Lamine Diack is set to extend his reign as President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) into a fourth term by being re-elected unopposed at the sport’s Congress later this year.

It has been confirmed that no-one else put themselves forward to challenge him despite rumours that IAAF vice-presidents Sebastian Coe, the former double Olympic 1500 metres champion who is now the chairman of London 2012, and Sergey Bubka, the world record holder for the pole vault, had both been mentioned as possible candidates.

Diack had succeeded Primo Nebiolo after the Italian’s sudden death in 1999 and the Senegalese, who will turn 78 next month, had said when he had been re-elected for another four-year term at Osaka in 2007 that he would not stand again.

He has since changed his mind and claimed that he has been reinvigorated by the prospect of overseeing the sport up until London 2012 and beyond, adding: “I am in very good health, and have even started doing daily exercise again.

“I am very enthusiastic and optimistic about the sport, and really want to complete my mission during my last mandate as head of the IAAF. “

On August 24, the same day that Diack will be officially re-elected at the IAAF Congress in Daegu, there will also be elections for the IAAF Council, which Coe and Bubka will both be contesting.

The candidate who gains the most votes is set to be installed as the senior vice-president, putting them in prime position to take over when Diack steps down in four years time and Diack stated: “I am sure that after the Congress in Daegu we will elect a very experienced and competent team, and I especially look forward to working hard with them in the interests of athletics.”

Major new £1.45bn (US$2.35bn) retail and leisure development, Westfield Stratford City, that will form the gateway to the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, is still looking to host both rights-holding and non-rights-holding broadcasters during the Games with facilities in place that offer a spectacular view of the Olympic Park.

Westfield Stratford City will be the largest urban shopping centre in Europe with 1.9 million square foot of retail and leisure land, 300 shops and over 50 places to dine upon its scheduled opening on September 13.

There is still a limited number of leases available, including space on the top floor of the venue for rights-holding and non-rights-holding broadcasters.

Westfield Stratford City are due to host two non-rights-holding broadcasters during the London 2012 Games already, and with the location offering arguably the best view around of the Olympic Park as well as brand new facilities able to cater for all media demands, the retail centre are confident they will have at least five or six broadcasters working at the venue during the Games.

Mark Zimmer, the Westfield Stratford City Head of Olympic Brand Alliance, stated: “At present, we are set to have two non-accredited broadcasters broadcasting from this venue but we are currently in talks with a number of accredited broadcasters and by the time we get to London 2012; I imagine we will have a combination of both here.

“It obviously works for both because the venue is not actually on the Olympic Park but offers a spectacular view of it and it also has all the facilities to cater for the media following an in-depth feasibility study from us.

“The location is obviously a fantastic one for all of our partners and during the Games, we have so far confirmed that two major National Olympic Committees will be hosting cooperate functions with us.

“Retailers leasing here also have a huge advantage as 70 per cent of visitors to the Games will pass through Westfield City Stratford and therefore walk directly past the retail shops.

“We will clearly have to be careful regarding ambush marketing on the Olympic Games and abide by the strict laws in place.

“We also want to be good neighbours to the London 2012 Organising Committee so the Official Olympic Sponsors have been offered first refusal on taking up the space here.

“However, that doesn’t rule out other companies being based here and receiving the huge advantage of having so many people here before, during and after the Games.

“Around 10 million people will visit the 2012 Olympics including 20,000 journalists, 10,500 athletes, 5,000 sponsors, 70,000 volunteers and 9.7 million ticketed spectators so to have around 70 per cent of them coming through Westfield City Stratford is a huge boost and illustrates the phenomenal benefits to retailers based here.”

Former Manchester City chief Graham Wallace has been appointed chief executive officer of Scottish League One team Rangers.

Wallace, 52, was previously chief operating officer at Manchester City and is also former chief financial officer with IMG and MTV Europe.

The Ibrox CEO post has been vacant since Craig Mather’s departure in October.

And Rangers in recent weeks have appointed David Somers as acting chairman and Norman Crighton as a non-executive director.

They joined James Easdale and finance director Brian Stockbridge on a board which been depleted by the resignations of Mather, chairman Walter Smith and director Ian Hart.

Dumfries-born Graham will assume his role immediately and also joins the Rangers International Football Club Plc board of directors.

“I watched from afar as the Rangers support came to the club’s aid during the times of turmoil and now it is the turn of the board and management to provide the stability and governance to drive Rangers’ recovery forward and ensure further football success,” said Graham.

Global sports brand, viagra adidas has announced their Olympic sponsorship has allowed them to reach their £100 million ($156m) sales mark.

adidas CEO Herbert Hainer (pictured) said the German group had sold around £100m of Olympics merchandise since products first hit the shops over a year ago, asthma with more to come.

adidas has got its money back on the 100 million pounds it has invested in sponsoring London 2012 and associated marketing.

“The biggest sales are coming now, apoplectic ” Hainer said from the adidas media centre in London that the company has set up next to the Olympic Park in Stratford for the duration of the Games. “We can see people are queuing in stores now to get their products.”

Hainer, speaking to journalists after adidas reported second-quarter results, said licensed product sales were already more than triple what it achieved in Beijing, making London 2012 the most successful Games ever for adidas from a commercial perspective.

Traditionally, sportswear makers do not see the Olympics as such a big money-spinner as football tournaments. The Euro 2012, for example, will help adidas to record football sales of over 1.6 billion euros ($2 billion) this year.

Along with making the official London 2012 sports apparel merchandise – which does not feature its three-stripes logo – for sale in the UK, adidas provides the kit for hosts Team GB, replicas of which can be bought in stores.

As official sportswear partner, it is also providing 3 million items of clothing for the athletes to wear in the Olympic village and for volunteers.

adidas will not be official sportswear partner of the next Olympics in Brazil in 2016. Hainer said the group had decided instead to focus on the football World Cup, also to be held in Brazil in 2014.

Undoubtedly the biggest public corruption scandal of its history hit world soccer’s governing body FIFA this weekend, which saw presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam and key executive committee member Jack Warner suspended as the roof was lifted on the much maligned body’s worst kept secret.

It was reported that Qatari Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Mohamed Bin Hammam had withdrawn his presidential candidacy after being investigated on charges of corruption following a report handed to FIFA’s ethics committee by American ExCo member Chuck Blazer. The report also claimed that Warner was highly involved in offering and accepting bribes as well as investigating current current incumbent Sepp Blatter’s role in the farce to a lesser degree.

The outcome saw the two former officials provisionally suspended despite both denying the allegations, with Bin Hammam having already appealed the suspension. It is now known that Blatter’s challenger did not officially withdraw his candidacy and holds extremely slim hopes of overturning the decision in order to stand against his Swiss counterpart, who is now the sole candidate in tomorrow’s election.

In an extraordinary weekend of breaking news FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke was forced to retract claims made in an email published by the shamed Warner, saying that Qatar had bought the 2022 World Cup. Valcke confirmed that the email was genuine but stated that the comments he made were taken out of context and lost in email translation in a desperate attempt to clear the bids name after the scandal of the ‘whistleblower’ reported by the Sunday Times.

In his explaination Valcke claimed that he was referring only to Qatar’s huge marketing budget, as opposed to unethical behaviour, adding: “What I wanted to say is that the winning bid used their financial strength to lobby for support. I have at no time made, or was intending to make, any reference to any purchase of votes or similar unethical behaviour.”

The retraction was enough for Blatter, and indeed FIFA, to declare that the Qatar bid team were innocent in their lobbying process after the body found ‘no evidence’ from the Sunday Times report to take the case to the ethics committee.

The allegations made by former FA Chairman Lord Triesman were also disregarded with the FAs report suggesting that four ExCo members, including Warner, sought bribes in return for their backing in the 2018 World Cup bidding process at the end of last year. After claiming that there was no case to answer with regards to the report, FIFA agreed to publish a summary of the findings from the FAs case against its members.

As all this occurred, Blatter, who now stands as the sole candidate for re-election into what would be his fourth term as president, was forced to confront the press yesterday, Monday 30, though many of his comments only managed to multiply the feeling among many that a complete overhaul is necessary.

When asked as to whether the latest findings and allegations of corruption within the body had left FIFA in a crisis, Blatter stated: “What is a crisis? Football is not in a crisis. When you see the final of the Champions League then you must applaud. So we are not in a crisis, we are only in some difficulties.”

In a key development, FIFA’s major sponsors Coca-Cola and Adidas have both gone on record confirming their concern following the allegations of corruption that have engulfed the body.

Following the weekend’s extraordinary developments, a Coca-Cola spokesperson told the Press Association: “The current allegations being raised are distressing and bad for the sport. We have every expectation that FIFA will resolve this situation in an expedient and thorough manner.”

An Adidas spokesman had stated: “Adidas enjoys a long-term, close and successful partnership with FIFA that we are looking forward to continuing. Adidas will be an official sponsor of FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil. Having said that, the negative tenor of the public debate around FIFA at the moment is neither good for football nor for FIFA and its partners.”

In other news, overshadowed by the chaotic weekend, the FIFA Executive Committee decided to lift the suspensions on the football associations of Bosnia-Herzegovina (FFBH) and Brunei Darussalam (NFABD, formerly BAFA) during their meeting held yesterday, May 30, at the Home of FIFA in Zurich.

The Olympic Stadium row looks set to drag on further following the revelation that two casino chains have now launched judicial reviews into the decision-making procedures of the local authority.

City and Eastern and Apollo are both questioning Newham Council’s right to grant a license to a third company, Aspers, to build a casino within the adjacent Westfield Stratford City shopping centre.

The council is now under attack on four fronts following separate judicial reviews launched by soccer clubs Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League and Leyton Orient of League One, who are both fighting the decision to allow West Ham United to move to Stratford in 2014 after the Olympics and Paralympics.

A City and Eastern spokesman said: “The Gambling Act of 2009 makes it very clear that as party of any casino bid, regeneration has to form a significant element.

“Our project and that of Apollo both had over £250 million ($405 million) of urban regeneration. 

“This deal has been done behind closed doors in the dark. 

“Why wasn’t the bidding process open?”

Tottenham are unhappy with the process which led to West Ham being chosen as the winner after Newham Council arranged a US$65m loan to finance the move. The club have since widened their appeal and asked the High Court to start a separate judicial review into the roles of several other parties involved.

Fergus Kinloch, Director of City and Eastern, said it was clear his organisation never had a chance of winning the bid – exactly the same argument being used by Tottenham – stating: “Newham Council has in our view needlessly turned away over £250 million ($405 million) of investment plus substantial financial benefits for local residents, and at a time when councils are having to make major spending cuts.

“The whole situation quite simply beggars belief and certainly doesn’t work in the best interests of Newham residents.”

Sports agency MP & Silva has opened new offices in London and Munich, it has been announced.

The new offices form part of the agency’s expansion plans in Western and central Europe. The London office will become the centre of European operations, and group chief executive Andrea Radrizzani will lead operations while Miriam Sherlock will handle commercial activities around the UK.

In the Munich office, Peter Leible will be chief representative for Germany, Switzerland and Austria, and will be responsible for commercial activities across the three areas.

Radrizzani said: “We have been waiting for the right time to strengthen our footprint in Europe. We are cautiously positive about the future for European television, with digital TV building up strong momentum over the last three quarters.

“We believe our new operations will enable us to capitalise on the upturn in all of the key European television markets, led by the UK in the lead in to the London 2012 Olympics.”

MP & Silva now has a total of 12 offices around the world.

The International Triathlon Union (ITU) has begun the bidding process for the World Triathlon Championships 2015 to all National Federations and cities interested in hosting the final race of the 2015 World Triathlon Series. 

“ITU is committed to hosting top level events in iconic cities, capsule ” ITU President and IOC Member Marisol Casado said. “As our sport continues to rise in popularity, nurse we believe hosting the ITU World Triathlon Championships offers cities the possibility to showcase their city to a global audience.” 

In 2009, the championships were revamped, expanding the former single-day World Championship race into an exciting multi-city global series, during which athletes vie for prize money totaling more than $2 million USD. The series culminates with the ITU World Triathlon Championships, which will continue to be called the World Triathlon Grand Final through 2013. 

In addition to crowning the elite ITU World Champions, the World Championships include the junior and Under23 divisions, as well as Paratriathlon, Aquathlon and age group races. The week of action also includes the annual ITU Congress, which has representation from more than 140 countries. 

Hosting the World Triathlon Championships 2015 offers cities the opportunity to showcase themselves to millions of worldwide television audiences while attracting thousands of international guests and race participants. 

With record high participants in 2012, the Barfoot & Thompson ITU World Triathlon Grand Final generated a 307% return on national investment, while television exposure for the overall series increased by 18%. 

The 2013 World Triathlon Series will conclude at the iconic Olympic venue in Hyde Park from 11-15 September 2013, giving all athletes the opportunity to compete on the same stage as the 2012 Olympians. The 2014 World Triathlon Championships were recently awarded to Edmonton, which previously hosted the event in 2001.