The Royal Belgian Football Association has re-elected François De Keersmaecker as their president for a further two-year term.

The 55-year-old, re-elected by the Executive Committee, has been Belgian FA president since June 2006, succeeding Jan Peeters. The tenth president of the association, he is the son-in-law of the late former supremo Louis Wouters, who led the URBSFA-KBVB between 1967 and 1987. De Keersmaecker is also first vice-chairman of the UEFA Legal Committee and member of the FIFA Legal Committee.

De Keersmaecker looked back at an exciting league season and praised the national team’s promising efforts to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. He also hailed a number of association initiatives, such as the new digital referees’ reports designed to improve organisational efficiency in this area, and the introduction of a new mobile application in which all scores from the lowest to the highest leagues can be accessed by players and fans.

“They are the most important factor to us – the players and the fans. They form the foundation of our football,” De Keersmaecker said.

PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) was officially revealed today in Seoul.

The inaugural meeting of the General Assembly confirmed Jin-Sun Kim, prostate former Governor of the Gangwon Province and who served as Special Ambassador for the Olympic Bid, erectile as POCOG President and Chief Executive Officer.

Kim said, “The PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games should take place in an economically viable, socio-culturally reasonable, eco-friendly and peaceful manner.

“Every single stakeholder such as the national government, the Gangwon Provincial government, the National Assembly, the Korean Olympic Committee, and the Korean people should work together for the realization of this goal.”

Kim served as governor of Gangwon for three consecutive terms and held an instrumental position with all three of the bids to try to land the Olympic Games back in Korea.

The General Assembly also approved the appointment of Dong Hoo Moon as Vice President and Secretary General.  Moon brings event organization to the assembly as he was involved in organizing the 1986 Seoul Asian Games, the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and served in the capacity as Secretary General for the recent 2011 Daegu IAAF World Championships as well as the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

Around 100 prominent personalities from sports, the central and local government, and the business sector attended the meeting today.

They included Kwang Sik Choi, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism ; Yong Sung Park, KOC President; Moon Soon Choi, Governor of Gangwon Province; Dae Sung Moon, IOC member from Korea; and Olympians such as superstar figure skater Yuna Kim, and So Hee Kim and Yi Kyeong Chun, respectively Olympic gold- medal winners in short track speed skating.

The Executive Board members will come from the national government, sports, media, art/culture, religion, and education and will include IOC member Moon and Yuna Kim.

The Prime Minister, Chairman of the National Assembly, and business leaders will form an advisory group which will also include IOC member and Samsung chief, Kun Hee Lee.

The next step for POCOG will be to set up the Games Master Plan and the basic venue design working closely with the IOC and the coordination commission.

POCOG will have to stick to their targets if they are going to accomplish the necessary work in time.

The Japan Football Association (JFA) has named Junji Ogura as the new president after Motoaki Inukai stood down for health reasons.

Orgura will also lead the country’s bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, but the 71-year-old FIFA executive committee member has said he doesn’t expect to hold the position beyond the two remaining years that were on Inukai’s contract.

Ogura said: “At my age I will be looking to retire in two years. I’m surprised the job has suddenly come along but I was asked to step in.”

One of Ogura’s first tasks as president of the JFA will be to find a new coach of the national team after Takeshi Okada resigned following his side’s exit from this summer’s World Cup in South Africa.

Tthe International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that figure skater and Olympic champion Yuna Kim from the Republic of Korea is the latest Winter Youth Olympic Games Ambassador.

Twenty-one-year-old Kim’s appointment follows the announcement of her fellow Winter Youth Olympic Games Ambassadors Lindsey Vonn and Benjamin Raich, medic who will play a key part in supporting the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck.

The role of the Ambassadors for the Innsbruck 2012 Youth Olympic Games is to inspire and mentor the athletes competing at the Games while encouraging young people from all over the world to become more active in sport.

Kim said: “I am delighted and honoured to be a Winter Youth Olympic Games Ambassador. The Youth Olympic Games are an exceptional event and I am excited to be part of the first ever winter edition. Having competed as an athlete since a very young age, I can relate to the participants of Innsbruck 2012 and I hope I can share my knowledge, passion and experience to motivate them to reach their potential.”

IOC President Jacques Rogge said: “To have such a dedicated, gifted and internationally renowned athlete to mentor the athletes going to Innsbruck 2012 is fantastic news. Yuna is an outstanding Olympic champion, setting a new world record in winning her gold medal in Vancouver last year. She was excellent in her role as PyeongChang 2018 Athlete Ambassador, and I am sure that as a Youth Olympic Games Ambassador she will inspire young people to compete in winter sports.”

Scheduled to take place from 13 to 22 January 2012, the Innsbruck Winter Youth Olympic Games will attract over 1,000 top athletes between the ages of 15 and 18 from 65 countries. The athletes will compete in the same seven sports as those on the programme of the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014, but a number of the 63 events will feature for the first time at an Olympic event. These include ski halfpipe, snowboard slopestyle and women’s ski jumping.

In addition to mixed gender events, there will also be mixed National Olympic Committee competitions.

The athletes will also participate in a Culture and Education Programme (CEP) featuring fun and engaging activities designed to provide guidance on a wide range of topics, including the Olympic values, the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle, and the prevention of sports injuries, among others.

UK Athletics have announced that London are considering hosting the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Athletics Championships if they are awarded the 2017 World Athletics Championships later this year.

London are currently locked in a two-horse race with Doha for the prestigious event with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) set to decide on where the 2017 competition is staged at their Council meeting in Monte Carlo on November 11.

It has long been suggested that London was looking to host the IPC Championships in 2017 if awarded the able-bodied Championships as Britain has delivered numerous successful world class disability events in recent years and UK Athletics chairman Warner who is also chairman of the IPC Athletics Sport Technical Committee (STC), confirmed that UK Athletics have made an approach to the IPC about hosting both events together.

Warner said: “UK Athletics have approached the IPC and we told them that if we are awarded the 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championships, we would also like to host the 2017 IPC World Athletics Championships in London. We received a letter back for the IPC President Sir Philip Craven that was very supportive of our plan of hosting the two events back-to-back which we were delighted to receive.

“We haven’t yet considered any of the logistics such as whether the IPC event will be in the same stadium as the IAAF event but the competition is six years away so that is not a major issue at present. The important thing with the IPC Championships is that we have a full stadium and a well-supported event and we are very confident that would happen in London which is a city full of passionate athletics fans and passionate Paralympic sport fans.”

Doha revealed yesterday that have approached the IPC about hosting the idea of hosting the event immediately afterward the IAAF event but the idea itself was actually first suggested by Warner shortly after he was appointed as the IPC Athletics STC chairman in May.

Warner also hinted towards the idea in January this year when he attended the 2011 IPC World Athletics Championships in Christchurch.

Both the IAAF and IPC are very supportive of the idea of hosting their blue-ribbon events back-to-back after the two signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) earlier this this year to further develop the sport of athletics both for able-bodied and disabled athletes.

The MoU – which was signed by IPC President Sir Philip and IAAF President Lamine Diack – included a clause that says: “The IAAF invite prospective Organising Committees to bid to host the IPC Athletics World Championships in conjunction with the IAAF World Championships.”

Spanish La Liga side Real Mallorca has appealed against Europe’s football governing body, UEFA, decision to ban them from next season’s Europa League competition because of their financial situation.

In addition to the official appeal, Mallorca has also issued a statement about its intent to fight, and defeat the ban.

The statement says the decision threatens to deprive “the club of a series of revenue in different concepts such as ticketing, sponsorship and income from the competition.

“Ethically and legally, RCD Mallorca believes reason is on their side and [the club] will not relent in the effort to show that he has earned the right to challenge the Europa League.”

New manager Michael Laudrup is confident the decision can be overturned. He said: “I’m optimistic – I know Platini [michel, president of UEFA] and I know he’s fair.

“The committee [of control and discipline] took the decision, but we’ll see what happens. There has been no final word.”

A date for the appeal hearing has yet to be confirmed.

Football Federation Australia (FFA) has announced they have become a full member to the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) following an AFF Extraordinary Congress in Dili, viagra ed Timor Leste.

FFA’s admission, illness which was decided following a unanimous vote by the 11 Member Associations of AFF, medicine will enable Australian National Teams to participate in AFF competitions and ensure Australia enjoys full political membership of the regional body.

“Football Federation Australia is honoured to be admitted to the ASEAN Football Federation. We look forward to being an active member, and to contributing to the ongoing development and success of football in our region”, said FFA General Secretary and CEO David Gallop.

The President of the AFF, His Royal Highness Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah welcomed AFF’s newest member: “Timor Leste was the last member of AFF. It is only fitting we are all here today for this proud nation to pass the baton to Australia”, he said.

FFA Director, AFC Vice President and FIFA Executive Committee Member Moya Dodd looked to the future, saying: “Whilst this could be seen as the final piece in Australia’s integration into AFC, it is more appropriate to say this is the beginning of a mutual commitment to the advancement of football in South East Asia.”

The membership comes on the eve of an important milestone in the countdown to the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015.

“Tomorrow will mark 500 days to go until the AFC Asian Cup comes to Australian shores. As a member of AFF, we will do our upmost to do ASEAN, and indeed all of Asia, proud”, said Gallop.