The London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) has confirmed the dates of GB’s Olympic Football teams group games with their first fixture scheduled for Thursday 26 July at Old Trafford.

The men’s team, coached by Stuart Pearce will have their second game at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 29 July with their final group game being at the Millennium stadium on Wednesday 1 August.

Coached by Hope Powell, the women’s team will kick off the tournament on Wednesday 25 July at the Millennium Stadium, with their following match at the same venue on Saturday 28 July. Their final group stage match will take place on Tuesday 31 July at Wembley Stadium.

The official draw for the Olympic Football tournament will take place on 24 April 2012 at Wembley Stadium.

Team GB Chef de Mission Andy Hunt said: ‘We are delighted that the group fixtures for Team GB in both men’s and women’s Football will allow fans from throughout the United Kingdom to experience the spirit and energy of the Olympic Games while showing their support for Team GB.’

LOCOG also announced that tickets for the London 2012 Olympic Football tournaments will go back on sale from 11am on 29 November 2011. There are more than 1.5 million Football tickets still available across all sessions, with limited availability at matches taking place at Wembley.

LOCOG Director of Sport Debbie Jevans commented: ‘The prospect of Team GB taking part in the Games has captured the imagination of the public and we are pleased to be able to confirm their group stage fixtures ahead of tickets going back on sale.

‘With teams like Spain and Brazil already qualified and fantastic venues across the country, the Olympic Football tournaments promise to be a great family day out at the Olympic Games next summer.’

UK Airport, Heathrow, official host airport of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, have started their search for volunteers to greet international athletes, officials, media, spectators and VIPs when they arrive for the Games.

Heathrow, the third busiest airport in the world, will be the main point of entry for London 2012 with around 80 per cent of people travelling to the Games from outside the UK set to pass through its four terminals.

In order to help deal with the influx of people, Heathrow are looking 1,000 Team Heathrow volunteers and have invited local residents who want to be involved to sign up to attend the first selection day on November 12 at the Heathrow Academy in Hounslow.

Volunteers will have the chance to receive a range of London 2012 or Heathrow related rewards and also work at Heathrow on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee which will take place in June next year, just over a month before the Olympic Opening Ceremony.

Colin Matthews, chief executive of British Airports Authority (BAA) who own Heathrow and six other British airports, said: “This is an exciting time for Great Britain and it is an honour for everyone at Heathrow to be amongst the first to welcome athletes and others to the London 2012 Games. The Olympics and Paralympics will be challenging for us and we are working hard to ensure everything works as smoothly as possible. We are inviting enthusiastic volunteers to join our team and provide the best possible reception to our country’s many visitors.”

Heathrow want volunteers welcoming people to England to give them a great first and last impression of London but they face a huge logistical challenge as August 13, the day after the 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony, which is set to be the busiest in the airport’s history.

On that day, the number of bags expected to leave the airport is more than 25 per cent higher than usual peak times with round 15 per cent of the bags likely to be large sporting equipment such as canoes, pole vaults or bikes which cannot be processed through normal baggage systems.

The NFL announced that Arizona will host Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 after NFL owners voted for Arizona ahead of Tampa Bay.

Arizona last hosted the Super Bowl in 2008 when the New York Giants upset the New England Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII. Tampa Bay last hosted Super Bowl XLIII in 2009 when the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 27-23 on Feb. 1. South Florida has held the most Super Bowls at 10.

The Tampa Super Bowl committee bought a billboard in Houston, asking owners to bring the Super Bowl back to Florida.

Arizona won by simple majority after the second ballot. To win on the first ballot, a region needed 75% of owners to sign off.

The Arizona Super Bowl committee found in a study presented to the owners that Super Bowl XLII generated $500 million in commerce for the region. University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., also hosted the last BCS national championship game on Jan. 10.

Arizona Cardinals president Michael Bidwell, said: “We’re delighted that the NFL has chosen Arizona, I think it’s going to be a great economic impact this time around in 2015 to give our community something to really rally around over the next couple of years as we go through these economic times.”

Super Bowl XLVI will be held in Indianapolis on Feb. 5, followed by New Orleans and East Rutherford, N.J., site of the first outdoor Super Bowl in a cold-weather city. The NFL announced Tuesday that Super Bowl XLVIII at the New Jersey Meadowlands will be held on Feb. 2, 2014, Groundhog’s Day.

Russia’s proposal to turn historic London monument Marble Arch into a party venue during next year’s Olympics to promote the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi has been rejected by London authorities.

Sochi organizers had unveiled plans to install an open-air ice rink in front of the location at the entrance to Hyde Park.

Police, transportation and local government officials have opposed the plans, citing concerns over safety and overcrowding.

Westminster Council director Rosemarie MacQueen said in a statement to The Associated Press that the council recommended that “this particular planning application should be refused.”

The decision is set to be ratified at a planning meeting next Thursday.

The Sochi organizing committee says “we understand the concerns that have been raised” and “are working to revise our plans.”

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) will not award the 2017 and 2019 World Championships simultaneously even though they consider the Doha and London bids among two of the strongest bids they have ever received.

There had been speculation that the IAAF ruling Council would give the 2017 event to one of the bidders and 2019 to the other.

This has been done before by the IAAF, ironically involving London. The Council decided in 2000 to award the 2003 World Championships and the 2005 event to London.

Paris staged one of the successful Championships in history but London was forced to withdraw after Britain failed to keep the promise made by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair to build a new stadium at Pickett’s Lock to host the event.

The Championships were moved to Helsinki and London’s current bid continues to be overshadowed by the fall-out from Blair’s failure to keep his promise.

Four years ago the IAAF also awarded the 2011 and 2013 World Championships simultaneously to Daegu and Moscow respectively.

But Bob Hersh, the senior vice-president of the IAAF and head of the Evaluation Commission, has ruled out the same thing happening when the Council meet to decide the 2017 hosts at its meeting in Monte Carlo on November 11.

Hersh said: “I don’t think we would do that in a case like this. “We have not opened 2019 for other bidders and there may be some very good cities that would have wanted to go for 19 and feel they didn’t have the opportunity to do that because we didn’t allow them too.”

But Hersh admitted that the Council face a difficult choice in choosing the winning city, with London promising record sold-out crowds in the Olympic Stadium and Doha offering the opportunity of the event being staged in the Middle East for the first time.

“We do have two very, very strong bids in very different ways,” he added.

“You’ve seen it in Doha, it’s completely different [to London] – but it has its own merits.”

Fenway Sports Management (FSM), denture the sports marketing agency of Fenway Sports Group, bronchi today announced that Jennifer Flynn has been named General Counsel.

She will continue to serve the Boston Red Sox as Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel.

Flynn will oversee FSM’s strategic legal initiatives, including FSM’s venture activities, and negotiate contracts relating to its exclusive property representation and sponsorship sales business: NBA MVP LeBron James; PGA TOUR Playoff event the Deutsche Bank Championship; Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) and Boston College Athletics.

Flynn will continue to work closely with Fenway Sports Group Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy/General Counsel Ed Weiss on legal matters across the company’s portfolio of sports properties, including the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool Football Club, Roush Fenway Racing and New England Sports Network (NESN). Among other duties, Flynn leads negotiations for content rights deals, provides counsel in connection with original programming initiatives, and serves as Fenway Sports Group’s lead senior lawyer for all transactional matters.

“Jen’s keen ability to handle and advise on a broad range of complex matters has been key to our business growth and success,” said Weiss. “Her counsel is widely sought after within the company and respected throughout the industry. This promotion rightly recognizes her role as an important member of senior management at FSM, and her increasingly broader management abilities.”

Pub chain Fuller, Smith & Turner is going to spend £16 million ($25.5m) to buy five pubs, four in London, to exploit the opportunities the London 2012 Olympics will provide.

The brewer of London Pride recently lost out on a bid to buy the Capital Pub Company to rival Greene King, which paid £70 million ($111.5m) for 34 boozers around town.

Most pub chains think the Olympics will be very lucrative and are looking to expand in the capital.

Fuller is acquiring The Wellington at Waterloo, The Pavilion End and Bluu in the City, The Hand & Flower in Kensington Olympia and the Red Lion Hotel in Wendover, Bucks.

The seller is Marston’s, which is seeking cash to build new pubs in areas such as retail parks.

Fuller’s managing director Simon Emeny said: “These acquisitions are high turnover managed houses with a similar trading style to our own where we feel Fuller’s can add value. They emphasise our continued focus on London.”

The deal adds 58 bedrooms to the Fuller’s estate and takes the number of pubs it owns to 365 – one for every day of the year.

For City drinkers, The Pavilion End might be of most interest. It is close to Cannon Street station and has a beer garden regarded as one of the best in the Square Mile.

London’s 2017 bid for the World Championships has been given a major boost after Bob Hersh, head of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Evaluation Commission, claimed the issue surrounding the London Olympic Stadium track has been resolved.

The American headed an IAAF delegation that completed its inspection of London’s 2017 bid on Tuesday. 

Inspectors were handed a ‘cast-iron guarantee’ by the British government that the running track will remain in place at the Olympic Stadium, regardless of whether English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur wins its court action against the decision to award the venue to West Ham United after London 2012.

The action had threatened to derail London’s bid, but Mayor Boris Johnson last week urged Tottenham to stay in North London after the club was offered a stadium deal that could save it $26 million. 

Tottenham is still seeking a judicial review of the Olympic Stadium decision, which will be heard on 18th October.

Hersh said: “We were concerned before we got here, having read about this issue for years now. But based on our very good meeting yesterday, the assurances we have received from the government and the way in which it has addressed the legal state of affairs and legal possibilities, we are satisfied.

“We are satisfied there will be a stadium with a track in it and we will be able to host the 2017 World Championships in that stadium. We’re very pleased to have that issue sorted as we have just regarded it as a distraction off to the side.

“The city sells itself. It is a wonderful city and one that I have always enjoyed being in. The stadium is world class and we’re also very pleased with the passion and commitment of UK Athletics (UKA) and those who are involved in this bid. I think UKA have shown they are capable of holding a successful World Championships.”