Los Angeles has been revealed as an interested party in a a potential United States bid for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wrote a letter to the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) saying that Los Angeles is interested in bidding for the Games.

In his letter the Mayor said, “On behalf of the City of Los Angeles, I am pleased to confirm our enthusiastic interest in bidding to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We are proud of our city’s sports heritage and tradition, and we stand ready to work with you to bring the Olympic Games back to the United States.”

Last year Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution of support for a 2024 Olympic Games bid.

The letter to the USOC also included a letter of support from the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games, which included signatures from Magic Johnson, Tom Hanks, Olympic gold medalist Janet Evans, and AEG president and CEO Tim Leiweke.

Los Angeles hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics. The host for the 2024 Games will be awarded in 2017.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) intends to review procedures for issuing tickets at Olympics, after problems in London.

“We are definitely going to review the ticketing policy of the Games IOC president Jacques Rogge said at a pres conference today. “This is one of the issues that we are going to review in Rio in the general debrief and there will be a working group together with LOCOG to work on that.” 

According to Rogge the sale of tickets is “a very complicated issue because you need a good balance between the home public and the rest of the world, because the athletes of the world deserve also to have their nationals being present at the Games as supporters”.

Rogge said that the IOC would examine the current system of distribution tickets through National Olympic Committees’ organised ticket resellers to see if it could continue and how it could be improved.

American Airlines Center, home to the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and NHL’s Dallas Stars, has agreed a partnership with SpotlightTMS to provide SpotlightTMS to its suite and platinum customers as a value-added feature of its premium seating packages, the company announced today.

The SpotlightTMS Software as a Service (SaaS) application will enable American Airlines Center’s Platinum Premier members to manage ticket and suite inventory for 170 annual events, including the Dallas Mavericks’ and Dallas Stars’ home games, while measuring the business impact of these entertainment assets.

“We want to ensure that our suite and platinum customers have the tools they need to get the most value from their premium assets at American Airlines Center,” said Brad Mayne, president of Center Operating Company, the firm that operates American Airlines Center.“SpotlightTMS is very active across professional sports leagues and with the Association of Luxury Suite Directors, so it was the only software company we seriously considered. SpotlightTMS is being used so commonly by our peers that selecting the software for our corporate customers was an easy decision.”

According to Mayne, the premium seating industry has grown so much over the past ten years that the volume of ticket inventory held by corporations has become difficult to manage through outdated manual processes or internal systems. SpotlightTMS offers companies secure access through the Internet to manage these ticket inventories, distribute tickets, analyze the results of ticket usage and acquire additional tickets from multiple sources. The software also helps companies meet IRS and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance reporting requirements and avoid violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act – all of which, combined, result in billions of dollars in fines and penalties to U.S. companies annually.

SpotlightTMS enables corporations to increase sales effectiveness, reduce ticket fraud through role-based permission approval for ticket requests, and reduce administrative time and money. By providing SpotlightTMS as part of its premium suite and seating packages, American Airlines Center adds value to these packages and enables the venue’s Platinum Premier clients to increase revenue and ROI on use of their tickets and suites.

“By offering SpotlightTMS as a benefit to its premium customers, American Airlines Center is not only adding value to ticket and suite investments, but enabling these companies to validate the business impact of these assets,” said Tony Knopp, SpotlightTMS CEO and co-founder. “At renewal time, this can be a powerful endorsement of the impact corporate entertaining can have on the bottom line.”

Cloud delivery of the software means that American Airlines Center’s corporate customers do not need to invest in additional hardware, or handle software installation, set up or maintenance. The benefits of SpotlightTMS can be realized immediately.

Borussia Dortmund have become the latest German soccer club to agree a partnership with a solar energy company.

European soccer’s governing body UEFA has increased the pressure on its world ruling body FIFA by urging it to introduce “concrete” reforms within the next three months.

Allegations of corruption have been rife in the organisation for many years but have come to fruition and public attention more than ever this year with Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Mohamed Bin Hammam – Sepp Blatter’s former presidential challenger – and CONCACAF president Jack Warner having been provisionally suspended pending a full investigation.

At the conclusion of the June meeting of UEFA’s executive committee, general secretary Gianni Infantino said: “The UEFA executive committee has taken note of the will of FIFA to take concrete and effective measures for good governance. It hopes to see results within three months and it is following the situation closely. We want whatever it is FIFA chooses to do to be concrete.

After the FA were lambasted within FIFA for attempting to postpone the vote which saw Sepp Blatter re-elected president for a fourth term, UEFA president Michel Platini spoke warmly of the FA late last week when announcing the decision to re-award the Champions League final rights to Wenbley Stadium in 2013. He stated: “I think it is important to respect 150 years of the FA.

“We are gathered here because 150 years ago, there were people in England who put football’s rules in place. I believe it is a real moment of respect – if we forget the past, we do not have a future.”

Whilst calling for reforms from its ‘big brother’ FIFA, UEFA has made a major announcement to world soccer by appointing a woman as a member of its decision-making Executive Committee.

Within weeks of Platini announcing at the organisation’s Congress in Paris that he wanted more female representation on board, Karen Espelund was made a member of the Executive Committee by invitation rather than election.

At the recent Congress, Platini stated: “We must a find a way to break the glass ceiling preventing women from reaching positions of responsibility within our organisations.”

The Norwegian is no stranger to positions of authority having been general secretary of her country’s federation for the last 10 years, as well as serving as head of UEFA Women’s Football Committee.

Birmingham International Holdings Limited, viagra the holding company of Birmingham City Football Club, tadalafil have revealed today a British consortium has made an offer to buy aminority stake in the Championship club. 

Acting chairman Peter Pannu said: “I can confirm that BIHL remains in advanced talks with a British consortium with a very strong North American investment fund.

“However, specific details cannot be disclosed at this moment in time due to non-disclosure agreements and HKSE regulations. There are many technical issues still to be resolved and legal representatives from both parties remain in advanced discussions to pave the way forward.”

Football Federation Australia (FFA) have today re-elected Moya Dodd and elected Peter Tredinnick and Cheryl Bart to the Board of Directors, viagra order at their Annual Meeting. 

Dodd, a former Matildas international, is a member of the FIFA Executive Committee and a Vice-President of the Asian Football Confederation.

Tredinnick, a senior partner in law firm Moray and Agnew and a former Socceroo international, is elected to a full four-year term having previously filled a casual vacancy for the past 15 months.

Bart, an experienced company director, is elected to the FFA Board having previously served in the national governance of the game as a Director of the former Soccer Australia administration.

The meeting in Sydney was attended by the FFA stakeholders from the nine State and Territory Member Federations

British wrestling have defended their policy of foreign imports following an attack from the sport’s international governing body.

FILA president Raphael Martinetti slammed Team GB for only fielding one athlete when they were awarded three places.

Leon Rattigan and Oleksandr Madyarchyk were ruled as not good enough to compete by the British Olympic Association despite narrowly missing qualifying targets.

“FILA is not used to having host nation places returned to it,” said British wrestling chief Colin Nicholson. “That was the result of a BOA policy, a policy of returning host nation places where the agreed selection criteria hasn’t been met.

“There is no doubt that British Wrestling was able to field three credible athletes at the Olympics.

“The other two athletes (Rattigan and Madyarchyk) have both beaten other wrestlers who are participating in the Olympic Games in previous competitions.”

It meant only Ukraine-born Olga Butkevych was Britain’s only representative – and she crashed out of the -55kg freestyle in the first round.

“The policy of bringing training partners to Britain was to raise standards,” Nicholson said of the policy that began five years ago.

Die Continental AG baut die Berichterstattung auf ihrer in Deutsch und Englischangebotenen Fußball-Website www.ContiSoccerWorld.de auf dem Weg zur UEFA EURO2012 weiter aus. Bis zum Finale Mitte Mai 2012 stand noch das Sponsoring des DFB-Pokal im Vordergrund, seitdem liegt der Fokus als einer der Offiziellen Sponsoren auf derBerichterstattung rund um die UEFA EURO 2012TM.

Im ersten Schritt wurden bis zum Beginn des zusammen mit den OlympischenSommerspielen 2012 in London wohl wichtigsten Sportereignisses des Jahres Teamportraitsvon allen 16 Mannschaften sowie Informationen rund um die acht Stadien erstellt. ZahlreichePortraits von Favoriten und Außenseitern, Stars und Talenten, Spiel- und Gruppenanalysensowie Hintergrundberichte über Kuriositäten der EM-Geschichte werden in den nächsten dreiWochen folgen. Darüber hinaus bietet Continental auch einige Service-Themen für Fußball-Fans und einen Live-Ticker an – für diejenigen, die vor Ort ein werden, aber auch für die zuHause gebliebenen, die die UEFA EURO 2012 am Bildschirm oder im Internet verfolgen.

“Mit unserer Website ContiSoccerWorld führen wir die exklusive Berichterstattung rund umunsere wichtigsten Sponsoring-Engagements fort. Nach dem DFB-Pokal ist ja bekanntlichvor der UEFA EURO 2012TM wie auch vor der FIFA WM 2014, die neben der laufendenSaison der Major League Soccer ebenso schon am Horizont zu sehen ist wie die nächsteSaison des FC Bayern München”, sagte Continental-Pressesprecher Alexander Bahlmann.