The International Hockey Federation (FIH) have stripped India’s right to host the Champions Trophy in December after problems with the administration of the sport in the country.

The FIH took the decision to move the event from New Delhi after India failed to find a solution to problems with the administration of the sport in the country.

A replacement host for the event is expected to be named within a week, the FIH have confirmed.

The schedule and line-up of the 2011 Champions Trophy will be determined when the host is announced, however the event will take place during the same window of December 3-11. 

As a result of no longer hosting the Champions Trophy, India has been invited to play in the Champions Challenge to be held in South Africa in November.

Leandro Negre, FIH President, said: “We regret that we have to move the Champions Trophy from India. It is difficult for the teams, the organisers and the fans. But we feel that this is the only way to maintain the integrity of our sport.”

The main issue is the governance structure of the sport of hockey in India. 

The FIH recognised Hockey India as the national governing body following the suspension of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) following a bribery scandal.

But IHF’s status was restored by an Indian court last year.

India had been threatened with losing the World Cup last year over the same issue. 

“It is a fundamental and non-negotiable requirement of the Olympic Charter and the FIH Statutes that there is only be one governing body for any one sport in any country with exclusive authority and responsibility to govern, organise national competitions and to enter national teams in international competitions,” the FIH said in a statement.

The Champions Trophy, which was launched in 1980, is the FIH’s most prestigious annual tournament.

It features the world’s top-ranked teams competing in a round robin format, and this year’s event is particularly significant as it will be an important part of the build-up to next year’s Olympics in London.

The tournament has been won for the last three years by Australia.

Michael Green, who played for Germany in two Olympics and is now chairman of the FIH Athlete’s Committee, backed the decision.

“The first priority has to be the athletes, and while this was a tough decision for the FIH to make, I feel that they have ultimately made the choice that is best for the athletes involved,” he said.

The FIH is in the final stages of reviewing bids from other nations that are willing and able within the scheduled time-frame to host an event of the magnitude of the Champions Trophy.

The FIH will continue to monitor the governance structure in India and hopes that a resolution can be found before it begins to affect future events set to be held in India, Negre said. 

The next event scheduled to be hosted in India is the Olympic Qualification Tournament in February.

It emerged yesterday that the 2012 Olympic Games in London cost almost £400 million less than expected. Government sources announced that the total budget for both Olympic and Paralympic Games was £9.29 billion, allergy but was delivered for significantly less.

Sports minister Hugh Robertson said: “London 2012 was a tremendous success and it is a significant achievement to deliver this large and complex programme on time and under budget.”

As well as the £377 million which was untouched, allergy | a contingency budget of over £100 million also went unspent. The under spend has been attributed to a drop in security, transportation and construction costs.

The final £9.29 billion budget was itself a major increase on the budget stated in 2005, when the Games were awarded to London. The overall cost went up due to the overlooking of VAT and an increase in security costs.

X2IMPACT, bronchi a privately funded Seattle company, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with the National Football League to supply its Concussion Management System (CMS) software application for use by certain teams of the NFL during the 2012 football season.

The X2IMPACT CMS is a touch-screen-based application built for iOS and Windows 8 operating systems and is equally suitable for use at the field of play or in clinical office settings. Harnessing the power of cloud computing, the X2 CMS securely serves concussion assessment data and provides authorized team health care providers with instant access to each of their players’ past and present information.

“Working with the NFL allowed us to create an application specifically tailored to the League’s needs,” said Rich Able, Co-Founder of X2IMPACT. “The resulting app embodies the NFL’s specific medical protocols and is scalable to conform to the League’s data standards now and in the future.”

Collaboration with the pilot group of teams was indispensable to the project’s success and continued improvement. “The level of enthusiasm and quality of feedback from team providers has been fantastic,” said Christoph Mack, CEO at X2IMPACT. “All of us at X2 are thrilled and grateful for the opportunity to help the sideline staff of the NFL better understand and manage their athlete’s brain health, now and in the future.”

Sixteen NFL teams have signed up for the software so far, and reception has been enthusiastic.

“The X2 CMS app helps our staff to provide immediate comparison of an injured player’s current condition with their baseline evaluation. This helps our sports medicine team to make the best possible clinical decisions in caring for players who may have a concussion,” said Leigh Weiss, a certified athletic trainer/physical therapist for the New York Giants.

“Adopting cutting edge technology to maximize the level of concussion care we provide for our players is a decision whose time has come,” said Dr. Daniel Garza, medical director for the San Francisco 49ers. “As a user of the X2 CMS, I’m thrilled at how it streamlines our process and improves our visibility of what used to be an overwhelming amount of data. The X2 CMS guides us in the latest standards for making bench vs. play decisions and structures the recovery and return to play process. League physicians and athletic trainers can do our jobs better and that makes the players feel more secure.”

“Yes, I’m a former NFL coach, but much more importantly, I’m a father of kids who play contact sports,” said Jim L. Mora, an investor in X2IMPACT and chair of its Sports Advisory Board. “I know that kids pay attention to every move their professional idols make, and I want us to do everything we can to keep our nation’s kids in the game, playing hard and playing safe. So I am sure that parents across the country and around the world will join me in applauding the leadership the NFL is demonstrating in adopting the X2 Concussion Management System.”

X2 believes that the NFL’s use of its technology will help drive widespread adoption of the company’s technology.

“Our goal is to provide the best concussion management products and services ever created and to assist the NFL’s work on player health and safety,” said Able. “By proving the value of our software at the professional level, the NFL is helping to pave the way for athletes in all sports and all levels to share in the benefits of X2’s concussion management technology, and that’s what drives us to do what we do every day.”

Black Box Corporation, discount a leading communications system integrator announced it has been selected by Major League Baseball’s Florida Marlins, ed to deploy a state-of-the art ShoreTel IP communications solution at their new ballpark that is set to open in Spring 2012.

Black Box will deploy a comprehensive solution that includes the ShoreTel IP PBX , Enterprise Contact Center, ShoreTel Conferencing, and ShoreTel Mobility. This solution will allow the Marlins to take advantage of the latest innovations in unified communications, collaboration, and mobility.

David Enriquez, director – information technology for the Florida Marlins, said: “We were impressed by the expansive functionality and ease of use of the ShoreTel solution along with the capabilities of Black Box to deploy the system and help us get the most out of our investment. We expect our users to experience increased productivity with the collaboration of voice, video, data, and cell services. One important factor in the decision was ShoreTel’s lower total cost of ownership when compared to other manufacturers.”

Black Box was awarded the project because of its strong knowledge and successful track record of deploying ShoreTel solutions, and its unyielding commitment to customer support and service. With ShoreTel-certified technicians in nearby Pompano, the Florida Marlins knew Black Box would effectively manage the implementation and provide ongoing support and maintenance. The solution will go live with the opening of the new ballpark next spring.

The future home of the Marlins will be a first-class baseball stadium. It is being constructed on approximately 17 acres of the historic Orange Bowl site in the Little Havana section of Miami. The ballpark will have a retractable roof, a natural grass playing field and 37,000 seats.

Black Box is a ShoreTel Gold Champion Partner and is a recipient of the ShoreTel 2011 Circle of Excellence award.

A London Assembly report showed the Tube (subway) system is suffering its longest sustained period of poor reliability for eight years suggesting that things need to drastically improve before the 2012 Olympics begin.

The report attributes some of the delays to the major Transport for London (TfL) upgrade programme, which is set to be completed in June 2012 ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony on July 29, but it claims that many of the problems were caused due to train faults.

Caroline Pidgeon, chair of the Transport Committee, said: “Industrial action accounted for much of the increase in delays across the network. However, on lines with the most delays, such as the Jubilee and Victoria, the main cause of the increase was problems with assets such as operating systems and trains. TfL has told us it is now responding to these problems and has learned lessons from the Jubilee line upgrade.”

The report also stated major delays were caused due to strikes and called for a payment deal to be sorted before London 2012 so the Assembly will be delighted after London Underground (LU) today announced it had reached agreement with train drivers’ unions over temporary changes to working arrangements and payments during the London 2012 Games.

The agreement means that in return for agreeing to temporary changes to existing working arrangements during the Games, all train drivers employed by LU will receive a one-off payment of £500 ($790).

In addition, shifts of a certain duration or those which finish after 1.30am will attract extra payments.

Mike Brown, LU managing director, said: “This agreement is a good deal for London Underground, our drivers and those thousands of customers who will be attending the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Games. LU is committed to ensuring that the train service we provide contributes to the successful operation of the Games and I am pleased that we and the unions have been able to engage in constructive dialogue to reach this agreement.”

Around 3,500 Tube drivers are covered by the agreement, while LU plans to run Tube services around an hour later than normal during the Games, on all lines, with last trains leaving central London between around 1.30am and 2am.

Extra services will run on lines serving the Olympic Park to coincide with the end of events in the evenings, meaning additional services from around 10pm.

Mohamed Bin Hammam has launched a scathing attack on FIFA ethics committee deputy chair Petrus Damaseb and FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, saying he is confident of coming out unblemished from the bribery allegations designed by Valcke and Blatter, and believes if he was European then he wouldn’t receive the same kind of treatment.

Taking a more aggressive stance in fresh criticism of FIFA, the Qatari, who is appealing a lifetime ban following an investigation into claims that he paid $40,000 cash bungs to Caribbean Football Union members, has published a letter sent to Damaseb on Sunday on his website.

“I am capable enough financially and otherwise to defend myself for years if it is necessary,” he writes.

Bin Hammam, forced to quit the FIFA presidential race in May amid accusations he attempted to buy CFU votes to aid his bid to oust Sepp Blatter, claims the 75-year-old Swiss is using Damaseb “as his pawn in his battle for revenge”, with Valcke also pulling the strings.

Suggesting racist motives for FIFA’s condemnation of him and Caribbean members, he writes: “Were I a European, or were the Caribbean were part of Europe, neither Blatter nor Valcke will dare lay a finger on us; were we Europeans, you would have never been given the opportunity to chair this Ethics Committee panel and slaughter people left and right, as you have done.”

Pledging to clear his name, the Asian Football Confederation chief reiterated that he had never tried to bribe anyone at the CFU meeting in Trinidad on May 10 and 11 where he was accompanied by former CONCACAF president Jack Warner. 

Warner quit FIFA in the summer amid an ethics committee probe into his alleged wrongdoing in the bribery scandal.

“Nobody in this world will believe that Valcke and Blatter are qualified to fight any sort of corruption,” Bin Hammam writes.

“If they are serious about fighting corruption, they should have the courage to volunteer themselves as first subjects of such investigations on the allegations raised against them since years until today,” Bin Hammam writes, a reference to bribery allegations that swirled around Blatter during the 2002 FIFA presidential election contest with African football boss Issa Hayatou.

“Please do not let Blatter use you as his pawn in his battle for revenge. Blatter is immune and is so used to betrayal, conspiracy and wrongdoings but you are not,” he goes on.

Bin Hammam adds: “Have you read Valcke’s threatening letter to the Caribbean Football Union member associations two days after my conviction? [July 25] He clearly indicated to them, either they admit that they had received bribe from Bin Hammam, or they will be punished. He goes on to say that if they admit that they received the bribe, the Ethics Committee will forgive them. 

“Did you or the Ethics Committee decide that? Or is this just another example of him pulling the strings and then later, dictating to you? How have you convicted me first and then now you are asking them to determining whether they have been bribed or not?

Recalling the 2002 FIFA presidential election when Blatter was himself accused of buying votes to see off the challenge of Hayatou, Bin Hammam notes that Damaseb in his role as president of the Namibia FA had voted for Blatter.

“What will be your position if his opponent had won the election, and started a similar witch-hunt questioning and pressurising you with threat of sanctions if you do not admit that you were bribed for voting Blatter,” Bin Hammam writes.

“If your conscience is on vacation, it is time to recall it because enough is really enough!! You should stop Valcke–Blatter damaging people’s reputation and lives. Those people have children and families. Just think what kind of crime you are committing.

“Please stand for the virtues of your profession and for what this noble profession embraces: fairness and justice, not oppression.”

The 62-year-old Qatari is preparing for a drawn-out appeals process.

Two weeks ago, he finally received the FIFA Ethics Committee’s explanation for his ban and promptly launched his appeal to the FIFA Appeals Committee. 

He has said he expects to lose but promises to take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).