American corporation Procter & Gamble are expecting to make $500 million in additional sales through the London 2012 Olympics even though they issued a profit warning last month.

The London Olympics open on Friday and are the first Games sponsored by the world’s largest maker of household products after it signed a 10-year agreement in 2010.

They come at a tough time for the company. P&G is in the midst of a $10 billion restructuring programme and activist investor William Ackman has recently bought into the business, raising pressure on management to turn it around in the face of slowing demand in China, the United States and Western Europe.

Speaking during a visit to London for the Games, Marc Pritchard, the company’s global brand building officer said the Olympic campaign was money well spent by the 175-year-old company, the world’s largest advertiser.

“This is the largest and most ambitious campaign that we have ever done and it’s one of the highest returns on investment campaigns that we have done,” Pritchard told Reuters in a telephone interview.

He did not put a figure on the cost of the sponsorship and marketing around it but said much of it had come out of existing budgets.

“We took lower return spending, we shifted it over to higher return activities so there was very little that was extra,” he said. “That’s going to generate … an extra $500 million in extra sales over the course of the year.”

The Olympics are funded in part by 11 global sponsors who pay an average of around $100 million each for worldwide marketing rights over a four-year cycle, covering a Winter and Summer Games.

P&G, whose brands include washing powders Ariel and Tide, Pampers nappies and Gillette razors, spent $9.3 billion, more than 11 percent of sales, on advertising in its last financial year.

After London, the Games go to Sochi in Russia for the 2014 Winter Olympics before Rio hosts the 2016 Games. Brazil and Russia are among the developing economies where P&G is seeking to target growth.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has revealed goal-line technology could be in place for the 2012-13 season after two tested technology systems have proved themselves fast and accurate.

Testing of nine systems is currently taking place and Blatter said the Brazil 2014 World Cup would have goal-line technology that met all of FIFA’s demands. Blatter told German newspaper Bild a decision would be taken by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) in March at a meeting in London.

He said: “There are now systems that combine precision, speed and are uncomplicated. We are now in the testing phase and the IFAB will vote in March 2012 in London over using this resource. If the final decision is made, it can be used from the 2012-13 season.”

He added in Spanish sports daily El Mundo Deportivo: “Brazil 2014 will have technology to avoid phantom goals. FIFA has two good systems that meet all the demands we set: reliability, immediacy and not being difficult to use.”

The systems that have been worked on for years by British firm Hawk-Eye and German company Cairos are likely to be the ones closest to passing the tests.

Blatter also re-stated his insistence that the 2022 World Cup will definitely take place in Qatar despite calls for last year’s vote to be investigated.

He said: “The 2022 World Cup will definitely take place in Qatar and with my full confidence. This has been firmly established by a democratic process.”

The 75-year-old also said he would not step down as president before 2015, the date he announced earlier this year for his retirement.

He added: “FIFA is a boat that we are piloting through autumn storms and I have to lead it into calm waters again. We have a lot of work to do and my father taught me to never quit. In our family, we carried on until we achieved our goals.

“By 2013 we can steer back into those calmer waters. Then I will have two years to hoist the sails in order to enjoy the sailing trip and then I can say ‘Goodbye’.”

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Mohamed Bin Hammam, sole challenger to current FIFA presidential incumbent Sepp Blatter, has denied that the organisation is corrupt following fresh bribery allegations involving four more Ex-co members, but conceded that it has battered its reputation.

Former English FA and England 2018 bid chairman David Triesman used a parliamentary inquiry into the failing of England’s World Cup bid on Tuesday, May 10, to allege that four FIFA Ex-co members demanded inducements in return for voting for England during its campaign.

The fresh allegations mean that a total of 8 of the 24 FIFA Ex-co members have been embroiled in the World Cup bid bribery scandal.

Bin Hammam used a blog post today to defend FIFA, saying something urgently needed to be done to improve its image, attacking his Swiss counterpart in the process.

The Qatari AFC chief wrote: “The name of our great sport and its leading institution have been dragged through the mud once more. I will happily and unreservedly restate that I firmly believe FIFA, as a decision-making body and as an organisation, is not corrupt.”

He claimed that much wonderful work was done by FIFA and “to label the entire organisation corrupt would be to tarnish the efforts of all those who operate tirelessly to bring all that is positively associated with our sport to people all over the globe”.

However, the 62-year-old admitted: “However, under the current status quo it is impossible to deny that the governing body’s reputation has been sullied beyond compare and it is time for that to change.”

Under Bin Hammam’s election manifesto, he promises to establish an independent anti-corruption unit, a plan which has been echoed by Blatter. If re-elected, Blatter pledges to form a “council of the wise”, which he has described as “a higher-level body to Congress that is intended to restore the credibility of FIFA in terms of corporate governance and compliance.”

Bin Hammam went on to criticise Blatter for donating US$20m to Interpol to tackle illegal betting and match-fixing without first getting the FIFA ruling body’s approval for the initiative, adding: “This decision was taken arbitrarily by the FIFA President and was not discussed with the Executive Committee.

“It is just another example of the current regime choosing to run football how it sees fit, rather than doing so in a manner that is consistent with the governing body’s proper procedures.

“How on earth can we convince people of FIFA’s innocence? A new atmosphere needs to descend upon FIFA; there needs to be an opportunity for new ideas to take hold and for the organisation to take a new direction.”

Nike, recipe Inc.  have promoted Scott LeClair to Vice President of Action Sports it has been announced today.

The 47 year-old, anabolics currently the Brand’s VP and GM of Nike Skate and Nike Snow, will be responsible for leading the category as well as for Hurley International, LLC. Nike veteran Roger Wyett, 56, who was previously in the role, has decided to retire.

LeClair joined Nike in 1992 and has led Nike’s skate and snow business since June 2012. He has held previous roles in North America and was GM of Nike’s West Territory based in Los Angeles, before moving to Japan to lead the running category and then the merchandising function. He will report to Jayme Martin, VP & GM of Global Categories.

“We’re very pleased that Scott will lead us forward. He is a proven leader with strong brand expertise and his deep knowledge of Action Sports will be instrumental as we continue to build our business globally,” said Martin.

“Roger is a tremendous leader and his impact over the years at Nike has been significant,” said Trevor Edwards, President of the Nike Brand.  “We wish him all the best in his retirement and want to thank him for all he has done to inspire our teams, drive strong business growth and consumer connections across our portfolio of brands around the world.”

Wyett was most recently responsible for the Nike Brand’s skateboarding and snow businesses, as well as Hurley. Wyett first joined Nike in 1994 and was part of the pioneering team that led Nike into the global football business. He has held a variety of roles, including CEO of Hurley, Vice President of Global Apparel and President of the Affiliates.

As the world descends on London for the Olympic Games an estimated £700 ($1.1bn) million will be transferred into UK pounds by visitors from overseas, anabolics according to currency brokers World First.

“Obviously August is always a busy period for tourism in Britain. However, with the 2012 Games putting London and the rest of the country firmly in the spotlight, the number of visitors this year is set to increase dramatically – meaning an amplified demand for our currency.”

Everyone from tourists to the athletes themselves will require UK currency to get them through their few weeks in the country, and currency companies are set for a busy period trying to manage the demand for sterling during this period.

Visitors from certain parts of the world will see their money go a lot further than might have been the case had the games been put on a year ago, whilst others will have the opposite experience.

For example, people from Eurozone countries will be adversely affected by the falling value of the beleaguered euro, which has tumbled to 4 year lows against the pound this summer.

Whereas €1000 would have bought you around £876 this time last year, that same amount has fallen to around £780 at today’s GBP EUR exchange rate. That’s nearly £100 less.

Meanwhile US visitors will be slightly better off this year, with $1000 buying you around £642 at the present GBP USD exchange rate, versus just £615 this time last year. That’ll get our American friends an extra few portions of Fish and Chips when they’re in town.

Jeremy Cook, chief economist at World First, said: “Obviously August is always a busy period for tourism in Britain. However, with the 2012 Games putting London and the rest of the country firmly in the spotlight, the number of visitors this year is set to increase dramatically – meaning an amplified demand for our currency.”

Goal line technology may be a realistic prospect as FIFA delegates are visiting League One side Rochdale FC’s home ground to see whether a camera system implemented in the goals can tell referees for certain whenever the ball crosses the line

Rochdale’s home stadium, Spotland, stands to take a proud part in a potentially historic development in the game, if Goalminder a creation from two Lancashire-based businessmen passes a series of stringent tests.

The researchers will spend around 13 hours putting Goalminder through its paces in the town, famed more for Gracie Fields than for its footballing exploits.

The FIFA test team spent Tuesday at Southampton’s home, St Mary’s, looking at Hawk-Eye, already used in other sports including cricket and tennis.

But Goalminder, patented in 1990, is different, utilising a total of 24 cameras implanted in the goalposts, 16 of them concentrating solely on the goal-line.

A further eight cameras look outward, bringing the possibility of the use of footage commercially by TV companies and coaches at top football clubs.

Goalminder’s founders say data from the cameras is processed instantaneously by a box behind the goal, and a verdict on whether the ball has crossed the line is transmitted within one second to a referee’s wristwatch.

The strict testing regime is being carried out behind closed doors, but news of the researchers’ visit to Rochdale will reassure football fans that the technology is finally on its way. The Rochdale tests are part of the first phase of trials of nine European-based systems.

Former Manchester United player Lee Sharpe is endorsing Goalminder.

“The technology is there now where if the ball crosses the line, you get a little bleep or a flashing light or something like that straight away then, yeah, I say bring it in,” he said.

“If it’s going to take a couple of seconds to stop and take a look at it then you can’t do it. I think it needs to come in.”

The system’s inventor, electrician Harry Barnes told Sky News: “If you take my system, we have eight cameras in each post, eight cameras in the crossbar. You get a definitive shot of the ball crossing the line, straight in line where the camera should be, no error. (It’s a) fantastic system.”

The aim  accepted now by Fifa as long as a reliable system can be found is to rule out the possibility that a clear goal, like Frank Lampard’s against Germany in the last World Cup, could be missed by the officials.

Goalminder would cost £100,000 to install in grounds. Its founders including director David Parden have made only losses on it to date, but stand to make millions.

Mr Parden said: “All we’ve done is put money in for 14 years. Me personally, and Harry, and I suppose all the others over the years, we must have put in £100,000 each Over 20 years, you could be making hundreds of millions.”

Also the Football Association (FA) have backed the idea of goal-line technology and believe it can be introduced to the Premier League as early as next season.

Alex Horne, the FA general secretary, told the BBC that the FA was supportive of the addition of goal-line technology to the ‘armoury’ of referees, and that its introduction would depend on the results of nine systems currently being tested.

“I think goal-line technology would be a huge boost for the game,” Horne told the BBC. “For years we’ve thought this was a good addition to referees’ armoury.

“It’s easy to make mistakes and we’ve all seen examples where the referee and assistant referee can’t see if a ball has crossed the line or not. We need to support them in decision-making.”

The current testing phase will be assessed by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) in March, with a second testing phase between March and June. IFAB and FIFA will then make a decision on the future of goal-line technology in July.

Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) President Mike Fennell is set to end his 17-year reign over the body, having promised Malyasia’s Prince Tunku Imran that he will not stand against him in the elections later this year.

The Jamaican was first elected at Victoria in Canada in 1994 but will step down in November at the Assembly in St Kitts and Nevis when Tunku, who has been the CGF’s vice-president since 2003, is expected to be the only candidate.

Fennell confirmed that he would not be seeking another term during a telephone call with Tunku earlier this week. Fennell had been forced to miss this week’s Executive Board meeting of the CGF because he is currently recovering in Jamaica from triple heart bypass surgery.

Tunku stated: “I was in contact with Mike Fennell to let him know that I’d like to announce my candidacy during the time of the EB, particularly as so many [CGF] regional vice-presidents were here.

“I did announce to the Board that I would be standing. Mike Fennell said to me, ‘If you are standing then I won’t’. He’s said he is going to stand down.”

Tunku has been a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2006 and President of the Olympic Council of Malaysia since 1998, the year that Kuala Lumpur became the first country in Asia to host the Commonwealth Games, the event widely credited with helping reinvigorate the Games. 

Tunku added: “Since Kuala Lumpur the Federation has gone…to something that is much bigger. Our vision was that the Games should represent what the Commonwealth is best at. We made it happen.”

Tunku now wants to carry on that philosophy when he is elected as President and plans to arrange a strategic review early next year involving the GCF, Commonwealth Games Associations and sports to discuss the future direction of the events, including how to get the top athletes like Usain Bolt to compete. 

“I’m keen not to change direction but to strengthen the Federation in so many ways,” he said. 

“We need to be better known. We have to try establish the desire of top athletes to want to be part of the Games, without obviously getting into the payment of monies because we can’t go down that route.

“We’ve got to change the perception of the top athletes. That’s to do with how we market the Games and position the Games.”