BBC Wales and S4C have signed a new four-year broadcast deal to showcase Rugby’s Guinness Pro12.

The broadcasters will share fixtures across the season. BBC Wales will show Friday night matches on Scrum V Live, with S4C covering Sunday afternoon fixtures on Clwb Rygbi.

“We are delighted to strengthen our relationship with BBC Wales and S4C,” said John Feehan, chief Executive of Pro12 Rugby.

“And with Guinness, our new sponsor, on board, we look forward to growing our competition with all our broadcasters and clubs attracting larger audiences and more fans.”

BBC Wales director Rhodri Talfan Davies added: “The new qualification rules for Europe will provide real added spice from next season, making the Pro12 competition must-see TV for Welsh rugby fans.

“We’ve struck a terrific deal with Celtic Rugby that ensures every fan in Wales has the very best view of the action.”

Istanbul 2020’s vision of a city-wide Games celebration connected by a fast and efficient transport network has moved a step closer to reality after today’s successful test of the world’s first intercontinental subway: the Marmaray Rail Tunnel.

The Marmaray Tunnel is one of the key projects defined in the 2023 Master Plan – Turkey’s long-term development strategy culminating in the centenary of the Republic in 2023. The train driver for the maiden journey under the Bosphorus was Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, accompanied by a number of senior national and municipal government figures, including Minister for Transport, Binali Yıldırım, and Mayor of Istanbul, Kadir Topbaş.

The ride from Üsküdar on the Asian side to Sirkeci on the European side of the Bosphorus strait took just six minutes. As well as being the world’s first subway connecting two continents, the Marmaray Tunnel is also the world’s deepest immersed tube tunnel, with sections up to 60m below sea level. In addition to the 13.6km Bosphorus crossing, the project will also see a further 63km of suburban train lines upgraded, creating a new high-capacity rail line which will carry up to 75,000 passengers per hour in both directions.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: “The Marmaray project is the dream of our ancestors. It has been our privilege to realise it and complete it. We will be travelling between continents, from Asia to Europe and back again. This project will link the Beijing-London rail line. It is a major undertaking that will also connect to the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku line. Building the high-speed rail network in our time is a source of pride for us. We do not just talk about things: we build them.”

Hasan Arat, Chairman of Istanbul 2020, said: “In Istanbul, we have been dreaming of a tunnel connecting Europe and Asia for hundreds of years. Today, we bring the ancient Silk Road from Beijing to London into the 21^st Century.

“Completing the Marmaray Tunnel under the Bosphorus strait was a commitment we made to the IOC in our Candidature File, and it’s a commitment we have kept, thanks to the strong alignment between the Istanbul 2020 Games Plan and Turkey’s 2023 Master Plan. This great engineering feat is an example of how Istanbul 2020 is already delivering on its promise to provide an efficient transport experience for athletes and the Olympic Family: a fast, direct connection between Asia, Europe and our Olympic Park.

“We have so many iconic locations in Istanbul that we made the decision to activate the entire city in our Games Plan. New infrastructure like the Marmaray tunnel will allow us to really immerse the Olympic Family in a magical city-wide celebration. This is Istanbul’s fifth bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games and we have never been better prepared to welcome the Olympic Movement.”

During the city’s first bid for the Olympic Games in 1992, Istanbul had no metro line; in 2005 there was a 45km network; by 2020 that will have extended to 265km. Istanbul is one of the only Candidate Cities in history to have already a functioning subway from the heart of the city right to the Olympic Park.

The national and municipal governments have been investing an average of $1.5 billion annually in upgrades to Istanbul’s transport network since the city’s last bid for the Games in 2005. Minister for Transport Binali Yıldırım commented on the significance of the successful test run:

“Building the Marmaray Tunnel is one of Istanbul’s great modern achievements. It’s a symbol of our country’s development, but more importantly it will improve the daily lives of Istanbul citizens. This successful test is an important stepping stone towards the tunnel’s opening on Republic Day, when for the first time Europe and Asia will be linked by a subway connection.

“We forecast that 12 million journeys a day will be made by public transport in 2020, and more than 50% of those will be made by rail. We are committed to making Istanbul one of the most efficient and best connected cities on the planet.”

A-League club Melbourne Victory has appointed Ian Robson as their new chief executive.

Robson, who resigned as Essendon boss in the wake of the supplements scandal and the damning internal report into the club’s governance which followed, has replaced the departing Richard Wilson and will start his new role in early August.

Victory chairman Anthony Di Pietro said Robson had emerged as the preferred candidate after a thorough search.

He is understood to have trumped the Victory’s general manager of operations Trent Jacobs for the role.

“Ian brings a great enthusiasm for the role of sport in the community, as well as experience at the CEO level in elite sport, and will be a valuable asset to the club as we look to build on the solid foundations laid over the past 18 months,” Di Pietro said in a statement.

“We have been through a thorough process, engaging with a number of parties, giving us complete confidence that Ian is both suitable and extremely well qualified for the role.”

Robson resigned in May as Essendon chief after a damning internal report found serious governance issues at the Bombers in 2012.

The club’s supplements program that season is currently under investigation by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) and the AFL.

That probe is likely to be completed in August.

Robson is scheduled to start his new job on August 5.

Before working at Essendon, Robson had built a strong track record in sports administration, including at previous AFL employer Hawthorn.

He has also worked for NRL club the Warriors.

Robson expressed his delight at his appointment: “Melbourne Victory is a really exciting club in what is an extremely competitive sporting landscape, so I was immediately interested in exploring the possibility of a new challenge,” he said.

“Having spent many years working across other codes, I feel privileged now to have the opportunity to be involved in the world game with a great club like Melbourne Victory.”

A giant set of Olympic Rings has been unveiled on the entrance to Channel Tunnel in France to celebrate 20/12 Day.

The Rings have been placed at the entrance of the Tunnel in Coquelles near Calais in northern France, which will be one of the main gateways from Europe to the London 2012 Games.

The Rings will be seen by hundreds of thousands of fans who are travelling from Europe on Eurostar trains to St Pancras International and who will be able to take the Javelin® train to the Olympic Park during the Games. The Javelin service will take 25,000 visitors per hour and take just seven minutes.

The manufacturing and placement of the Rings has been privately financed by Eurotunnel, who have worked closely with the Comité National Olympique et Sportif Français (the French National Olympic Comittee).

The Rings, which measure 9.4m wide and 4.6m high, were built in Lille and transported in segments to the Channel Tunnel entrance near Calais. They were assembled and installed in situ over two nights by a team of five rock climbers. Each ring is fixed to the wall with ten anchor points to hold it in place against the aerodynamic effect generated by trains entering the tunnels at up to 160kmh.

The Rings were be revealed at a special event to mark 20/12 Day (20th December) where Jonathan Edwards was joined by athletes Kelly Sotherton and Lawrence Okoye to introduce a film of the making of the Rings to athletes and children from the London 2012 Children’s Promise Scheme in the Stadium Suite at John Lewis Stratford City.

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

Seb Coe, LOCOG Chair, 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. To visitors travelling from Europe they will excite and inspire them about the Olympic Games taking place in London, and demonstrate that we are ready to welcome the world in 2012.”

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “As the starting line for 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games fast approaches we want to say loud and clear to all our European neighbours that London is the only place to be next summer. Whether you’re heading to the Olympic Park to watch some amazing sport, soaking up the best cultural events the city has to offer or coming to revel in the atmosphere at our Live Sites there is something for everyone to enjoy.”

Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic bid leaders have unveiled a new logo in the form of a cherry blossom Wednesday.

The colorful, wreath-shaped logo of Japan’s most celebrated flower was created by a university art and design student to symbolize ‘revitalization’.

Bid committee CEO Masato Mizuno told Reuters: “Along with Mount Fuji, the cherry blossom is instantly recognizable as a symbol of Japan. We learned many lessons last time round and we must be ready this time.”

Tokyo, which hosted Asia’s first Olympics in 1964, lost out to Rio de Janeiro in the race for 2016.

Low public support was largely blamed and the cost of rebuilding after the devastating tsunami in northeast Japan had thrown preparations for a renewed tilt in a spin.

However, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) decided in June that sufficient funds existed to launch a new bid despite the nuclear crisis still raging at the time.

“Japan is struggling (to rebuild) and I wanted to come up with something to give Japan energy and vitality,” designer Ai Shimamine told reporters after unveiling her logo.

“I hope it gives Japan a boost. The cherry blossom represents friendship and peace, has a softness and also holds a special place in the hearts of Japanese people.”

Tokyo’s logo features the Olympic colors of red, blue, yellow and green dotted with the traditional purple prominent in cultural events in Japan’s Edo period (1603-1867).

Madrid, which also lost out in the 2016 bidding war, and Rome are expected to give Tokyo a run for its money.

The winner will be chosen by the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires in September 2013.

With 200 days to go until the start of London 2012 Olympics, three more permanent venues at the Olympic Park have now secured their futures, according to organisers.

The Olympic Park Legacy Committee (OPLC) have confirmed post-Games operators for the £269m ($415m) aquatics centre, 7,000 seater multi-use arena and the Orbit – the 115 metre observational tower designed by Anish Kapoor.

Greenwich Leisure Limited will operate both the aquatics centre and multi-use arena, which will stage the handball and goalball competitions at this year’s Olympics and Paralympics.

Balfour Beatty WorkPlace will run the Orbit, which will be known as the ArcelorMittal Orbit after the Games, and manage the maintenance of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Legacy Company officials have been criticised for the manner they handled the future of the main stadium, which was originally awarded to a consortium of football club West Ham and Newham Council but was recently taken back into public ownership.

However, they claim its future plus that of the other permanent venue on the site – the main press and broadcast centre – will be sorted before the Games.

“These appointments are just another example of how London’s legacy plans are further ahead than any previous host Olympic City,” said OPLC chair Baroness Margaret Ford.

“By working closely with sporting bodies and our local communities now, we can ensure that these venues will have a full and compelling programme of activities for when they reopen after the Games.”

Also London 2012 organisers today have been officially been given reigns to the Olympic Park and have immediately changed the names of some of the venues and spectator areas to make it more games friendly.

Among the venues renamed is the Hockey Centre, which is also due to host the five-a-side and seven-a-side football during the Paralympics, which from now on will be known as the Riverbank Arena, reflecting the venue’s location next to the River Lea in the Olympic Park.

The Handball Arena, which is also due to host the fencing during the modern pentathlon and goalball during the Paralympics, will be now be known as the Copper Box, in recogntion of its boxed-shape and distnict copper cladding, which helps create a visual reference for spectators travelling to the venue. 

Also being given a new identity is the ArcelorMittal Orbit, which will now be called Orbit Circus to avoid falling foul of the International Olympic Committee’s strict rules on venues and landmarks being named after sponsors. 

Other changes announced include the Aquatics Centre Bridge, which forms a 250 metres “Gateway to the Games” from Westfield Shopping Centre, being renamed Stratford Walk and which will be joined by three other main spectator entrances – Greenway Walk in the south of the Olympic Park; Eton Manor Walk in the north; and Victoria Walk in the west.

The other significant change is that the main circulation route for spectators and central spine of the Olympic Park, running north-to-south through the middle of the site, will be known as London Way.

Meanwhile British Prime Minister David Cameron hosted a special meeting of his Cabinet at Olympic Park today to mark 200 day milestone.

“As we kick off 2012, the year of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Diamond Jubilee, this is the perfect time for the Cabinet to come together and ensure we are doing absolutely everything we can to make the most of this unique opportunity to showcase all the great things the UK has to offer to the rest of the world,” he said.

“As Ministers visit Olympic venues, businesses, schools and organisations associated with 2012 right across the UK, I want the message to go out loud and clear, from tourism to business, sport to investment, we are determined to maximise the benefits of 2012 for the whole country.

“As we mark 200 days to go, and six out of the eight Olympic venues having already secured their future, we are well on track to delivering a lasting legacy for the whole of Britain.”

United States are contemplating putting in a bid to stage the 2023 Rugby World Cup with a probable chance of Canada co-hosting, according to USA Rugby CEO Nigel Melville.

Former England captain Melville said that the U.S. had been asked to bid to host rugby’s biggest prize for the first time.

“We were asked during the World Cup whether we would be prepared to bid for 2023. I know it seems like a very long way away for us all but we have to start those processes now so we are having a discussion about that,” Melville said.

“Also Canada are interested in some sort of joint bid… could we do it together as north America, because there would be opportunities in Toronto and Vancouver and obviously bringing the tournament to north America would be a tremendous boost for us all.”

The U.S. have appeared in six of the seven World Cups, including the recently concluded tournament in New Zealand where they beat old cold war rivals Russia but failed once again, to advance from the pool stage.

Russia have already said they will bid to host the 2023 tournament and Melville said that he believed the U.S. might be more successful in winning the right to stage the 2027 tournament.

“Discussions are taking place and I get the feel that if we bid for 2023 we might not get it but in 2027 we might, but I don’t think we will get ’27 if we don’t bid in ’23,” the former London Wasps and Gloucester coach said.

“I think we have to start putting the wheels in motion now to bid for the World Cup; that way we can certainly put ourselves on the map as serious contenders.

“I think people would be interested in partnering with us to do that and certainly there is a will in our rugby community and across the globe, people would be fascinated at having a World Cup in America.”

The World Cup will be hosted by England in 2015 and then Japan in 2019, the first time the tournament will be staged outside either Europe or the southern hemisphere powerhouses of New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.

Melville said it represented an opportunity to drive interest in the sport in America where rugby struggles for attention behind American Football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey.

“It is something we should be looking at, you need to look strategically where we want rugby to be, would we be able to cope with it, have we got the infrastructure, have we got the stadia and the big question would be could we fill the stadiums.”

However, the inclusion of rugby sevens in the Olympics for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro has led to increased focus and funding for the sport in America.

USA rugby said that they would be able to offer 23 fulltime contracts to Sevens players from January after striking a deal with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) on Wednesday.

Air your views on this subject on our discussion Is 2023 a realistic target date for a World Cup in the United States?

BT Sport has announced today that it had signed a deal to boadcast the Portuguese Primeira Liga in the UK and Ireland. 

The pay-tv channel will show up to four exclusively live matches a week from the Portuguese Primeira Liga, taking the channels’ total to six European leagues.

BT Sport also shows exclusively live matches from Germany’s Bundesliga, France’s Ligue1, Italy’s Serie A and the Scottish Professional Football League.

The Portuguese rights include exclusively live home and away matches played by the league’s ‘Big Three’ teams, current league champions Benfica, Porto FC and Sporting Lisbon. The channels will also have the rights to show the eagerly-awaited ‘O Classico’ matches between Benfica and Porto. BT Sport has won the rights for the UK and Ireland.

Grant Best, Senior Channel Executive Producer, BT Sport, said: “BT Sport viewers will be able to enjoy the very best matches, including the great O Classico rivalry, and watch some of the stars of the World Cup, including Columbian striker Jackson Martinez, who was top scorer for Porto last season, and the inspirational Sporting Lisbon captain and goalkeeper Rui Patricio.”