A set of Olympic Rings has been installed at the Olympic Badminton and Rhythmic Gymnastics Venue, Wembley Arena in London. The Rings show how Wembley Arena is preparing for its Games-time role.

The Rings, which are approximately 7.5 meters by 3.2 meters, are set to be an exciting feature in the venue throughout the Badminton and Rhythmic Gymnastics competition inspiring the athletes and spectators alike. The installation marks the start of Wembley Arena’s transformation to an Olympic Games venue.

LOCOG Chair, Seb Coe said: “The Olympic Rings are an iconic symbol, inspiring athletes and uniting people around the world. To athletes they represent the culmination of thousands of hours of training and reaching the highest level in sport. These Rings will inspire athletes as well as exciting London 2012 fans coming to the Badminton and Rhythmic Gymnastic competitions.”

Wembley Arena General Manager, John Drury added: “We’re delighted to be chosen as one of the venues for London 2012. It’s an honour for us to be part of such a global event and seeing the Olympic Rings going up brings it home, how close we now are to welcoming the world to Wembley.”

The Olympic Rings are one of the world’s most recognisable logos. The five rings – coloured blue, yellow, black, green and red – represent the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s sole challenger for the presidential re-elections this year, Mohamed Bin Hammam has claimed he plans to write to his rival and current incumbent to call for the upcoming election campaign to display the “integrity” of world soccer’s governing body.

It was made official by FIFA on Monday, April 4, that Asian Football Confederation president Bin Hammam would be the only opponent Blatter in the June 1 vote in Zurich, Switzerland. Former Chile international defender Elias Figueroa and American journalist Grant Wahl had previously announced plans to enter the running but failed to secure the nomination required to do so.

Issa Hayatou was the last candidate to run against Blatter when he was defeated in the 2002 ballot, which came after a campaign of accusations of financial mismanagement at FIFA.

However, Bin Hammam, writing in his online blog, stated that he is hoping both candidates can improve the public image of FIFA, which has taken a battering since the build-up to the December 2010 vote for the host countries of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments.

The statement read: “I will write to the current FIFA president to congratulate him for putting his name forward for a fourth term. I will let him know that I see this election as an opportunity for us to prove that FIFA is not corrupt and that the organisation is open and democratic.

“I will tell him that throughout this campaign we should respect FIFA’s statutes and protect FIFA’s integrity by ensuring that there will be no outside interference in the attempt to win votes; the influence of third parties should not be tolerated or accepted.”

Major League Baseball (MLB) have promoted Rob Manfred to Chief Operating Officer putting him in a position to possibly suceed Bud Selig as commissioner.

He will oversee MLB’s day-to-day operations. The position had been vacant since Bob DuPuy resigned in September 2010.

Selig, who has headed baseball since September 1992, said last week he intends to retire in January 2015.

“The reorganization of our management team will facilitate an orderly transition and will position Major League Baseball’s operations for sustained prosperity well into the future,” Selig said in a statement. “I have the utmost confidence in Rob to excel at his expanded duties and to help the industry maintain its extraordinary growth and vitality.

“Rob has tremendous institutional knowledge and first-hand experience with many of our most complex matters, including labor, revenue sharing, competitive balance and the most comprehensive drug program in American professional sports,” Selig added. “I am pleased that I will work with him even more closely in the near future.”

Manfred had previously served as the league’s executive vice president of economics and league affairs. He was responsible for labor relations with the players union as well as human resources. Manfred was a partner in the Labor and Employment Law Section of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP in their Washington, D.C., office before joining MLB in 1998.

“I thank Commissioner Selig for placing his faith in me,” Manfred said in a statement. “The opportunity to serve the Clubs in this new position is a distinct honor. I have taken great pride in working closely with the Commissioner and supporting the many outstanding initiatives implemented during his tenure. All of us at Major League Baseball look forward to assisting Commissioner Selig during his transition process in preparation for his retirement.”

Turkey’s 2020 bid has received a boost following a report showing the number of foreign visitors to Turkey has risen in the first eight months of 2012 to 22 million – an increase of more than half a million visitors in the same period in 2011.

According to figures released by Turkey’s Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Turkey is rated as one of the top ten most visited countries in the world and Istanbul is the fifth most visited destination with more than 11 million foreign visitors expected this year.

Hasan Arat, Chairman of Istanbul 2020 said: “These figures highlight that more and more tourists are being attracted to Turkey’s vibrant culture, rich history, hospitable people and spectacular location which bridges Europe and Asia.

“Turkey’s tourist infrastructure has grown significantly, increasing by 67 per cent in the last ten years. By 2015 Turkey’s hotels will offer 370,000 rooms for a wide variety of budgets – and this diversity of hotel accommodation is replicated in Istanbul. This is one of the great strengths of our bid, which will be demonstrated in our candidature file next year.”

Ugur Erdener, IOC member and President of the Turkish NOC said: “This year Turkey is hosting several prestigious international sports events which, together with the increase in international visitors, contribute to the real momentum behind Turkeys bid to host its first ever Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020. However, we recognize there is a significant amount of work still to do, and our team of national and international experts is focussed on delivering a unique and innovative blueprint for the Games with our Candidature File which will be submitted to the IOC Executive Board early in 2013.”

London’s Olympic Stadium is being contemplated as a possible venue for the 2015 Rugby World Cup hosted by England and Wales.

According to The Daily Telegraph, buy the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) has filed a submission for the Olympic Stadium to host matches throughout the 2015 tournament.

The stadium could play host to several group stage matches as well as the third place playoff game with the arena likely to replace Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium as a tournament venue, were the application to be accepted.

Paul Vaughan, Chief Executive of England Rugby 2015 explained: “It would be great to have a world-class event in a world-class arena. It will help the Olympic legacy as well, so we are very keen to work with them on that, particularly because rugby is going to go into the Olympics in 2016 in Brazil.”

However, for the stadium to be considered, it must comply with the International Rugby Board‘s regulations, which require all arenas to be free of advertising.

England Rugby 2015 is expected to confirm the tournament venues early next year.

Soccer’s world governing body FIFA has confirmed that no new figurehead came forward to challenge Sepp Blatter and Mohamed Bin Hammam for the organisation’s Presidency before last night’s midnight deadline.

Current incumbent and Swiss national Blatter will therefore go head-to-head in a straight two-way contest for the post with long-time allay and Qatari president of the Asian Football Confederation, Bin Hammam in Zurich on June 1.

American journalist Grant Wahl had declared an interest in running for the presidency, dependant on a nomination from one of the game’s governing body. However, Wahl pulled out after failing to receive the nomination he needed, leaving the field clear for Blatter and his Asian challenger to fight it out.

FIFA said they would only announce the candidates formally on Monday, April 4″following a thorough verification process”, and have now done so. A statement released today read: The FIFA general secretariat received two candidatures for the FIFA Presidency by the statutory deadline (1 April 2011, midnight CET) in accordance with art. 24 par. 1 of the FIFA Statutes. The names of the candidates are: Joseph S. BLATTER (Switzerland) and Mohamed BIN HAMMAM (Qatar).”

The world governing body, which closed business for the weekend before the deadline, wanted to make 100 per cent sure that nothing had arrived by post or fax from any prospective contender that pre-dated the deadline.

Wahl, meanwhile, bemoaned the fact that he had been unable to secure sufficient backing having launched his campaign in protest at FIFA’s inner sanctum after a spate of recent corruption scandals.

Wahl wrote in his latest article for Sports Illustrated: “If FIFA were truly a representative democracy I’m convinced that not only would I have been nominated but I also would have beaten Blatter and Bin Hammam in a landslide on election day.”

Bin Hammam now has two months to convince FIFA’s membership that it is time for a change with his manifesto centred on transparency, whilst at the same time offering individual members a greater contribution of FIFA’s revenue than under Blatter.

Blatter could make his first post-deadline appearance at the SportAccord Congress in London, while the FIFA President is also scheduled to meet FA chairman David Bernstein privately at Wembley today in an effort to persuade England – still angry at their treatment during their disastrous 2018 World Cup ballot – to support him.