A-League team Western Sydney Wanderers have been sold to a consortium of prominent businessmen, Football Federation Australia have confirmed.

The group, headed by Primo Smallgoods boss Paul Lederer, will assume ownership of the licence on June 30.

Pirtek founder Glenn Duncan, Filipino-Chinese businessman Jefferson Cheng and David Slade, a partner in British fashion outlet Topshop-Topman, are among the other investors.

The deal is believed to be worth around AUS$10 million (US$9,287,471 m).

The FFA, with the help of $4 million in federal government funding, set up the Wanderers in April 2012 and has held the licence for the past two years.

The club has enjoyed immense success since then under coach Tony Popovic, who has led the fledgling outfit to two consecutive A-League grand finals and this year’s Asian Champions League quarter-finals.

FFA boss David Gallop said the sale was an important step in the club’s evolution.

“The Wanderers were built for the people, by the people of Western Sydney,” Gallop said in a statement on Thursday.

“That was the promise from day one and FFA has held true to that mission.

“Like FFA before it, the new consortium understands its role as the guardians of the Wanderers.

“They are entrusted by the members of the club to protect and build on what has been achieved.”

Lederer ensured fans the spirit and culture at the Wanderers would not be affected by the sale.

“I have been a director of the club for the past two years and I’ve had the privilege to play a part and see first-hand what makes this club so special,” he said.

“The consortium has responsibility to ensure the Wanderers have a sound financial base and a strong administration so the club can continue to grow and be successful on and off the field.”

Leading global sports rights marketing agency Kentaro has announced Greg Davies as Head of Club Business and Digital Media. 

Davies has worked for 25 years in the global sports marketplace creating and marketing properties and rights across multiple sports.

After nine years at Parallel Media Group, he co-­‐founded Sports Technology pioneer, En Linea Inc., creators of FIFA.com, ManUtd.com and fcbarcelona.com amongst many others. He went on to be a founding member of IMG’s interactive division TWI Interactive.

He has extensive experience of event creation and promotion and has worked closely with some of the world’s biggest football clubs in organising tours, friendlies, training camps and tournaments around the world.

Kentaro CEO Philipp Grothe commented, “We are delighted that we have hired such an experienced operator as Greg and he will do much to drive forward our already strong club business across the footballing world. His work in the digital space will be invaluable as we extend and deepen our media offering and his knowledge of Latin markets, and in particular Brazil, will further strengthen our offering in these key, developing regions.”

London’s Olympic closing ceremony last night attracted a peak audience of 26 million viewers on BBC.

The ceremony, with performances from the Spice Girls, Take That and The Who, banked 22.9 million average viewers and a massive 80.7% audience share for BBC One between 9pm on Sunday and the early hours of Monday morning. 18.5 million viewers were still tuned in to the ceremony at midnight.

Another 202,000 tuned in to the BBC’s dedicated Olympics channels, BBC Olympics 1, and 83,000 watched in 3D on BBC HD.

Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony, which kick-started the Games on 27 July, secured an average audience of 23 million viewers.

On Saturday night, a peak audience of 12.3 million viewers tuned in to BBC One to watch live coverage of Mo Farah’s second gold medal win and the Jamaican team smash the world record in the 4 x 100m relay.

In the past 16 days, there have been 150 million tweets about the Olympics, with the biggest conversations and mentions (measured by tweets per minute) around Usain Bolt’s 200m and 100m victories, Andy Murray’s gold medal at Wimbledon and Jamaica’s new world record in the men’s relay.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said today goal-line technology was “a necessity” after Ukraine became the latest victims of its absence from the game.

The European Championship co-hosts were denied an equaliser in last night’s decisive 1-0 Group D defeat to England when officials failed to spot Marco Devic’s shot had crossed the line.

Blatter, who hopes to convince the game’s rule-makers – the International Football Association Board – to give technology the green light, posted on Twitter: “After last night’s match £GLT is no longer an alternative but a necessity.”

Blatter became a convert to goal-line technology after Frank Lampard was denied a legitimate goal in England’s 2010 World Cup defeat to Germany.

That failed to convince UEFA president Michel Platini, the favourite to succeed Blatter, who remained wedded to his belief additional assistant referees behind each goal was the best way forward.

FIFA has been trialling two different systems to help officials know whether a ball has crossed the line.

England’s friendly against Belgium last month was one of the test matches for Hawk-Eye, the system used in tennis and cricket, although it was not at the disposal of match officials.

A similar system called GoalRef has also been trialled in two Danish league matches.

The Iowa Speedway track has new owners after the Clement family has become the new principal owners in a multi-million dollar purchase of the track.

U.S. Motorsports Corporation, cialis the holding company that owns the track, cialis was purchased by Conrad Clement, hospital along with his brother Stan and sons Tracy and Eric. The financial terms of the deal are yet to be disclosed, but the track was valued at US$44m in 2009. The family has already announced that they will be retaining the services of all staff members.

Conrad Clement said: “My family has a 20-year history in the motorsports industry through our involvement with Featherlite. We’ve been intimately involved with Iowa Speedway since it was founded in 2006, and we’re looking forward to building on the momentum created over the last five years.”

Iowa Speedway president Jerry Jauron added: “We’ve added new races, fan amenities, sponsors and vendors every season — and we’ll continue to do so under the guiding vision of the Clement family. We’re looking forward to the remaining races on the 2011 schedule — and then we’ll gear up for 2012. We’ve got a very bright future ahead.”

In a statement regarding the deal, Nascar racing legend, and Iowa Speedway co-owner, Rusty Wallace said: “The Clement family has expressed their willingness to invest in the track, its infrastructure and its future. Together, we can establish Iowa Speedway as one of the Midwest’s premier entertainment venues, and achieve our ultimate goal – hosting a Nascar Sprint Cup race.”

Former owner Brad Manatt also expressed his view: “It was our privilege to help build the track five years ago, and like a proud parent, we’ve enjoyed watching it thrive and grow -and we’ll continue to do so from the stands,” he said. “We wish great success to Iowa Speedway and the Clement family.”

The 1.4km track hosts a series of prestigious racing events and has permanent seating for 25,000 spectators. It cost US$70m to build in 2005.

The Board of Sport England has reduced funding to the Rugby Football League (RFL) and the England Golf Partnership (EGP) after both bodies recorded disappointing participation figures shown in the Active People Survey.

The RFL has agreed to accept a reduction of around US$1.5m alongside a renegotiated participation goal, medstore having recognised that it will not achieve the growth in regular and sustained participation commissioned through Sport England’s 2009–2013 investment. 

The EGP has agreed to a reduction of around US$171,000 and have also accepted a renegotiated participation goal.

Jennie Price, Sport England’s chief executive, said: “We welcome the approach of the leadership team at the RFL to the review of funding levels. The governing body has recognised the need to change the approach to grassroots delivery if genuine growth in regular, sustained participation is to be achieved.

“Our discussions with the RFL have given us confidence that the very significant investment we are still making in rugby league will deliver value for money.”

The EGP has responded to the decline in golf participation by developing a clear plan to grow the game that puts the grassroots players – and potential participants – first. 

It has recognised the need to invest more in creating the right kind of opportunities to play golf around the country, and, using market segmentation, will pilot a social golf product initially aimed at younger males over the summer, with the project expanded to other target groups at a later date.

Price added: ‘We welcome the increased priority now being given by the England Golf Partnership to increasing participation among those aged 16 and over. The governing body has done good work in bringing children into the game, and has now committed to bringing the same focus to its work with the adult game’.

The international research and consultancy company SPORT+MARKT has announced it will be opening a permanent office in Brazil, health based in Sao Paulo.

The new SPORT+MARKT BRASIL will be run by Cesar Gauldani and Renato Mahfuz. The pair are vastly experienced, advice having been working in Brazilian sports consultancies since 1999, generic and providing one of the most comprehensive football monitor studies as well as providing media evaluation and sponsorship consultancy.

SPORT+MARKT executive director Marcel Cordes said: “Brazil is a strategically important market for SPORT+MARKT, we are delighted with this opportunity to leverage the many years experience in the Brazilian market of Cesar Gualdani and Renato Mahfuz.”

SPORT+MARKT currently employs over 500 staff and is active in around 120 global markets.