The European Swimming Championships have been moved from Antwerp after a budget shortfall leading to the event coming London.

Antwerp organizer Georges Straetemans, medstore who is also vice chairman of the technical committee of European swimming federation LEN, said the event will be held in London at the Olympic swimming complex.

LEN refused to comment ahead of a planned announcement later Thursday.London Olympic organizers denied the championship would be held in London. “The event will not be taking place in London,’ the committee said in a statement.

Straetemans said in a telephone interview that the shortfall was more than $525,000, but insisted he was confident organizers could have found new sponsors to bridge the gap before LEN decided to pull the championships out of Belgium.

The event was due to be held from May 16-27 in Antwerp. It is unclear if the dates will remain the same when it moves.

Antwerp had an ambitious plan to build a temporary swimming pool in its 12,000-capacity Sports Palace, counting on huge interest since the event would be held only two months ahead of the London Games.

“After one of the financial partners stepped out, the financial gap was such that we could no longer do it,’ Straetemans said.

by Ismail Uddin

English League Two side, Bristol Rovers FC, are on the verge of acquiring a new stadium after securing land deals with supermarket giant Sainsbury’s and the University of the West of England (UWE).

The construction of a 20,000 seater stadium near the University’s Frenchay Campus is being financed after Sainsbury’s agreed to buy Rovers current Memorial Stadium in order to build a supermarket.

Together the proposals represent a construction investment of £60m ($93m).

The UWE will lease the land to the club and get access for students to club facilities and media room on non-match days. Students will also have the chance to buy discounted match tickets.

The new ground is to be titled the ‘UWE Stadium’ and will include banqueting and hospitality suite, convenience store, gym, jogging track and teaching space for the University. 

Sainsbury’s proposal at the Memorial Stadium site includes a store, work space, community facilities, homes and ample parking.

Bristol City Council have been informed of Sainsbury’s application and South Gloucestershire Council regarding the new stadium, after extensive consultation.

Nick Higgs, Chairman of Bristol Rovers, said: “This agreement is a significant step in securing a sustainable future for the Club.

“The move to the Frenchay Campus will be fantastic for our supporters as they will be able to take advantage of the excellent transport links, including the A4174, Parkway and Abbey Wood stations and a new car park. Local residents and students will benefit from fantastic new facilities.”

Ben Littman, Regional Development Executive for Sainsbury’s, added: “This is a fantastic opportunity to invest in Horfield; speaking with the community will help to ensure that we propose the right mix of facilities in a development that is of an appropriate size and scale for the area.”

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has responded to the uproar caused by the British Olympic Association (BOA) by announcing that the BOA have been “non-compliant” with its global code and urged it to reconsider its policy.

The BOA have continued to stand by their by-law which prohibits drug cheats from competing for the nation at the Olympics but WADA have taken action against this.

Although the announcement would have been expected, WADA’s ruling is likely to aggravate tensions between the two bodies.

WADA’s foundation board met in Montreal on Sunday and declared that the British stance gave it no other option than to declare the BOA non-compliant – which, technically, puts Team GB at the London Games at risk.

Following the decision WADA wrote to the BOA urging it to review its policy.

However, the BOA insists it is standing firm on maintaining its policy, and want to test its right to keep lifetime bans in place and reportedly plan to take the case to the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

In October, CAS ruled the that International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) own rule barring serious doping offenders was unenforceable – a move that has allowed USA Olympic 400m champion LaShawn Merritt to try to defend his title at London 2012.

In a statement the BOA said the ruling had brought clarity and closure to its dispute with WADA, adding: ‘We look forward to receiving the formal findings from WADA setting out how they have determined the BOA’s selection policy is non-compliant with the world anti-doping code.’

British Athletes looking to benefit from the ruling are sprinter Dwain Chambers and cyclist David Millar are banned from the Olympic Games, under the BOA rules.

Discuss with Sarah Ellson (Partner at Field Fisher Waterhouse) and Sir Craig Reedie (Former BOA Chairman and current IOC representative)

Nielsen, seek the leading global research firm, drugs has revealed that last year’s World Cup in South Africa was the catalyst behind a 10.6 per cent recovery in the global advertising market in 2010.

The 2010 Q4 report by The Nielsen Company, based on published rate cards, showed that the global advertising industry posted a 10.6 per cent year-on-year increase to US$508bn last year.

The report claims that the World Cup helped to drive the second quarter, the fast growing of the four, to an increase of almost 13 per cent.

Randall Beard, global head of Advertiser Solutions for The Nielsen Company, said: “The 2010 FIFA World Cup brought the attention of hundreds of millions of soccer fans, and not surprisingly, advertisers followed with significant spending.

“It presented an excellent opportunity for advertisers to jump back into the market, revitalizing ad spend in multiple countries.”

The UK was one of a number of nations in Europe, alongside the likes of Belgium, France, Sweden and Switzerland, to have posted increases in advertising spend of approximately 10 per cent.

Edmonton in Canada, which has played host to major sports events in the past thirty years has agreed an extension to their partnership with TSE Consulting.

Working together now for over two years, TSE Consulting and Edmonton, Canada are set to continue their relationship through to 2013.

Edmonton, a premier destination for sports events for over thirty years, appointed TSE to develop a fifteen year sports event strategy (2011-2026) that would enable the city to identify, attract and host major international sports events that would drive results in meeting the various socio-economic objectives of the city.

TSE is now assisting Edmonton in the implementation of the strategy as well as advising them on how to activate upcoming events to generate social benefits; such as the inaugural Edmonton International Athletics Festival in June, the Women’s Baseball World Cup in August and the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Edmonton remains at the forefront of international event host cities and will be at SportAccord in Quebec City in May where it will be leveraging its Silver level sponsorship status and discussing event partnership opportunities with International Sport Federation representatives.

Candice Stasynec, Executive Director of the City of Edmonton, says: “TSE’s assistance has been valuable in helping us set our direction for the coming years and build the right relationships. Their experience with working with cities around the world continually provides us with new perspectives and ideas. We look forward to continuing our work together.”

Dale Neuburger, TSE Director North America, says: “Edmonton is a unique and experienced city with a strong reputation that ensures that each event is a success. The focus is also ensuring that the success of the event goes beyond its organisation and provides concrete benefits to the local community. We are honoured to be continuing our work with Candice and her team and look forward to building an even stronger Edmonton for the future.”

Read Lars Haue Pedersen’s (Managing Director of TSE Consulting) here>>

Matthew Pinsent believes the ground-breaking decision to give the women’s Boat Race equal billing to the men’s event will help Britain develop future female Olympic champions.

The women’s race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities, which first took place in 1927, is currently held in Henley over a 2,000 metre course.

But from 2015 the race will be staged over the same four-and-a-quarter mile course and on the same day as the higher-profile men’s race, which attracts eight million television views and 300,000 people to the banks of the Thames.

Pinsent, whose god-daughter Natalie Redgrave rowed for Oxford last year, agreed with organisers the decision strikes a positive blow for equality in the sport.

Crucially, the men and women will now start to receive the same funding for the first time and the BBC have committed to showing both races in their entirety, to ensure complete parity between the two events.

“This is an important step for what is one of the pre-eminent rowing races and sporting fixtures in the world to provide step towards the Olympics,” said Pinsent, a four time Olympic champion and Oxford blue.

“There are lots of people I rowed with on the Olympic team who competed in the Boat Race, but for the women it is the exception.

“We want to create a progression. You will only see the fruits in 2020 and I am sure we will look back in two decades time and say ‘it was great that happened’.”

The Boat Race have announced a new sponsorship deal with investment company BNY Mellon, while their subsidiary Newton will continue to back the women’s race.

“There has been talk about this for as long as I can remember. Previously we haven’t had a sponsor for the women’s race of the stature to put it on a professional footing,” Pinsent said.

“The womens boat club currently don’t have nearly the same coaching or logistics infrastructure.

“They cycle to training, they have to buy their own kit, pay their own entry fees. The men are past that because they have a fantastic shop window in which they can advertise themselves.

“It has been a chicken and egg situation because the event in Henley has always been a distant cousin to the men’s race.

“Newton have provided a break in that catch-22 to say ‘we are interested in bringing women’s rowing to London’.

“It comes at a good time because there has been a lot of discussion about women in sport.”

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, chair of the commission on the Future of Women’s Sport, hailed the historic development as “a fabulous step forward in the evolution of women’s rowing”.

The next three women’s Boat Races will be held in Henley, allowing the boat clubs time to refine their training regimes for the move up to four and a quarter miles.

Organisers also need time to work out the logistics of staging and broadcasting an additional race from the Tideway.

by Ismail Uddin