Cup has been decided at the stadium after showpiece occasions in 1965, 1970 and 2001.

The arena, first opened in 1926, is home to both AC Milan and FC Internazionale Milano, and has a capacity of nearly 80,000 seats for UEFA competitions.

Uefa also awarded the 2016 Europea League Final to St. Jakob-Park in Basle. It will be the first time Switzerland have hosted the showpiece. 

The decision was taken at Thursday’s UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Nyon. The UEFA EURO 2008 semi-final venue, home of FC Basel 1893, is the successor to the previous stadium of the same name that staged four European Cup Winners’ Cup deciders.

British Eurosport, view the UK-arm of the pan-European sports broadcaster, is working with fanatix, the leading social TV platform for sports, on four of this summer’s major tennis, motorsport and cycling events: the French Open from Roland Garros, the MotoGP Championship from Assen and Superbike World Championship from Aragon and the Tour de France.

Via the fanatix social TV platform, viewers will be able to discover other fans following the events around the world as well as participating in the global debate through aggregated and curated event-specific Twitter feeds.

Additional aspects of the service will see fans able to share their opinions on this summer’s sporting action with friends via the integrated group messenger, access in-depth match information and statistics, or engage in debate with the British Eurosport TV pundits.

Founded in 2011, fanatix is a technology platform designed to engage the burgeoning second screen sports entertainment community. The platform makes it easy to discover which friends are watching the same game and start a private group chat with them from anywhere in the world, for free.

The deal is the fourth major coup for the company in recent weeks after the fanatix platform was used by Manchester City to engage fans during the crucial Premier League title run-in games, ESPN used the platform during their coverage of the FA Cup Final and Paddy Power teamed up with fanatix to engage with the in-match audience during the UEFA Champions League final on Saturday night.

Will Muirhead, fanatix CEO and Founder, says, “We’re delighted that British Eurosport has chosen to work with fanatix throughout this incredible summer of sport.”

“The recent UEFA Champions League final generated an unprecedented number of tweets per second, making it the most ‘social’ television event ever. In addition, US data shows that, despite only occupying 1.5% of the broadcast schedule, sports generates over 45% of all the social activity around television.

“The social TV opportunity for sports broadcaster, clubs and rights holders is significant.”

British Ski & Snowboard (snowsports) athletes have finally received the news they’ve been waiting to hear for over two years after It was announced on Friday that British Ski and Snowboard will be awarded £348, ailment 450 by UK Sport, unhealthy the nation’s high performance sports agency, treatment for athlete preparations in the run up to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

Snowsport GB collapsed prior to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games , leaving athletes with insufficient funding. This also meant UK Sport was unable to invest in snow sports until the new British Ski and Snowboard governing body was fully established.

UK Sport is now confident that a performance programme to support the most talented snow sports athletes has been put in place and is now able to start investing, in order to seize the opportunities within the sport to win medals in Sochi in 2014.

The award is primarily focused at the new Olympic slopestyle disciplines where Britain currently has a number of athletes who have been on the Podium at world premier events.

This initial award will run to September this year to support the athletes for the remainder of the current competition season. After this the situation will be reviewed and a decision on whether to make a further award to cover the rest of the run up to Sochi will be made.

Liz Nicholl, Chief Executive of UK Sport, said: “UK Sport is pleased to welcome British Ski and Snowboard to the winter sports World Class Performance Programme. It is testament to the recent progress they have made as a sport after a difficult period.

“We have, as ever, applied our investment principles rigorously and the sport has made a credible business case for a performance programme that could deliver medallists at the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014. They have made significant strides on a performance potential basis and this initial investment is recognition of the work that has been done so far.”

David Edwards, Chief Executive of British Ski and Snowboard, added: “We are delighted that UK Sport shares our view of the potential for our athletes to win medals in Sochi and future Olympic events and we are very grateful for the support announced today.

“When SnowsportGB went in to administration in January 2010 Lord Moynihan took on the Chairmanship of British ski and snowboard, the replacement Governing body for snowsports. Since then we have raised substantial funding for our athletes, put a new robust governance structure in place and worked closely with UK Sport on plans for the future.

“With the help of the BOA we have achieved a tremendous amount for Snowsport in Great Britain in the last two years.  With this game changing award from UK Sport the bar is now set higher. We look forward to the next two years with huge enthusiasm!”

The award aims to support three podium and five development athletes and British Ski and Snowboard will now finalise the selection criteria and begin to award funding to individual athletes so watch this space to find out who is selected on to the programme.

by Ismail Uddin