The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) have announced that Liebherr, sickness a German manufacturing company, medic will become the title sponsor for the 2011 ITTF Oceania Cup.

The deal will see the company, who extended their partnership with the ITTF in March, rename the event as the Liebherr 2011 ITTF Oceania Cup. The announcement was made after the recent revelations that Fox Sports Australia were agreed as host broadcaster.

Patrick Gillmann, president of the Oceania Table Tennis Federation stated: “For the first time an important Oceania event has a title sponsor that is recognised as an international company and not just any sponsor but one of the major sponsors of the International Table Tennis Federation. It gives me great satisfaction that we are able to organise a high level event in our continent with ambitious organisers, confident sponsors, live television coverage by Fox Sport and some trusting supporters with the Oceania Table Tennis Federation and International Table Tennis Federation family; the Liebherr ITTF-Oceania Cup is on track and, with all these partners, I am sure that it will be a success.”

ITTF marketing director Steve Dainton added: “It just goes to show what is possible with the right motivation, strategy and event concept; over the last two years the International Table Tennis Federation, TMS and the Oceania Table Tennis Federation have been working hard to put this together and now the results are showing.”

“Television broadcast in the region, Double Happiness as equipment sponsor, Tinsue as the sports flooring sponsor and now the announcement that Liebherr will be the title sponsor is really the icing on the cake; we are all looking forward to what will be an excellent event in 2011”.

FMCG giant Procter & Gamble has selected Hill & Knowlton to handle its activation programme for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Games.

The decision follows the announcement earlier this year of a major tie-up between P&G and the International Olympic Committee, ampoule covering marketing rights for more than 50 brands across 38 product categories.

Hill & Knowlton’s UK office will advise P&G on its corporate communications in relation to the Olympics, ailment while also providing sports marketing counsel and managing social engagement.

The agency, which already handles a number of P&G brands worldwide, will also work other P&G roster agencies – such as Ketchum, MS&L and Weber Shandwick – to create and coordinate consumer activation for specific brands.

It is understood that Hill & Knowlton secured the assignment following a competitive pitch that featured other roster agencies, although P&G brand and communications manager James Nunn declined to comment on this.

Nunn did point out that P&G has also finished “structuring” its Olympics comms team, as it aims to replicate its success during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, when the company’s efforts resulted in increased favourability, greater market share, and nearly $100 million in incremental sales.

UpTo, the nation’s leading social calendar platform, has partnered with the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers to give Cavs fans a powerful new way to see what’s coming up with the team and the entire franchise.

UpTo allows users to discover and curate upcoming public events, friends’ plans and the user’s own schedule in one place with clarity and accuracy.  The application integrates with the user’s calendar to make it simple to share what they are “up to” with specific groups such as family, friends or coworkers.

Although UpTo provides users the option to follow the game schedule of any major professional sports team, the Cleveland Cavaliers is the first team to allow unprecedented access to all events, promotions and announcements related to the team. Cavs’ player appearances, charity events, detailed broadcast information and more can all be accessed seamlessly through the UpTo app.

In addition, UpTo will feature calendar streams for other events happening in and around downtown Cleveland.

“We’re very excited to partner with UpTo to provide our fans a unique and highly effective way for them to connect with the Cavaliers and with each other,” said Brandon Jirousek, Cavaliers senior manager of digital content and operations.

While social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare let users connect and share past or present status updates, UpTo allows users to connect with friends regarding their upcoming plans and any future public events.

“UpTo gives teams the opportunity to engage with fans and grow excitement and loyalty for their team through an unparalleled level of transparency and precision about all future happenings surrounding the franchise,” said Greg Schwartz, founder and CEO of UpTo.

German sporting goods maker Puma have revealed a boost of fourth quarter sales, sickness putting it on track to reach its 2015 top-line target of 4 billion euros ($5.25 billion), the company said on Wednesday.

They have accounted the growing demand in Latin America as one of the more prominent reasons for the increase.

Sales were up 15.6 percent on a euro basis at 720.5 million euros ($941m) in the three months through December.

Puma, which competes with Nike and Adidas , said it believes it can increase sales by a high single-digit percentage this year and next year and improve net profit by a mid-single-digit percentage.

Sales in the Americas region, its biggest in terms of revenue, jumped by 25.4 percent as customers in Latin America snapped up Motorsport goods and lifestyle products helped improve quarterly sales in the United States.

Puma admitted in October that it needed to work harder in the U.S., where sales fell in the third quarter, contrasting with Adidas.

Quarterly net profit more than doubled to 33.1 million euros ($43.2m) from 14.0 million ($18.3m) , beating consensus of 27.4 million ($35.8m).

The company also announced an annual dividend of 2.00 euros per share, up from 1.80 euro a year earlier. Analysts had on average expected a payout of 2.28 euros.

Puma is controlled by French luxury goods group PPR.

by Ismail Uddin

FIFA has confirmed a new 65,000-seat stadium in Sao Paulo will host the opening ceremony and first match of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro’s world-famous Maracana stadium will be the venue for the competition’s final.

FIFA also stated that the World Cup will start on June 12 at the new Sao Paulo venue, which is currently under construction having faced a number of delays. All of the tournament’s 12 host cities will host at least four of the 64 matches. The final is scheduled for July 13.

The earliest matches will start at 13:00 local time while the latest games will kick off at 22:00. All matches in the knockout rounds will start no later than 17:00 local time.

FIFA Executive Committee member Chuck Blazer is set to leave his post as Secretary General of the Confederation of North and Central American and Caribbean Football (CONCACAF).

The 66-year-old American has held the position for 21 years and will leave December 31. Blazer’s resignation comes just months after his bribery accusations against former CONCACAF President Jack Warner and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President Mohamed bin Hammam.

Blazer said in May that Warner and Bin Hammam attempted to bribe Caribbean Football Union (CFU) officials with US $40, sale 000 each to vote for Bin Hammam in the FIFA presidential election. Bin Hammam received a lifetime bad from FIFA. Jack Warner resigned from the CFU.

Warner’s acting successor Lisle Austin then tried to dismiss Blazer, price sale leading to further disciplinary proceedings, before FIFA suspended him.

Blazer said: “I’ve been running a governing body long enough. We’ve been through a little bit of a stagnation period. I want to do something entrepreneurial. It was the right time. I wanted to give them notice to let them start to look for somebody.”

Blazer’s most significant work for CONCACAF has included launching the Gold Cup and CONCACAF Champions League and relocating the organisation’s headquarters from Guatemala City to New York.

When talking about his future, Blazer said he would “explore new challenges within this wonderful sport.”

US Soccer President Sunil Gulati said: “All of us in CONCACAF owe him a great debt of gratitude for his sustained efforts in helping to take the sport to where it is today. There is no doubt that he will continue to make an impact in whatever role he chooses.”

Blazer will remain on FIFA’s Executive Committee with whom his current term ends in mid 2013.

The World Bowls championship broadcast rights have been handed to Input Media by the BBC. The tournament, which takes place in January, will be covered by Input Media for 2011 and 2012 under the agreement of a new two-year contract.

David Johnson, Managing Director, Input Media, said: “Input Media is delighted to be appointed as producer for the BBC’s coverage of the World Bowls Championships. This is a prestigious event with a great history and complemented by our team’s expertise in sport production we’re sure this will be the best Championships ever for the BBC audience.”