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.

Rio de Janiero Chief Executive, Leonardo Gryner has acknowledged that they are struggling to recruit enough skilled Brazilian workers to help it prepare for the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics and will probably need to look abroad for the expertise it needs.

There is a particular shortage of engineers with expertise in project management, he admitted. “Today we have 181 employees involved in organising the event, when the forecast was that we should have 274 by this time,” said Gryner.

At its peak, Rio 2016 is expected to employ more than 4,000 people. At the same time organisers of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil are also looking to recruit high-calibre staff.

Gryner said: “As the Brazilian economy is heated, there is talent shortage in the market. But employees who are hired are compensated by a salary greater than originally anticipated.”

Gryner believes there will be a lot of foreign interest.

“Traditionally, 20 to 25 per cent of the workforce employed in each edition of the Olympics is foreign. In Rio, we can expect that figure to raise to 30 per cent due to lack of manpower. Our salaries are competitive abroad because we are paying the dollar, an amount consistent with the international market,” he said.

It is estimated that by the end of 2016 the Brazilian economy will need an extra 20,000 construction workers to keep up with demand. 

To help fill the gap, the Referral Service construction of the Center for Industrial Learning (SENAI) is planned to open next year, two schools offering vocational training for the construction industry.

From late 2012, it is expected to train 6,000 professionals each year.

Bob Hersh has been elected as the new head of the Evaluation Commission for the 2017 World Championships following his appointment as senior vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

The American will lead a nine-member delegation that will visit London and Doha next month to produce a report that will assess the two cities respective bids ahead of a meeting of the IAAF’s ruling Council in Monte Carlo on November 11.

Hersh, a Harvard Law School graduate, replaces former Olympic pole vault champion Sergey Bubka, who headed the Evaluation Commission that oversaw the bids for the 2015 World Championships.

London failed on their bid on that occasion due to concerns over the legacy of their stadium.

The Evaluation Commission will be seeking reassurances during their visit, which is scheduled to take place between October 2 and 4, that London will have a Stadium to host the event if they are awarded it.

Memories are still fresh within the IAAF that in 2001 were awarded the 2005 World Championships but then Prime Minister Tony Blair broke a promise to build a stadium at Picketts Lock to host the event and it was eventually moved to Helsinki.

But London will be encouraged that Bubka, a vocal long-time critic of London’s failure to secure the future of the Olympic Stadium, has been removed from the Evaluation Commission after he lost his position as senior IAAF vice-president at the elections in Daegu last month.

London will be encouragement from the inclusion on the Commission of Namibia’s former world 200 metres champion Frankie Fredericks.

He was a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Evaluation Commission that inspected London’s bid for 2012 and is now on the Coordination Commission that is overseeing the preparations.

Other members of the Commission include Mexico’s Cesar Moreno Bravo, an honorary member of the IAAF Council, IAAF general secretary Pierre Weiss, who is from France, and his British deputy, Nick Davies.

The Commission also includes another Briton in Nigel Swinscoe, a Lougborough University graduate, who will be representing AMS, the servicing company of Dentsu, the IAAF’s marketing agents.

Dentsu will also have a representative on the Commission who will sit alongside Paul Hardy, the Canadian who is the competition manager of the IAAF, and Isabelle Dupuis, Weiss’ personal assistant.

The Commission will visit the Olympic Stadium on October 3, the second day of their visit to London, and will hold a press conference the next day before leaving for Doha, where they will stay until October 6.