Ignite Game Technologies (“Ignite”), the gaming company creating a completely new online racing experience — Simraceway today unveiled legendary sports car and ex-Formula One driver Allan McNish as the latest professional racer to join its talented development team.

McNish will take up a dual role assisting with the development of the game’s vehicle physics and training a new generation of real-world drivers at its racing facility, the Simraceway Performance Driving Center (formerly the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School).

The Scot, who made his mark on endurance racing history with two 24 Hours of Le Mans triumphs and three American Le Mans Series titles, will focus on ensuring the authenticity of Simraceway’s vast range of sports cars. He joins a talented development team that is already benefiting from the experience and expertise of four-time IndyCar Series winner Dario Franchitti and double Indianapolis 500 Champion Dan Wheldon, who played a key role in the title’s development before his death in October 2011.

Ignite CEO Jonathan Haswell was delighted to have added McNish to Simraceway’s list of pro racers. “When we began our search for a driver to help us perfect Simraceway’s sports car physics, Allan’s name was right at the top of our list. The sheer depth and breadth of his knowledge and ability will provide us with an unparalleled resource which we can call on to help make Simraceway the most authentic racing game on the market. Thanks to Allan and Dario’s presence on the team, and Dan’s invaluable legacy, I feel like we are perfectly placed following our public beta launch in November.”

McNish, a central figure in the Jim Russell Future Driver Search, established in 2009 to discover the world’s finest young racers, will also assist with driver development programs at Simraceway’s real-world racing school, the Simraceway Performance Driving Center. The former F1 driver will spend time at the Infineon Raceway-based facility, calling on his three decades of competitive experience to train the students there. His unrivalled expertise will form part of a revolutionary program that utilizes real-world training methods alongside Simraceway’s simulation-grade software.

“It’s a thrill to be teaming up with Ignite on such an exciting project,” said McNish. “Through both Simraceway and the Simraceway Performance Driving Center, I’ll be able to achieve something that has always been very close to my heart: helping to develop the next generation of driving talent.”

by Ismail Uddin

The English FA is scheduled to deliver its report on Lord Triesman’s allegations of unethical behaviour by four exco members during last year’s World Cup bidding process to FIFA by Friday, May 27.

However, the refusal to stand in front of the body by the ‘whistleblower’ who told the Sunday Times that Qatar had bribed FIFA members in exchange for votes may significantly undermine the report as those allegations had always been considered far more serious than the accusations levelled at individuals by Triesman.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter had said: “We are anxiously awaiting for these evidences or non-evidences in order that we can take the adequate steps. The newspaper has agreed that we will bring this whistleblower here to Zurich and then we will have an investigation of this.”

However FIFA has now stated that the whistleblower had pulled out “on legal advice.” In a statement, Qatar’s bid team said the evidence was “wholly unsupported” by any first-hand evidence.

It added: “These individuals… do not state when the alleged bribes were to be paid, how the negotiations with the individuals concerned had been conducted or crucially how they came to know of the alleged bribes. On any proper view, their evidence is worthless.”

FIFA’s ethic commission will have only a matter of three days in which to assess the strength of Triesman’s evidence against Ricardo Teixeira (Brazil), Nicolas Leoz (Paraguay and CONMEBOL president), Worawi Makudi (Thailand) and Jack Warner (CONCACAF president).

The UK’s minister for sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson has said construction work of the Olympic Park in east London is now 83 per cent complete following the completion of the handball arena.

The arena is the third in the Olympic Park grounds to have been completed and will seat 7,000 people. The venue is due to become a multi-use sports centre for athletics training and community use after the 2012 Games. 

The basketball venue is likely to be the next to be completed and the 12,000-seat venue will also stage wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby and the final stages of the handball competition, billed as one of the largest temporary venues built for any Olympics.

The 6,000-seat velodrome was also unveiled in February, while the last piece of turf on the stadium’s field was laid in March.

The public sector funding package for the Games has stayed at £9.3bn (US$15.1bn), however, the estimated costs for the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), in charge of Olympic building and infrastructure, has been cut by £35m ($56.9m) to £7.27bn ($11.82bn).

Robertson said: “We continue to seek value for money and cost savings in our day-to-day running of the project.”

IMG Worldwide, the global sports and entertainment company, has signed Australian swimmer and five-time Olympic gold medallist Ian Thorpe as a global client.

Thorpe will be represented outside of Australia, New Zealand and Japan by IMG who will work closely with his existing team, Grand Slam International.

IMG will also help develop the Thorpedo brand as well as Thorpe’s charitable foundation, Fountain for Youth.

Since taking a break from swimming, Thorpe has dedicated his time to Fountain for Youth. The organisation aims to embrace humanity by nurturing children, specifically raising funds for disadvantaged children and research into childhood illnesses, focusing on education as a catalyst for improved health.

Thorpe has won a total of nine Olympic medals, including five gold medals. He was also the first person to win six gold medals at one World Championship.

NASCAR has appointed Kenny Mitchell to Managing Director of Brand and Consumer Marketing.

He will be responsible for leading and implementing the company’s overall brand direction and overseeing the strategic growth plans for several critical segments, viagra 100mg including youth, millennial and multicultural. Mitchell will start on Monday, December 2, and be based out of NASCAR’s headquarters in Daytona Beach.

Mitchell is the next step in the evolution of NASCAR’s marketing function reporting to Vice President of Marketing Kim Brink. He will be responsible for developing and executing the annual NASCAR marketing plan and overseeing the company’s media strategies and planning in close collaboration with other NASCAR departments. Additionally, he will work on advancing the Industry Action Plan strategies aimed at growing and diversifying the sport’s fan base. 

Mitchell joins NASCAR from Dew Tour, a Division of Alli and The NBC Sports Group, where he served as vice president and general manager, responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Dew Tour brand and business, including partnerships, sales, marketing, content, events operations and execution. In addition, he led all business development and expansion efforts.

Prior to joining the Dew Tour, Mitchell spent time at Gatorade/PepsiCo. While at Gatorade, he held several brand management and sports marketing positions. Most notably, Mitchell served as the director of sports marketing at Gatorade where he managed many of the brand’s sports marketing partnerships, including athlete and property relations, sponsorship negotiations, activation and the creation and execution of retail programming.

“We are confident that Kenny’s wealth of marketing experience and solid sports background will help to guide NASCAR in our efforts to grow the brand across several key demographics,” said NASCAR Chief Marketing Officer Steve Phelps. “Kenny’s innovative work in developing and growing brands so that they appeal to a younger and more diverse audience makes him the perfect fit for this role and our organization.”

Eight women badminton players have been disqualified by the sport’s federation on Wednesday following deliberant attempts to lose at the Olympics and manipulate the draw.

They were disqualified following a formal disciplinary hearing by the Badminton World Federation, but were not expelled from the Games. It was not clear what that meant for their future participation in London.

The players involved were China’s world champions Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang, Indonesia’s Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari and two South Korean pairs – Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na, and Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung.

The four women’s doubles pairs, two of which are from South Korea, were accused of throwing Tuesday night’s matches to get a favourable position in the draw for the knock-out phase.

The South Korean and Indonesian pairs are appealing the decision.

Lord Coe, chairman of London’s organising committee, called the incident “unacceptable.” “Who wants to sit through something like that?” he added.

The audience were flabergasted by the scenes and booed the players, who included Chinese world doubles champions Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang, after the longest rally in their first game was only four strokes. The outcome of the game would determine which team they faced in the knockout rounds.

Gail Emms, a 2004 British Olympic badminton silver medallist watching the game, said it was “very embarrassing” for the sport and was not in the Olympic spirit.

Paul Deighton, the chief executive of London 2012 said spectators at the matches would not receive a refund for their tickets as they also saw other games.

FIFA has stepped up its social media strategies by launching it’s own YouTube Channel to make the world football federation’s rich audiovisual content more accessible to fans.

FIFA on YouTube features tailor-made football match action from the most recent FIFA competitions, including the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa and the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011 Germany, top player profiles and clips from FIFA documentaries, FIFA Futbol Mundialshows and the 2014 Brazil monthly magazine show.

This content will be updated and expanded regularly and will be complemented with content from the non-competitive side, such as features on football development, social development initiatives and human interest stories, as well as video news releases and live streaming of media events.

“FIFA is keen to engage with football fans beyond our competitions by sharing our rich visual content with them, and for this there is no better platform in terms of reach and penetration than YouTube,” said Joseph S. Blatter, President of FIFA . “We want to provide YouTube users with the greatest moments of FIFA World Cup history but also invite them to share theirs with us.”

Stephen Nuttall, YouTube’s senior director of sports partnerships in EMEA, said: “We are very excited that FIFA is launching its channel on YouTube. This new channel will allow a global audience to discover and interact with videos featuring the best footballers competing in the most prestigious tournaments. This is one more example that YouTube is increasingly the place for football,” he added.

While content for FIFA on YouTube is at present sourced primarily from FIFA Films’ voluminous archive, the aim is to further engage with fans by including user-generated content and other interactive offerings, as well as material from FIFA’s many stakeholders.

by Ismail Uddin

After being accused and investigated by the FIFA Ethic Committee with alleged bribe offering yesterday, May 25, Mohamed Bin Hammam has hit back, claiming the move was “little more than a tactic” on the the part of the opposing camp loyal to Sepp Blatter.

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Bin Hammam, along with FIFA vice-president Jack Warner have both been charged and ordered to appear before the organisation’s Ethics Committee on Sunday, May 29, where they will almost certainly face long bans if found guilty.

Bin Hammam stated: “This has been a difficult and painful day for me. But if there is even the slightest justice in the world, these allegations will vanish in the wind.

“This move is little more than a tactic being used by those who have no confidence in their own ability to emerge successfully from the FIFA Presidential election.”

General secretary of CONCACAF, American Chuck Blazer, presented FIFA with a dossier alleging violations of the code of ethics during a meeting organised by Bin Hammam and Warner for Caribbean Football Union (CFU) federations. 

Two CFU officials, Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester, have also been charged. In reporting to FIFA with the allegations Blazer is fighting against his own president at CONCACAF, Warner.

There is no precedent of a senior FIFA administrator citing a breach of ethics by another but Bin Hammam totally dismisses the accusations, adding: “I remain deeply indebted to Mr Warner for his sense of fair play because without his support and understanding I would not have been able to meet with several important member associations of FIFA to discuss my election manifesto.

“I completely deny any allegations of wrongdoing either intentionally or unknowingly while I was in the Caribbean. 

“I will speak to Mr Warner on this subject and offer him my full support in ensuring we are discharged honourably by the FIFA Ethics Committee, a body which I hold in the highest esteem.

“I am confident that there is no charge to answer and that I will be free to stand in the FIFA Presidential election on 1 June as originally planned.”

The National Football League’s (NFL) Minnesota Vikings have agreed to help fund a proposed US$1bn, retractable-roof stadium project in the latest attempt by the team to get a new home after the Metrodome’s roof collapsed last season.

The Vikings would commit $407m to the project, or about 39 per cent of the total cost, the team said yesterday in a news release. The team didn’t say how the remainder of the stadium would be financed.

Vikings owner Zygi Wilf said in the release: “Reaching an agreement with Ramsey County as our local partner is a major milestone in our efforts to finalize a long-term stadium solution.”

While the team appreciates other proposals made by Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Wilf added: “We believe the Ramsey County site offers the most benefits to our fans, the team and the state and is the ideal site for a new stadium.”

The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, which owns the Metrodome, said in February it will spend about $18.1m to replace the stadium’s damaged roof before the start of the 2011 football season after it collapsed in December under the weight of 17 inches of snow, forcing the Vikings to relocate their final two home games of the season.