medstore helvetica, sans-serif;”>

Russian and British Olympic officials have secured a partnership after signing a memorandum of understanding in Moscow on Wednesday to provide mutual assistance in delivering their respective Winter and Summer Games.

The president of the Russian Olympic Committee Alexander Zhukov signed the document along with British Olympic Associated chairman Colin Moynihan at a ceremony at the Russian government headquarters.

London is holding the 2012 Summer Games, while Russia will host the 2014 Winter Games in the southern Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Zhukov, said: “It’s really important that Russia and Britain have close contacts between the committees and federations for the best possible preparation for the Olympics.”

Moynihan said the partners would do “everything possible to ensure success of London and Sochi as Olympic capitals.”

The main benefit of the agreement is that it foresees the bodies sharing all kinds of information on administrative and competition practices, how best to exploit various sporting facilities, how best to train staff, and other key areas related to putting on a top-quality Games.

Olympic associations and committees frequently sign such accords to maintain key standards through the Olympic cycle.

Azerbaijan have announced the appointed their Deputy Prime Minister Yagub Eyubov as the head of Baku’s bid to host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.

Eyubov, 66, has been given the role by the country’s President Ilham Aliyev, who is head of the National Olympic Committee of Azerbaijan (NOCA).

Aliyev has ordered the establishment of a Baku “Organising Committee to take measures relating to the nomination of Baku as candidate city for hosting Summer Olympic Games in 2020” in a Presidential decree.

The decree said: “Under the order, the Azerbaijani capital was nominated as candidate city to host the 2020 Summer Olympics with the purpose of further strengthening of state policy in the field of physical culture and sports, expansion of the Olympic Movement and its propaganda in wide geographic area,” 

“Holding of such representative competitions in Baku will contribute to raising the country’s authority in the world of sports.”

He will be supported by a group including Rovnag Abdullayev,·the chairman of·SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic) and·President of the·Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan, and·Elnur Mammadli, the Beijing 2008 -73kg judo champion.

News Corp subsidiary NWS Digital Asia Pte Limited announced today it has won non-exclusive mobile and internet rights in Vietnam for the 2014 FIFA World CupTM in Brazil, site with highlights content to be featured on BallBall.

The official highlights for every World Cup game in this year’s tournament are already being shown on BallBall, search starting with the opening game, cheap Brazil versus Croatia last Thursday. 

In addition to the individual match highlights, BallBall will also have themed video packages from the 2014 FIFA World CupTM, such as round-ups of all the daily games and goals of the week after each phase of the competition. It will also showcase real-time data feeds, infographics, written editorial coverage, commentary and analysis from News Corp’s globally recognised publications and engage with football fans on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Ms. Anoushka Healy, Chief Strategy Officer for News Corp said: “Millions of fans around the world share in the excitement and anticipation of this great tournament, and we are absolutely delighted for the football fans of Vietnam that we can bring Brazil 2014 to them on BallBall with so much official content and engage with them in so many innovative ways.”

News Corp’s BallBall is the only digital platform in Vietnam where fans can also watch highlights of every goal from every game from the top five major European leagues – the English Premier League (England), La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Bundesliga (Germany), and Ligue 1 (France).

The land designated for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic golf course is in the centre of a legal dispute putting the first Olympic golf tournament in 112 years in jeopardy.

A report by CNN on the Riserva Uno location where a new course will be developed revealed that there is a legal dispute over the land.

Luiz Ernesto Magalhães, Brazilian newspaper O Globo, said: “Right now the property is being presented by a group claiming to be the owner of this land. Official documents show the land belongs to this group, but there have been disputes, other parties are now claiming rights to this land.”

In 2009 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that the sport could return to the Olympic programme after more than 100 years since it was last played at a Summer Games.

The  Royal & Ancient, golf’s governing body, announced in July that the Riserva Uno site would be the location for the sport’s Olympic comeback.

The new course could provide a huge boost to Brazilian gold, as Paulo Pacheco, vice President of the Brazilian Golf Confederation, told CNN: “In Brazil there are 25,000 players and we think after the Olympic Games we can increase this, more than doubling it in ten years.”

A number of notable golfing figures including Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman are in the running to design the course, and the multi-millionaires have agreed to waive the course design fees they would be owed in exchange for the prestigious honour.

Nick Faldo has also come up with an innovative plan for 18 major champions to design a hole each, but work needs to begin next year on the course for it to be ready in time for a scheduled test run in 2015.

English League Two side Plymouth Argyle may be on verge of a takeover after their administrators approached rival bidders James Brent and Paul Buttivant to submit bids to take over the League Two club.

On Thursday the Football League deferred a decision on whether to approve a bid backed by businessman Kevin Heaney.

Heaney said on Friday that he will not walk away from a deal just yet, despite threatening to 24 hours earlier.

“My consortium still want to do a deal,” Heaney said.

“They’re (The Football League) asking for a few more bits to be done and we’re hopeful that we’ll get a completion date out of the Football League,” Heaney, whose consortium Bishop International were preferred bidders for the club.

“It’s more of a technical matter – how things are done in relation to funding for the club moving forward and there needs more understanding of that.”

However Brent said: “We’ve had an approach from Brendan Guilfoyle on behalf of the joint administrators asking us to submit a revised proposal, which we’ve done and we’re now talking to interested parties to see if we can deliver that.”

Bishop International is offering £6m to buy Home Park and land around the ground, with acting chairman Peter Ridsdale then buying the club for a nominal fee.

Heaney is the chairman of Blue Square Bet South side Truro City and insisted he will have no part in the running of the football club.

League rules state no-one can be involved in the running of two separate teams.

Heaney says the administrators should go ahead and approve his deal: “If ours is still the highest bid, why not push the deal through? It seems to me that the administrators are trying at the 11th hour to get a higher bid, which is a bit naughty really.

“The danger is my consortium walk away because they’re tired of being messed around and they’re left with James Brent in a far worse position.”

Sydney Swans director Andrew Pridham will replace long-serving Richard Colless as chairman of the Australian Rules Football League club next year.

Colless last month said he would not be seeking re-election when his term ends in February.

Pridham will step into the role having served on the Swans board for the past 12 years, while Andrew McMaster will continue as deputy chairman, the club announced in a statement on Wednesday.

Colless said he was delighted that the two senior positions were going to be filled by sitting board members who had a strong understanding of the Swans’ culture and values.

“We believe this is best achieved by, if you like, people serving a genuine apprenticeship,” added Colless.

“I’m sure the handover will occur as smoothly as the Paul Roos/John Longmire transition did.”

Colless assured fans that the appointments were not a sign of complacency within the board or club.

“We remain totally committed to continual improvement in all facets of our activities. To do otherwise is a guarantee for mediocrity,” he said.