Qatar 2022 organisers have revealed they are ready to host the 2022 football World Cup in the summer, or another time, ahead of a FIFA meeting to discuss the date of the tournament.

“We bid for the FIFA World Cup in the summer because we saw the opportunity to present solutions for players and fans in our country, and others with similar climates, to enjoy the outdoors in cool, safe and comfortable conditions in the summer months,” said the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee in a statement.

“We committed significant time and resources toward proving that we could host the tournament in summer in cool, comfortable and safe conditions.

“If the international football community reaches a consensus to move the event to an alternate date, we are able to accommodate that change. This would not affect our planning and preparation,” it added.

FIFA are set to meet on Thursday to discuss that will discuss whether to move the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from the traditional summer dates.

Qatar was awarded the right to host the 2022 tournament in 2010, but FIFA, UEFA and footballers’ union FIFPro have since called for it to be moved to a different time of year.

However, proposals to change the date of the tournament have met with opposition from leading European clubs, who are concerned about disruption to their traditional calendars.

Officials from Asian and African confederations also said Thursday they have not yet talked formally about Blatter’s proposed switch.

“We haven’t had that discussion in (Africa),” FIFA board member Hany Abo Rida of Egypt told The Associated Press. “We’re waiting to hear the explanation from the FIFA executive.”

PwC has appointed Dr Tom Markham to its London based Sport and Leisure Advisory practice.

Tom joins the Sport and Leisure team at PwC having previously been a Lecturer in Finance at Henley Business School. A qualified accountant and former foreign exchange trader, therapy Tom has undertaken sporting projects for national associations, abortion clubs, pills agencies and sports consultancies on a freelance basis over the last four years.

In his new role Tom will work in the wider sport and leisure domain but with the focal point on football industry clients, focussing on introducing new bespoke services as well as supporting the team’s current advisory work within the sporting sphere.

Commenting on the appointment, Julie Clark, Head of Sport and Leisure at PwC, said: “I am thrilled that Tom has joined our expanding Sport and Leisure team. He is a great addition. His extensive knowledge in football finance will bring further expertise to our team at an interesting time for the football industry, with the various financial rules including UEFA Financial Fair Play coming into force across European football this season.”

On his appointment, Tom Markham added: “I am delighted to be joining PwC’s Sport and Leisure team at such an important time for the sector and football industry specifically. I’m really looking forward to working with PwC to help clients understand the changing football landscape by adjusting business and operating models so they can take advantage of the new opportunities that lie ahead.”

The British Olympic Association (BOA) have revealed they are planning to open a new Olympic museum in the Olympic Park which will cost £10m to run in its first three years.

The BOA wants the museum to become one of the leading attractions on the new Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, sickness when it opens for business in 2014.

It is expected a facility will be built near the Orbit – the 115m structure adjacent to the stadium that Legacy Company officials are hoping will become east London’s version of the popular London Eye.

“As the only city to have earned the honour of hosting the Olympic Games three times, therapy London occupies a truly unique place in Olympic history, clinic ” said BOA chairman Lord Moynihan.

“It is a feat we should be immensely proud of and I believe the British Olympic Museum is the perfect way to ensure the spirit, excitement and unforgettable memories of the London 2012 Games live on to inspire future generations to follow their own dreams.”

BOA chief executive Andy Hunt claimed entrance to the museum would be comparable to similar attractions and his organisation are looking to raise funds from charity events, their own network of corporate sponsors and individual donors.

They hope to finalise a licensing agreement with the Olympic Park Legacy Company in the coming weeks and reveal more details ahead of the Games.

Moynihan has always wanted to ensure the 2012 Olympics have a tangible physical legacy for the BOA, as the all but a handful of the venues that hosted the previous London Games in 1908 and 1948 exist.

He successfully fought a battle with the Legacy Company last year to ensure the word Olympic remained in the title of the Park, which was originally going to be known as Queen Elizabeth Park from 2013 onwards.

“The museum will also provide an important opportunity to honour and celebrate the most outstanding British Olympic athletes and create a platform for their stories to inspire generation upon generation of future sport participants with their achievements,” he added.

by Ismail Uddin

Brampton, search Ontario (Canada) and Oklahoma City, generic Oklahoma (USA) will host the top event in 19-and-under female fast pitch softball in 2013 and 2015, adiposity the International Softball Federation X Jr. Women’s World Championship.

The event will take place from July 1-7, 2013, and the eleventh edition of the tournament will play from August 7-16, 2015.

Following approval by the world governing body’s Board of Directors, ISF President Don Porter made the announcement today, just over eight weeks after the 15-nation IX Jr. Women’s World Championship concluded in Cape Town, South Africa.

The event next year will mark the first time that Ontario has ever hosted an ISF world championship.  Meanwhile, the 2015 tournament will be the first time since 1996 that the USA has hosted an ISF world championship (IX Men’s World Championship in Michigan).

“As we recently saw in South Africa, the junior women’s world championship is the premier event for our young female athletes,” the ISF president said.  “The organizers in Cape Town did a first-class job and we are confident that Canada and the U.S. will do the same next year and in 2015.  We need them to because this is an important competition opportunity for that age category to be able to continue to test their skills against their counterparts from around the world.”

Softball Canada submitted the 2013 bid on behalf of the Brampton Girls Softball Association, while the Amateur Softball Association put forth the 2015 plan, which calls for the junior women’s world championship to be played at their headquarters complex.

This (2012) is the first year that the ISF world championships are starting an every-two-years rotation after having been one a year every four years.  The XIII Women’s World Championship will be played this July in Whitehorse, Yukon (Canada) and the IX Jr. Men’s World Championship is set for November in Paraná, Argentina.  In addition to next year’s event in Ontario, the XIII Men’s World Championship will take place in Auckland, New Zealand (in March 2013).

by Ismail Uddin

London authorities hope to protect the integrity of the Olympics by meeting daily to analyze possible suspicious betting patterns and assess if any athletes are deliberately underperforming for personal profit.

The International Olympic Committee has warned that betting and match-fixing could pose a bigger threat to sports than doping.

And with the Olympics five months away, viagra order Britain has disclosed plans to prevent sports in the country being further undermined by corruption after four cricketers were jailed in the past four months for fixing parts of matches.

The daily anti-corruption meetings will involve the IOC, Britain’s Gambling Commission, police, the Border Agency and games organizers. They will report their findings to Interpol and the IOC.

“What is being put in place is a comprehensive structure of support to assess the extent of any undue movements in the market,” British Olympic Association chairman Colin Moyinhan said Monday. “The betting exchanges will also be monitored closely as there is the possibility of betting to lose.”

The illegal gambling industry is believed to be worth tens of billions of dollars annually, according to figures presented at an IOC conference this month.

“At the moment it is perfectly legal to spot bet on all sports, for example to make a spot bet on thefirst short corner in (field) hockey,” Britain Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said at a briefing. “Up until this point, illegal betting has not been a huge problem at the Olympics. But it was difficult to monitor in Beijing, and this is a new threat and an evolving threat. The president of the IOC has identified it as a very serious threat. I think we are slightly waiting to see how this plays out in London 2012.”

But even if suspicions are raised about athletes, authorities won’t have the power to intervene to stop them from competing.

“An athlete won’t be pulled prior to that event as nothing will have happened,” Robertson said. “For example, if a pile of money has appeared on a particular outcome during the games, an offense has not been committed until it has actually happened.”

The IOC monitored betting patterns during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Vancouver Games, but found nothing irregular.

All competitors are banned from betting on any Olympic sport, and Moyinhan is confident that it is “unlikely to be a problem” for the 550 British athletes but he cautioned that “$20,000 is a life-changing sum of money to an athlete from a developing country.”

“He could come second in his heat and still qualify but that could enable the person who was bribing that athlete to make $200,000 on the exchanges, which would be possible if the markets permitted that sort of return,” Moyinhan said. “This is an issue that needs to be addressed in terms of the type of bet on offer and the sophistication of the market to take those bets.”

Reports are circulating in the Italian press that Premier Mario Monti has turned down government support for Rome’s bid to host the 2020 Olympics.

The official announcement is due to come later today.

With the current economic crisis and after a careful examination of the costs the government doesn’t feel that the conditions are right to send a letter of guarantees.

The government had delayed a decision until the last minute to back the Eternal City bid as the applicant files are due in tomorrow at the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The predicamnet with Athens 2004 and the escalating budget of London 2012 impacted the negative decision.

IOC vice-president and president of the Rome 2020 bid, Mario Pescante, was the one that championed the effort going back almost two years.

He said, “It has been six months that I am been hoping, and I am a bit tired. If they say no?  The decision will be accepted but there will be some accusations.”

Pescante was the driving force behind the Rome 2004 and Torino 2006 bids for the Games.

by Ismail Uddin

Read Mario Pescante’s exclusive interview with iSportconnect here

The ISF, the international softball division of the World Baseball Softball Confederation, has announced that all 67 games of the 14th Women’s Softball World Championship will be web-streamed.

The pinnacle women’s softball championship featuring the top sixteen national teams begins Friday in Haarlem, Netherlands continuing through August 24.

Coverage of the Women’s World Championship will be available globally through live web streaming as well as archived (on demand) on a subscription basis via ISFsoftball.org.

In addition to the live streaming, the bronze and gold medal games on August 24 will be carried on major television networks. Agreements have been reached with multiple broadcasters that will provide coverage in Japan and the USA to approximately 185 million homes. TV Tokyo has also secured the exclusive rights for Japan to its 32 million households.

“We are very pleased to showcase the 14th Women’s World Championship to the entire global audience,” said ISF President and WBSC Executive Vice President Dale McMann. “The ability for the international community to access the highest level of women’s softball will only enhance our capacity to drive spectator interest and the growing consumer demand of our sport.”

The ten-day tournament will include national teams from Australia, Botswana, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Russia, and USA.

“The Softball World Championship provides a dedicated international platform for women athletes to shine and be the focus of sport, which highlights the power and potential of softball as a promoter of women’s sport, helping shape a sporting world that is more balanced and relevant to women,” ISF and WBSC Secretary General Low Beng Choo commented.

Japan is the defending champions having defeated the United States 2-1 in extra innings in Whitehorse, YK, Canada in 2012.