Ukraine will host EuroBasket 2015 while EuroBasket Women 2015 will be hosted in Hungary, FIBA has announced.

The proposed venues for EuroBasket 2015 are in the cities of Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk and the capital Kyiv for the First Round. Odessa, Lviv and again Kyiv will then play host to the Second Round and the Finals.

FIBA Europe President Olafur Rafnsson, who announced the decision, said: “I would like to congratulate Ukraine and the large delegation of important personalities that came to Munich to support the bid.

“We all know that Ukraine is a big country, we have detected a lot of enthusiasm and the will to become one of the powerhouses of European basketball and I think they have everything they need to succeed. They have been organising and will organise big sporting events with great success.”

Ukraine was the only candidate to host EuroBasket 2015 following the withdrawal of a joint bid by Croatia, France, Germany and Italy last week.

Sergey Bubka, the legendary Olympic gold medallist and six-time world champion pole vaulter, who fronted the Ukrainian bid in his current capacity as National Olympic Committee (NOC) President was elated with the decision.

“This is a great historical decision for Ukrainian sport, for Ukrainian basketball and European Basketball and we promise to deliver the best EuroBasket in our country,” he said.

Ukrainian Basketball Federation President Oleksandr Volkov added: “Ukraine is a big country and I am sure that the EuroBasket will unite it in the same way that football has done now.”

Meanwhile, Hungary was granted hosting duties for EuroBasket Women in 2015 as a result of a majority vote by the Board after it evaluated its bid and that of the other candidate, Belarus.

“I would like to congratulate the host but also the Belarusian Federation for their willingness to host such a big event, and I’d like to tell them ‘Don’t give up, continue to work hard,'” said FIBA Europe Secretary General Nar Zanolin.

“To the Hungarian Federation I’d like to say that there will be demands for an event of such high level, but knowing the people that will work for this event I am more than sure that all requirements will be met.”

Hungarian Secretary of State for Sport Attila Czene – a former Olympic gold medal winning medley swimmer – was delighted with the announcement.

“We can now happily tell everyone that we will host EuroBasket Women 2015 and we are extremely happy for that because it means we will go on with continuing to build the necessary infrastructure, as we will also bid for the Youth Olympics in 2017,” he said.

“Our aim in Hungary is to invest in sport and basketball is a main team sport. As a former Olympic champion, I am happy that we can reintroduce team sport in Hungary. Basketball is a bit behind handball right now and we are trying to close this gap, with 2015 we can start making progress.”

The proposed EuroBasket Women 2015 venues are in the cities of Sopron, Gyor, Szombathely, Veszprem and the capital Budapest.

World football’s governing body Fifa is set to remove the system for regulating agents, as around 70 per cent of international transfers are conclude without licensed agents.

Fifa’s current agent regulations came into force in January 2008, but the organisation has been meeting over the last year to review how the system is working.

Fifa released a statement that said: “A possible new approach could be to regulate the conduct of clubs and players, and extend the scope of the regulations to include all kinds of intermediaries. In other words, the regulations would stop attempting to regulate access to the activity, and instead control the activity itself.

“This would mean that players and clubs could choose any parties as intermediaries, be they legal entities, lawyers, relatives or spouses, but would have to meet certain criteria and respect certain principles. This approach would also result in the annulment of the current licensing system.”

 

European football governing body UEFA has announced an exclusive agreement with MP & Silva for the media rights in Japan for the European Qualifiers to UEFA EURO 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The leading international media company will distribute all matches in Japan. The European Qualifiers will consist of 546 live Matches, doctor of which, medstore 526 will be qualification matches and 20 friendly matches.

Andrea Radrizzani, therapy Founding Partner of MP & Silva, said: “We’re delighted to work with the world’s leading football organisations to make available this huge volume of quality games in a market where we continue to lead the way.”

MP & Silva adds UEFA to their prominent portfolio of media clients and partners globally, which includes FIFA, NBA, MLS, Italian Serie A, English Premier League, the Olympic Council of Asia, French Football League, English Football Association, Formula 1, French Tennis Federation and other 60 sports Leagues and Federations worldwide.

The Opening Ceremony at the 20120 London Olympivcs is to be named Isles of Wonder.

The theme is taken from William Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’.

The ceremony’s artistic director, Danny Boyle, explained the genesis of the idea alongside creative director Stephen Daldry.

Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotting director Boyle stated, “We’ll be celebrating the whole of the country… there are so many ‘Isles of Wonder'”.

Boyle added that the story is about the recovery of a land poisoned by its industrial past.

It is estimated that the ceremony on July 27th will be watched by one billion TV viewers worldwide.

The biggest ringing bell in Europe has been commissioned to hang at one end of the stadium and sound at the opening of the Games. It will be inscribed with a quote from ‘The Tempest’: “Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises”.

Last month, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt was forced to defended the doubling of the budget for the Olympic ceremonies to £81m; Hunt claimed that it is “an extraordinary business opportunity” likely to attract foreign investment.

Boyle said a third of the ceremonies budget money would be used for the opening ceremony which is substantially less than the £65m devoted to the 2008 Beijing opening ceremony given to curated by Chinese film director Zhang Yimou.

All four ceremonies throughout the Games – the preshow and show events of the opening and Closing ceremonies are expected to be watched by four billion people and advertising experts estimate this is worth up to £5bn in airtime exposure.

Stephen Daldry said they were the “greatest shows on earth and the task was enormous.” He added that all together they would represent one united journey.

More detailed information will be released about the ceremony through the year.

At this stage the following numbers are confirmed – a cast of 15,000 volunteers, 23,000 costumes, 12 hours of music, 60 musicians, 15,000 sq m of staging, 13,000 props and one million watt PA system with 500 speakers.

Morocco will become the first African country to host the FIFA Club World Cup after it was confirmed that it will stage the 2013 and 2014 editions of the tournament.

iSportconnect reported in October that Iran, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had withdrawn their bids and the North Africans will have the chance to practice ahead of their staging of the 2015 African Cup of Nations.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter, according told BBC Sport: “We were given a presentation by the Moroccan Federation and I expect the tournament will be excellent in all aspects – logistical, cultural and financial.”

The Club World Cup includes the champion club of each of FIFA’s six continental confederations, plus the host nation’s champion (which for Morocco would have been Raja Casablanca this year) and is set to remain in Japan in 2012.

European football’s governing body Uefa has approved the match schedule for the Euro 2012 finals, it has been announced.

There had been some fears some of the stadiums in the co-host cities of Ukraine and Poland would not be ready in time, but Uefa has now approved eight venues in both Ukraine and Poland at an executivee meeting in Minsk this week.

Poland will stage games in Warsaw, Wroclaw, Poznan and Gdansk, while Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lviv will hold matches in Ukraine.

Uefa released a statement which said: “In Poland, Wroclaw and Poznan will host three group stage matches, while Gdansk will stage three group stage matches and a quarter-final.

“Warsaw will host three group stage fixtures, including the opening Group A game featuring Poland, a quarter-final and a semi-final. Poland will play their second group match in Warsaw, and their third in Wroclaw.”

The tournament will take place between 8 June and 1 July 2012.

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) have signed a new six-year broadcast deal with SKY Television.

The new deal grants SKY the rights to broadcast the BLACKCAPS’ international matches and NZC’s domestic cricket competitions up until March, medstore 2020.

NZC chief executive David White today welcomed the agreement, describing it as a significant commitment by both parties, and good news for all Kiwi cricket enthusiasts.

“We’re delighted with the outcome,” says Mr White. “This agreement reflects cricket’s value as New Zealand’s premium summer sport.

“NZC and SKY have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship spanning 20 years, and we’re delighted cricket fans will continue to benefit from SKY’s first-rate production and coverage for the next six seasons.”

Mr White says the new agreement with SKY would take full advantage of NZC’s soon-to-be-announced Future Tours Programme.

“We’re not far away from releasing a very strong playing programme, the details of which will only make this SKY deal all the more exciting.”

SKY Television chief executive John Fellet says: “I’m really pleased and excited that we’re able to continue to invest in international and domestic cricket in New Zealand for the next six years.

It’s a great result for sports fans around the country to have these matches locked in until 2020.

“It’s rewarding to be able to continue our relationship with New Zealand Cricket in delivering passionate cricket coverage for one of our premier summer codes.”

Sportlifestyle company PUMA has appointed Torsten Hochstetter as Global Creative Director, order effective 15 July 2013.

Based in Herzogenaurach, buy Hochstetter will be responsible for designing, rx creating and developing the Sport Performance and Sport Lifestyle collections of the brand, touching on all product categories including footwear, apparel and accessories. Hochstetter will work hands-on with all PUMA respective design teams worldwide. 

“Torsten Hochstetter is a proven expert in the sporting goods and fashion design industry,” said Björn Gulden, CEO of PUMA. “I am pleased that with Torsten we have a long-standing design expert coming onboard of PUMA bringing an extensive experience and know how to our company.” 

German-native Hochstetter has a broad international experience in the sports and fashion industry. Before joining PUMA, he was Creative Director at American surfwear company O’Neill. Prior to that, he used to work for Adidas in Germany, USA and Japan, holding positions such as Creative Director Sport Performance and Creative Director Sport Style. He started off his professional career at German fashion company S. Oliver in 1993. Hochstetter has a Fashion Design degree from Ent-Art Polimoda in Florence and completed a tailoring apprenticeship. He is fluent in English, Italian, Dutch and Japanese.