The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has announced today that Kenny MacLeod will join the ITF as Executive Director, cheap Commercial.

He will be responsible for leading the ITF’s Commercial Department of seven that concentrates on the ITF’s sponsorship and television portfolio.   

MacLeod comes to the ITF from the Scottish Football Association where he was Commercial and Marketing Director from 2009 as well as Global Performance Consultant for FIFA from 2012. Prior to working for the Scottish FA, he was Commercial Manager for Celtic Football Club from 2006-2009, and has also worked in the travel and airline industry and as a Sports Editor for publications in both Australia and Russia.

“We are very happy to welcome Kenny to the ITF as Commercial Director,” said ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti. “His experience in football will bring some fresh ideas to the ITF and offers us some new perspectives on implementing our commercial strategies.”

“I am looking forward to my new position at the ITF,” said MacLeod. “I am a big fan of tennis and think my past experience has prepared me well for new challenges at the ITF. Davis Cup by BNP Paribas and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas are well known, successful competitions and form just a part, albeit a large one, of the ITF’s overall commercial properties. Junior tennis, seniors tennis, wheelchair tennis, beach tennis and the ITF Pro Circuit span the game in all age groups; and the ITF’s highly regarded Development, Coaching and Technical departments offer sponsorship opportunities that we will explore over the next period.”

MacLeod will take up his new position effective 2 June 2014 and will be based in the ITF’s Roehampton offices.    

British Cycling have opened their tender to host the 2014 National Road Championships.

After the remarkable success of the 2013 British Cycling National Road Race and Time Trial Championships in Glasgow, find their will be significant interest in hosting the Championships.

“The status that the championships now have and the calibre of riders who contest them make the National Road Championships into a compelling major event proposition for any town, arthritis city or region looking to establish itself as a host of major sporting events,” British Cycling’s Cyclesport and Membership Director Jonny Clay said.

The 2014 National Road Championships incorporates the men’s and women’s Time Trial Championships and Road Race Championships and is scheduled to take place on 26 June and 29 June 2014 respectively.

Tender applications for the 2014 championships remain open until 1 July 2013 with the winning bid anticipated to be announced in September 2013.

The Sochi 2014 Organising Committee has launched a large-scale project for training 25, try 000 volunteers for the next Winter Games. 

It will be the largest volunteer training program in the history of the Games.

 The programme consists of three main parts: “My Game, unhealthy ” “Job Specific Training” and “Venue Specific Training,” and a special English language course with an emphasis on an Olympic and Paralympic theme.

Each volunteer can expect at least 36 hours of free training. The programme will be a unique legacy for organisers of future major sporting events, not only in Russia but throughout the world. 

For the first time in the history of the Games, volunteers will be trained not only in the host city, but across the whole country, in 17 cities at 26 volunteer centres from Vladivostok to Saint Petersburg. 

The organisers of the 2014 Games face the task of giving the volunteers the necessary knowledge and skills within a very tight schedule and of inspiring the volunteers to make the Sochi Games the best in history. 

The President of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, said: “The Sochi 2014 Volunteer Program, launched in 2009 by the Organsing Committee, has truly changed the attitude to volunteering in Russia. We have succeeded in raising the prestige of volunteering and in taking it to a new level. This is possibly one of our most important achievements and a legacy that will remain after the Games.”

The International Management Group (IMG) has lost a major client in Tennis star Roger Federer after the 16-times grand-slam champion’s agent Tony Godsick left the company, IMG said on Friday.

“We confirm that Tony Godsick has left the company. Tony is a great guy and we thank him for his 19 years of service. We wish him continued success in the future,” said an IMG spokesman.

“Our contract with Roger Federer has expired and we no longer represent him. Roger is an icon in the world of sports.

“He is a great guy, a gentleman and an incredible champion. We are honoured to have represented him and proud of the work we did for him for many years. We hope to do business with him again in the future.”

Federer, the world number three, has made his way to the semi-finals of the French Open.

Federer and Godsick’s departure from IMG follows last year’s decision by former golf number one Tiger Woods and his agent Mark Steinberg to sever ties with the sports management company.

Sale Sharks will know by the middle of February if a move to the new City of Salford Stadium at Barton will be viable, according to co-owner Ian Blackhurst.

The new £26m ($40.5m) state-of-the-art ground has been discussed by Sale officials and the owners of the Peel Holdings and Salford City Council for six months over a proposed ground-share agreement with Salford Reds.

They will resume next week with Sale keen to strike a deal and make the switch from their current Edgeley Park base, providing the price is right.

“We are quite far on with negotiations over the new stadium and hopefully we should have news on that within the next four to six weeks,” Blackhurst revealed.

“Whether it happens or not is down to the negotiations with the parties involved.

“There’s a lot of speculation but if we are to move there it has to be right for this organisation from a commercial point of view.

“But we don’t want Edgeley Park to be a boundary to halt our progression. Obviously, Edgeley Park is our home and we own it but we will not be restricted by physical boundaries in terms of what we want to achieve.

“Edgeley Park is a good stadium but there’s no doubt it needs investment in it.  So the decision that we as a club have to make is what the best option for the next leg of this journey we are on.”

Should a deal be reached, it would be the third home for the Sharks in nine years, with the club having outgrown their original base at Heywood Road and eventually settling on a move in 2003 to Edgeley Park, which they share with Stockport County.

Steve Diamond, Sale’s new CEO has championed the move as he looks for the club to be strongest club in the north.

Diamond who was promoted yesterday but will not assume his role until February 1 said: “The decision over the next six weeks or so will dictate where we go – we either redevelop Edgeley Park or go down the road.

“But if we do go to the new stadium it’s got a retro fit which could take the capacity from 12,000 up to 20,000 and that would help to consolidate our position as a major force in British rugby going into Europe.”

Mick Hogan, Sale’s Current CEO, told iSportconnect that he believes Sale will succeed in their plans.

“Foundations are in place: Academy, Community, Commercial Programmes, Communications and Training Facilities all now firmly embedded. Success will come for Sale. How quickly depends on how well the team play over the next 18 months,”

Hogan will leave his role in January to help co-ordinate the 2015 World Cup.

To discuss Sale’s future with Mick Hogan join our discussion here

The British Olympic Association (BOA) have filed a formal appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in their dispute with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) over controversial lifetime Olympic bans for drugs cheats.

The BOA bans any British athlete guilty of a doping offence from future Olympics. WADA ruled last month that the hardline stance broke the world body’s own rules, which specify a maximum two-year ban for a first offence.

CAS had ruled in October that an International Olympic Committee rule similar to the BOA’s, excluding athletes banned for six months or more from the next Olympics, amounted to a second sanction and contravened WADA’s anti-doping code.

The IOC accepted the CAS ruling and nullified its law.

BOA chairman Colin Moynihan said in a statement: “The BOA selection policy is a direct expression of the commitment British athletes have made to uphold the values of fair play, integrity and clean competition – values that are at the heart of Olympic sport.”

“It is a policy that reflects the culture and character of Team GB. The BOA and British Olympic athletes do not consider that those who have deliberately cheated should represent Britain at the Olympic Games.”

The BOA said it had appealed to CAS to “obtain clarity on the status of its selection policy well in advance of the London 2012 Olympic Games.”

A new partnership is set to be announced between Zweite Bundesliga soccer team Karlsruher SC and international sports marketing agency Sportfive as of next season.

Sportfive will reportedly take on full responsibility of Karlsruher’s commercial activities, click guaranteeing the club around US$6.1m per year.

Sportfive already has an agreement in place with the club for the marketing, ampoule | advertising and commercialisation of rights to the team’s Karlsruher Wildparkstadion and the club’s playing shirt, therapy after signing a deal in 2010.

Although the new contract is yet to be officially signed, Sportfive chief executive Philip Hasenbein confirmed the company was in talks on a global marketing agreement.