The Football Association (FA) has stipulated that it would block any plans to abolish the promotion and relegation structure from the Premier League after League Managers Association (LMA) chief Richard Bevan said yesterday that several foreign-owned clubs wanted to remove the system.

Bevan also suggested that increased foreign ownership of Premier League clubs increased the likelihood the proposed system will become a reality.

Blackburn joined the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea when they were taken over by Indian-owned Venky’s Group last season, meaning that nearly half the league’s 20 clubs are now under foreign ownership.

Premier League rules state that 14 votes from their 20 members are needed to make changes.

Bevan also added that a new owner of a Premier League club would not necessarily need to be foreign for them to see there would be money to be made from scrapping relegation.

But it is within the FA’s power to reject any proposal that alters the game’s structure.

An FA spokesman told The Sun newspaper: “The FA’s share can be used so it has to approve any major rule change. This covers changes to promotion and relegation.”

The process by which World Championships and conferences are allocated by the World Squash Federation (WSF) has been radically altered in what the organisation claim is a new forward plan for the sport.

In order to ensure that all regions of the world can host their share of Squash related events, shop the WSF have scrapped the fact that until now, ampoule member nations wanting to host have simply applied for the opportunity.

The WSF has now introduced a new regime in which the five regions of the world have been allocated all the Federation’s events and conferences right through to the year 2020 in WSF chief executive Andrew Shelley claims is a “fairer spread, denture with more certainty – and better all round.”

In 2014, for example, Pan America will stage the Women’s World Team Championship; while Europe will take the WSF Development Conference and WSF Federations Conference; Africa will host the Men’s World Junior Individual & Team Championships (with the Women’s Junior Individual Championship alongside); Asia will have the World Doubles and WSF AGM; and Oceania the World Masters.

International Rugby Board chief executive Mike Miller has said that it is a question of “when, not if” a rugby world cup will be played in the United States.

New Zealand will host the Rugby World cup in 2011 and England will host the 2015 Rugby World cup. The rugby world cup will then break the mould by moving to Japan which is not one of the sports big nations.

IRB Boss Miller says that the United States or even Russia could soon follow in the list of countries to host the Rugby World Cup.

“It’s a question of when – not if – it’s going to happen,” Miller told AP.

Rugby has joined the world’s major sports by being included in the Summer Olympics starting from 2016 but only in the 7-a-side format as the 15 man format requires players to have longer rest periods between matches which makes rugby tournaments last much longer.

The IRB wants the Olympics and the Rugby World Cup to raise the game’s profile in countries outside the currently participating outside Europe and Australasia.

The masses in America will be introduced to rugby next year when NBC broadcasts the World Cup from New Zealand for the first time.

2019 World cup hosts Japan have played in all of the past Rugby World cups but have only won once in 20 matches and are considered an emerging nation when it comes to rugby.

Miller says that the IRB named two host nations last year as established rugby nation England will make a big profit while Japan might not be as profitable but it will grow the game. Naming host nations so may years in advance gives planners more time to prepare and work for the event.

“If you only award one at a time, because all of our funding depends upon (the) Rugby World Cup, you’re more likely to take the safe, conservative option,” Miller said.

“If you do two together, you can take a longer-term view. You can say, ‘2015, that’s England, that’s a banker. Loads of money, that’ll work – full stadia, great press coverage.”

“Japan should work and should spread rugby in Asia. Coupled with England? Great, let’s do it. Japan versus England? Not quite so sure.”

If the IRB continues with their plan of rotating emerging nations and bankers the IRB could take the Rugby world cup to the United States in 2027 or Russia who’s broadcast times would be more favourable to the bulk of the rugby population.

“We need to grow the game all over the world and Asia’s a huge market,” Miller said.

“Europe’s a big market with 300 million, but then you look at India and China and you see 2.5 billion.”

The USA would also need to show the IRB that if they did hold a world cup in the region it would grow the game enough to leave a suitable legacy even though they might not need to build much in the way of infrastructure and stadiums.

“There’s no doubt they can hold it,” Miller said. “There’s no point having it if you then don’t have the infrastructure in place to benefit from it. “

“We would need to see what happens as a result of the exposure on NBC and the Olympics as Rio gets closer.

“It’s too early to tell what will happen in the USA in the next three or four years. It will be crucial seeing 2016 and Rio if the U.S. qualify. There’s no doubt the game is growing in the U.S., it’s just a question of how fast it is growing.”

Rugby will be boosted in Russia, who are in the same Pool as the USA in 2011, as they only allow schools to teach Olympic sports and they also allow teams to draw upon funding from national Olympic committees and their facilities.

“Rugby is now on the curriculum in the Moscow region. That’s of huge benefit to rugby in Russia,” Miller said.

“Previously you had after-school clubs, but you were one step removed and it makes things that little bit harder.

“In England, Australia and New Zealand, you start at 6, 7 or 8 years old. If they start at 15 or 16 in Russia or somewhere else, it’s really difficult to catch up those years lost.”

The Olympic Stadium in east London will host a number of live music events this summer, after Live Nation agreed an exclusive deal with the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC).

The world’s largest live music company organises the Wireless and Hard Rock Calling festivals, which have traditionally been held in Hyde Park, but will now take place in the North Park of the Olympics site in July.

London mayor and chairman of the LLDC, Boris Johnson, said: “The confidence shown by one of the world’s leading live entertainment promoters to relocate two of its biggest music festivals from the centre of the capital is a ringing endorsement of out legacy plans.”

Live Nation are also planning to hold two major concerts in the Olympic Stadium on the 27 and 28 July to mark the first anniversary of the London 2012 Olympic Games, though no acts have been announced yet.

John Reid, President of concerts at Live Nation Europe, said: “As the world’s leading provider of music festivals and outdoor events, Live Nation is delighted to have won the inaugural contract for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.”

Premier League side West Ham are in talks with the LLDC to move into the Olympic Stadium and it is understood that Live Nation’s events could continue even if the football club does relocate to the site.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) have launched a new website developed by Haymarket Network this week. 

The new site www.iaaf.org marks the centenary celebrations of the IAAF and offers the visitor a brighter, ailment more visual experience and a raft of new features and functionality that opens up the IAAF’s immense statistical database of results, records and lists for the first time. 

The site also allows the user to search the IAAF’s 25,000 news stories, almost 100,000 athletes and includes a new Disciplines section that allows fans to discover more about the various elements of the sport. 

Haymarket said in a statement: “Our aim was to create a site that made athletics accessible to everyone. We wanted new fans to be able to explore the site and learn about the sport as well as delivering a must-visit site for existing fans, athletes and administrators. To do that we had to bring the athletes and the disciplines to life with pages of editorial, stories, news and information that was easy to access. We also needed to open up the incredible statistical database that was sitting unseen within the IAAF, publish results for all IAAF sanctioned events, not just major events and create 16 rolling hub site for all major IAAF sanctioned competitions. 

“The main challenge was in delivering the database in a dynamic format for the first time. We utilised the latest technologies including MongoDB to allow us to bring the data to life and deliver results and stats incredibly quickly. 

“We also designed and built a bespoke content management system to enable the IAAF to manage the site internally going forward, something that was not possible before. 

“As we move towards the IAAF World Championships in Moscow in August 2013 we will add more functionality and improve further what we think is already a great user experience.”

IAAF Deputy General Secretary/Communications Director Nick Davies was the driving force behind the project. “Haymarket Network has delivered a fantastic site that challenges the traditional idea of what a global sport governing body website should be,” he said. “It has a fresh and vibrant look that brings the energy and atmosphere of athletics to life online. Perhaps most importantly it enables us to publish our results and stats database dynamically for the first time and gives us the flexibility to manage the site going forward.”

Haymarket Network Director of Sport Cormac Bourne is already looking forward to the future. “We are incredibly proud to have worked on such a prestigious project for the IAAF. They believed in Haymarket Networks technical abilities and creative thinking and we have delivered a world class site. Now we’re looking forward to working together with the IAAF to deliver a mobile version of the site.”

World Sport Group (WSG), Asia’s leading sports marketing, media and event management company, has signed the young and very promising Indian cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara under its player management programme.

“In keeping with WSG’s steadfast commitment towards building and promoting sport in Asia, we are proud to have added a confident and correct batsman like Cheteshwar Pujara to our portfolio,” said Mr. Harish Krishnamachar, Country Head and Senior Vice President, World Sport Group.

“We believe in working with a select group of players. The basis of our choice of who we can work with and help from a commercial point of view is that each of the players is focused on his on-ground performance. He is the third cricketer we have signed on after Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir, and we look forward to doing some excellent work with him over the years.”

Pujara said: “I am fortunate to be associated with an organisation that is proficiently managing the commercial interests of iconic cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir. I am glad to be in the able hands of WSG and can now focus completely on performing better and cementing my place in the national squad.”

The Saurashtra-based right-handed batsman first came to the fore during the 2006 Under-19 World Cup where he was the highest run scorer and aggregated 349 runs at an average of 116. Following some big knocks for Saurashtra, including a couple of triple hundreds, he earned the India cap for the home Test series against Australia in 2010. He made his debut in the second Test of the series on 9 October 2010 at Bangalore and currently plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Mr. Krishnamachar added: “We believe Cheteshwar has the potential to be among the top five cricketers of the next generation. Known for his solid, classic technique, he has impressed critics and cricket experts alike. He has displayed his talent in age-level cricket at an international level and his appetite for big scores displayed in domestic cricket surely makes him a player to watch out for.”

by Ismail Uddin

The United States are about to receive a second F1 race as New Jersey is set to host a Formula One race in 2013, sales according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Earlier this year the townships of West New York and Weekhawken announced their interest in bringing F1 to the city, order with plans for a street race set against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline. The latest report says an announcement is due on Tuesday which will see the race hit the streets in June 2013.

The reports suggest the New Jersey race will run alongside the US Grand Prix in Austin, which is set to make its debut on the calendar next season.

In August, the mayors of Weehawken and West New York released a joint statement saying the race would be privately funded, with Leo Hindery Jr, a former chief executive of the YES TV network, reportedly leading the group of investors.

Richard Turner and Felix Roque said in a joint statement last August, said: “In these uncertain economic times when every direct and indirect revenue source is vital, our own Formula One race could be a very positive boost to our citizens. This said, we need to ensure that the financial benefits from the privilege of having these races in our towns are equitably shared and that no tax dollars are used. The investor group has already told us that our towns would be substantially compensated annually.”

F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone has been in talks with various promoters to bring a street race to Greater New York over the years but the plans have never bore fruit.