Azerbaijan’s National Olympic Committee has suggested it has submitted a surprise bid to host the 2020 Olympics in its capital, Baku after it initially denied they would.

Today (September 1) marks the deadline to submit a bid to the International Olympic Committee. Madrid, Rome, Tokyo, Istanbul and Doha, Qatar, are all expected to have submitted a bid. The IOC will announce the list on Friday.

Committee spokeswoman Konul Nurulleyeva says Thursday the experience gained in the city’s failed bid for the 2016 Games would help it to mount an improved challenge.

Nurulleyeva suggested Baku’s application was filed two weeks ago, only days after Azerbaijan’s sporting authorities denied they would bid for the games.

The spokeswoman continued to say that there is already a Stadium being built specifically for the Olympics on the outskirts of Baku and will be completed during next year.

 

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge has praised preparations for the London 2012 Games and revealed he had been “reassured” that recent upheaval at London’s Metropolitan Police would not jeopardise security for the Games.

Rogge will join London Mayor Boris Johnson, and London 2012 organising committee (LOCOG) chairman Lord Coe at an event in Trafalgar Square in London to mark the one-year countdown to the Games this week.

Rogge said: “Preparations are excellent. They are on time, on budget. Quality-wise we have not the slightest concern. There is no doubt about that. London is very well organised, the team is very strong. We are very optimistic.”

Rogge also said he had been assured by Robertson that the resignations of the Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and assistant commissioner John Yates would not disrupt efforts to keep the Games safe. The IOC chief added that security had been a priority since the terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.

He said: “Since Munich, security has been the No.1 priority for every organising committee. This is something that is dealt with in conjunction with the government and public authorities…The Metropolitan police do not depend on one single person. Leadership is very important but I’m sure that given the amount of time in front of us that the leadership issue will be solved rapidly.”

Rogge claimed he was also confident that London could fulfil its legacy aspirations. “There is a great urban legacy in the remediation of east London and Stratford. There are going to be great cultural and leisure activities, there is better transport, new housing. I think this is a great legacy. The other legacy is in terms of the appetite and desire for sport. That will be done after the Games.”

Manchester United have reported record annual revenue of of £331.4 ($537m) million up from £45 ($73m) million from last year.

The main reason for the 15.7% revenue growth has been due to commercial revenues increasing 27.0% from £81.4m ($131.9m) to £103.4m ($167.5m).

This has led to a healthy profit margin with annual operating profit of £110.9m ($179.8m).

They also reduced their debt but it is still a worrying figure £308.3m ($499.5m).

It comes as the Old Trafford club prepares to launch a partial flotation on the Singapore Stock Exchange, generic a move which could raise up to £600m.

In the 2010-11 season, Manchester United won the Premier League and also reached the final of the Champions League at Wembley against Barcelona.

Manager Sir Alex Ferguson has spent heavily over the summer to replenish an ageing team.

Manchester United was bought by the US-based Glazer family for £800m ($1.29 billion) in 2005.

Manchester United have net assets of £810.6m ($1.31bn).

London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe has defended the decision to allow McDonald’s to open the biggest ever outlet in the middle of the Olympic Park. 

 A 3,000 square metre facility built by the Fast Food chain will be one of four on the Olympic site.

McDonald’s has been an Olympic sponsor for 35 years and Coe said: “Without sponsors you don’t have a Games. He added “Trying to raise the Herculean sums of money that we’ve actually raised in the most difficult economy for the delivery of the Games has been extraordinary.”

McDonald’s is set to be the only branded restaurants on site and estimates it will sell 1.75 million meals during the Games.

But Coe argued: “Alongside that we’ll have the widest possible range of foods, British and otherwise.

“Nobody is forcing you to eat McDonald’s on an hourly basis but let’s be clear: without the support of sponsors, this [the Olympics] just does not take place.”

Football’s governing body, FIFA, has demanded that the Nigerian Government withdraws its ban on the national team playing any international football for the next two years by this evening.

Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, has imposed the ban after the team’s poor performance at this summer’s World Cup in South Africa, but under strict FIFA rules, any interference in footballing matters from a country’s government is not allowed.

FIFA stated on Friday that it would give the Nigerian Government until Monday (today) to reverse the ban, or face an even lengthier one.

Yesterday it was revealed that the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) had fired its president, Sani LuLu, and vice-president, Amanze Ugbulam, as well as a member of the Federation’s technical committee in a bid to overturn the ban.

In a NFF statement it said executive committee members “passionately appeal to the president…to reconsider the earlier action of government to withdraw all the national football teams from CAF (Confederation of African Football)/FIFA competitions for two years.”

FIFA Secretary, Jerome Valcke, said the ban threatened the whole set-up of international football. “If the Government of Nigeria do not back down, we will suspend Nigeria and the decision will be taken in the next 48 hours. We have been severe with France, why would we not be toward Nigeria?

“We have 208 members and and if one of them goes against our constitution and the system, then the whole footballing pyramid is in danger.”