Madrid’s Mayor Ana Botella is adamant ‘Madrid 2020 will be a Games of Integration’.

The Mayor was in London heading the Madrid observer’s delegation at the London 2012 Paralympics. She met with with members of the International Paralympic Committee, the International Olympic Committee, International Sporting Federations, and supporting more than 140 Spanish athletes participating in the London Paralympics along with compatriots Alejandro Blanco, President of Madrid 2020 and Theresa Zabell, CEO of International Relations.

Botella said: “This is a wonderful opportunity for Madrid 2020 to further our learning and ensure our bid continues to integrate all opportunities for hosting a successful Paralympic Games,” adding that Madrid 2020 sees the Olympic and Paralympic Games as “One festival, two events”, and commits to continue to enthusiastically collaborate and learn. She said Madrid 2020 is convinced that the Paralympic Games will boost social cohesion highlighting the right to difference and to equality in opportunities for everyone which is essential in every facet of life.

Botella called Madrid: “A city of diversity, but a city that has integration at its heart. Madrid has been working hard for many years to ensure accessibility and inclusivity for all and we are focussed on improving every day. We now have excellent city transportation that will ensure everyone can reach our Olympic facilities easily and safely.

“Over 85 per cent of our venues for the 2020 Games are already constructed. Being on such an observers program will allow Madrid 2020 to continue to integrate new learning into the fabric of their venues and infrastructure seamlessly ensuring Madrid 2020 will be the most inclusive Games ever.”

With only a month left to 2012 summer Olympics in London, amazingly hotel prices are coming down.

Between July 27, when the opening ceremony occurs, and  the final day, August 12, hotel prices in London are still pretty high at an average of $250 (£160) per night. This rate is up 75% than the same time last year due to the big event, but over the past two weeks, prices have dropped by 25 percent, according to Hotels.com.

Earlier this month, London hotels were going for a rate of $327 (£202) per night, but recently, there has been a significant price increase as the summer games get closer. Hotels.com even found that some room are running as low as $92 (£59), according to the Telegraph.

Hotels expected a high increase in travel, but the tourism rate has not reached expectations as people don’t want to pay the premium hotel rates. As a result, thousands of unwanted hotel rooms that are held by the London Olympics organizing committee are being released back to the hotels so that they could be booked as the Games get closer.

“A lot of hotels, small, medium and large, have held back until now in the hope of attracting visitors at premium rates,” Seamus Maccormaic of Hotels.com told the Telegraph. “But they are now starting to put rooms onto the market at much lower rates because they found they just could not fill them.”

Hotels are now selling the rooms at lower prices to try to catch the attention of spontaneous visitors who are deciding to head to the Games at the last minute. This would specifically target those in other parts of Britain and other northern European countries.

The falling rates also come as a result of hotels removing their length-of-stay minimums. Hotels are now selling more rooms for one-night stays. Also, more hotels have opened up recently, which means that even more rooms are available for travelers.

MacCormaic said: “Falling prices are an encouraging move for consumers and there is still good availability across London in all classes of hotel.

MacCormaic believes that summer travel to London isn’t doomed yet. He noted that there is still interest in London travel as people are searching London from the UK for the Olympics at a 22 percent rate higher than last year.

World soccer’s governing body FIFA has charged six match officials allegedly involved in match-fixing during an international friendly tournament in Antalya, Turkey, on February 9.

FIFA announced that it had opened disciplinary proceedings after investigating games between Bolivia and Latvia and also Estonia and Bulgaria which produced seven goals, all of which were scored from penalties. One of those awarded was even missed and subsequently re-taken due to an alleged infringement.

A statement released by FIFA read: “The proceedings were opened following an evaluation of all documentation and information received by FIFA, in relation to a possible match-fixing situation in these matches. The FIFA disciplinary committee will be in charge to deal with the matter.”

Officials from the four countries involved raised questions about the game with FIFA and UEFA and also queried the identities of the match officials involved, while unusual betting patterns on the matches were also reported.

FIFA have not disclosed the identities of the officials charged, but the Hungarian Football Association last month suspended referee Kolos Lengyel and two other Hungarian assistant referees following the matches in Turkey. The exhibition tournament was organised by a Thailand-based company called Footy Sport International.

The Ukrainian capital of Kiev have unveiled plans for a new motorsport circuit with an intent to host a Formula One Grand Prix in the country in the coming years.

Anatoliy Prysiazhniuk, abortion head of the state administration department stated that the city will spend US$1bn on the construction of a new 5.2 kilometre circuit at the start of the New Year. The project will begin with target completion date set in 2013 for the track which will be situated on 100 hectares of land on the fringes of the capital.

In an interview with the Kyiv Post, Prysiazhniuk stated: “We will build an international track in the Polissia and Ivankiv districts in order to host international competitions. I saw the project, and experts from Europe assessed it.”

He added: “The project was drafted by a person from Denmark who built the tracks in the (United Arab) Emirates, Singapore and other countries. The track will meet all modern requirements.” According to reports, the development will also include a number of hotels and comes as the country look to further enhance their sporting profile after being awarded with the joint hosting of the UEFA European Championships with Poland.

Turkmenistan’s international sports development took a significant step forward today with the start of the inaugural Turkmenistan International Sports Media Forum 2013 in the country’s capital, ed Ashgabat.

Forty of the world’s sports media from 23 different countries are attending the Forum to hear a range of high profile speakers and view the city’s impressive new iconic sports facilities. Speakers include Gianni Merlo, President of AIPS, and Michael Cole, Former London 2012 Marketing and Communications Director for BT Global Services. International media are also joined by 80 foreign correspondents and local media for the Forum’s discussions, which will focus on best practice in media operations ahead of Turkmenistan hosting their first ever major international sporting event, the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games 2017.

Day 1 of the Forum began with a welcome address by the Chairman of the State Committee of Turkmenistan for Sport, Batyr Orazov. Welcoming everyone to the Forum, Mr Orazov said:

“It is a great honour for Turkmenistan to be hosting so many media from the sports world. We look forward to sharing best practice with them and receiving the benefit of their experience ahead of hosting our first major international sporting event, the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, in 2017.”

Day 2 of the Forum will see the delegates touring Turkmenistan’s rapidly developing state-of-the-art Olympic Complex, which includes two brand new stadiums, a velodrome, countless training centres, and a luxury media hotel. Highlights of Day 2 will also include a speech from Osman Karakus of Polimeks, the Turkish construction company developing the Complex.

Gianni Merlo, the President of AIPS – which is partnering the Forum – also delivered a keynote address to the delegation:

“AIPS is delighted to be involved in the inaugural Turkmenistan International Sports Media Forum 2013. AIPS is well placed to help emerging nations use sport as a way of communicating internationally. We are looking forward to our members sharing their views and best practice with the Turkmen authorities. These are exciting times for sport in Turkmenistan.”

The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) have chosen International Olympic Committee member Anita DeFrantz and USA Hockey executive Dave Ogrean to join a five-person panel to decide whether it should bid for a future Olympics.

The group is expected to report to the full USOC board at its quarterly meeting in December. It will consider bidding for the Summer Olympics in 2024 or the Winter Games in 2026.

Angela Ruggiero, Mike Plant and Susanne Lyons are the other board members on the exploratory panel.

The United States hasn’t hosted an Olympics since the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games. The last U.S. Summer Olympics were in 1996 in Atlanta. The last two candidates, New York for 2012 and Chicago for 2016, both finished fourth in the voting.

The London Olympics are on track to become the most expensive Games in Olympic history since 1996’s summer Olympics in Atlanta, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

According to a new study by researchers at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, the budget for London’s upcoming Olympics has ballooned to $13 billion from its’ originally proposed target of $6.5 billion, putting it 107 percent over-budget, Business Insider reported.

The increased cost is significantly more than the average spill-over for Games during the past 10 years, the study found.

The record for budget-blowing goes to Atlanta, which overran its costs by 147 percent when it hosted the athletic competiton.

“The Olympics overrun with a 100 percent consistency,” Bent Flyvbjerg, who co-authored the research, said in an interview with Bloomberg. “You reach a point of no return seven years before the games where you commit to delivering and writing this blank check. You can’t trade off time with money in the Olympics.”

The researchers looked at data from both summer and winter Olympic games over the past 50 years, and calculated the costs of security, transportation, technology, ceremonies, and construction costs for sports venues, athlete’s villages, press and media centers, Forbes reported.

The Olympics’ actual budgets have been an average of 179 percent greater than the original bid budgets, according to Forbes.

“Any country that bids for the games probably goes into it, though they wouldn’t admit it, knowing that there’s very little likelihood of it ultimately proving to be cost effective or value for money,” Alan Seymour, a professor of sports marketing at the University of Northampton, told Bloomberg.

However, some expect London’s budget to soar even higher than these figures. According to the Daily Mail, a new report has estimated that the 2012 Summer Games will end up costing as much as $37 million.

The two parties have been unable to agree on whether net costs involved in the staging of the Paralympic Games should be separated from any operating profit generated by the Olympics.

The BOA is due to receive 20 per cent of any surplus, but its belief that the costs should be separate is not supported by LOCOG.

The BOA has been criticised by some who say that they have embarked on an unnecessary spending spree, with accounts showing that the body’s overall salary bill has more than doubled from $3.2m to $8m million in the last six years.

A statement from the BOA read: “As the National Olympic Committee, our principal responsibility is to safeguard future opportunities for Olympic athletes and sport throughout the United Kingdom.

“We are engaged in a formal process to ensure that any surplus resulting from the London 2012 Olympic Games is used for precisely those purposes. Quite simply, our objective is this: to guarantee that the London 2012 Olympic Games deliver a meaningful post-Games legacy that is beneficial to Olympic sport and athletes, present and future, throughout the UK.”

LOCOG responded with a statement that read: “The vision for London 2012, created by the BOA, Government and the Mayor of London and set out in the bid book is for one festival of sport, with an integrated Olympic and Paralympic Games, underpinned by a single budget. It is sad that this vision is now disputed by the new leadership of the BOA. We are grateful that the IOC is helping to resolve the issue.”