Yorkshire County Cricket Club have announced Mark Arthur has been appointed their new chief executive.

Arthur, healing who has previously undertaken the same role at Nottingham Forest Football Club and Nottinghamshire, adiposity will begin his new job next Tuesday.

“I am delighted to be joining Yorkshire as chief executive,” said Arthur.

“It is an honour and a massive opportunity to be part of the biggest cricket club in the world, which boasts nearly 900 playing clubs and a vibrant development programme, which is the envy of world cricket.

“I will do everything during my time at Headingley for the betterment of Yorkshire cricket. The hard work has been undertaken over the last few years to stabilise the club and now we have a great opportunity and a solid platform to take the club forward.”

Colin Graves, Yorkshire chairman, added: “It is fantastic news for the club to appoint Mark as the new chief executive.

“Mark has over 20 years’ experience at the highest level of sports administration, both in cricket and football. His experience and knowledge will be vital in taking the club forward in what will be an exciting period, both on and off the field.”

Soccerex have confirmed that England and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard will be attending the Soccerex European Forum on 10-11 April, doctor in Manchester.

Regarded as one of the greatest central midfielders of the modern era, apoplectic Gerrard has been an iconic symbol of English football as well as a once in a generation player for his hometown club, Liverpool.

Making his senior debut for Liverpool in 1998, he has made 624 appearances for the club, including 158 goals. His defining football moment came in the 2005 Champions League Final in Istanbul. Having already brought Liverpool back from the brink against Olympiacos, Gerrard helped orchestrate one of the greatest comebacks in the history of football, his 54^th minute header inspiring Liverpool to come from 3-0 down against AC Milan to win their fifth European Cup.

Gerrard gained his first international cap in 2000, scoring his first international goal in the 5-1 defeat of Germany in 2001. He has proved himself to be one of England’s most consistent performers and reached 100 caps for England against Sweden in November 2012, becoming only the 6^th player ever to do so. He captained the side for the first time in 2004 and was handed the armband again during the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM in South Africa. Gerrard retained the captaincy for the opening Euro 2012 qualifying match against Bulgaria and was later confirmed as permanent captain.

Steven Gerrard commented: “I’m excited to be attending the Soccerex European Forum; it will be a great opportunity to catch up with the football family and help celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the FA.”

Soccerex CEO Duncan Revie said: “To welcome a player of Steven’s stature to our event is an enormous privilege for me and Soccerex. As England and Liverpool captain, he is an icon of the game all over the world and brings his vast experience and knowledge of the game both on and off the field which will greatly enhance everyone’s Soccerex experience and help to make the Forum an unmissable event.”

The Soccerex European Forum is a two-day event which attracts over 1,600 delegates from the elite of Europe’s football industry to come together to debate, network and do business. This year’s agenda setting conference programme will tackle the key issues shaping European football, including fan engagement, media rights, match fixing, discrimination and addiction, life after football, social media and a selection of special 1-2-1 sessions with Gianni Infantino, Alexey Sorokin, Sir John Madejski, Sir Bobby Charlton and Gary Neville.

For further information about this event please call +44 (0)208 987 5522 or visitwww.soccerex.com/europe.

International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) vice president Seb Coe, who led London’s successful campaign to host the 2012 Olympics, has urged the three cities bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics to lobby right up until the last moment.

Annecy, Munich and Pyeongchang are now all entering the final stages of lobbying before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) makes a decision at its Session in Durban on July 6.

Coe stated: “These are three extremely good bids.

“As you approach the final stages of a bid race, it is vitally important to be consistent in the message that you are trying to get across to the Olympic Movement.

“You need to know exactly what you should be saying and exactly how you should be saying so that you never lose that consistency.

“But the key is to keep going and keep lobbying until there really are no more minutes left.”

“When you must lobby, it must be sensitive but you must be sure that you constantly reemphasise all the reasons why you should be staging an Olympic and Paralympic Games and you must do that until the very end,” Coe told insidethegames. 

He added: “I am not following the 2018 race all that closely because I have a minor problem in trying to figure out how to organise an Olympic and Paralympic Games in London next year.

“But I will be in Durban where I will be presenting to the Session and I am fully aware there three very, very good bids on the table who could all stage a spectacular event in 2018.”

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have reached an agreement on exclusive media rights with the International Skating Union (ISU) from 2015 – 2019, cialis marking 50 years of EBU-ISU partnership.

The agreement, which marks the 50th anniversary of the initial partnership, covers traditional EBU territory with the EBU also becoming the media rights partner of ISU in the rest of the world (excluding China, Japan, Korea, USA and Canada, which remain with ISU).

This new deal will ensure that more than 130 events over the four seasons (2015/16; 2016/17; 2017/18; 2018/19) will enjoy maximum free-to-air exposure on EBU Members’ TV, radio and online channels. The portfolio covers 52 World and European Championships in the three ISU disciplines of Figure Skating, Speed Skating and Short Track as well as  the series of Grand Prix  and World Cups, together with ISU World Team Trophy of Figure Skating.

EBU will distribute skating content through Eurovision satellite and fiber network to right holders around the world bringing more than 1.000 hours of sport to right holders, together with EBU expertise and know-how on television production to bring state-of-the-art content to the screens.

This agreement marks a new milestone on EBU winter sports rights portfolio, following recent announcement on IBU Biathlon Media Rights 2014-2018.

ISU President, Ottavio Cinquanta said: “The ISU is delighted to continue its long term partnership with the EBU by not only renewing its current contract with EBU Members but also by intrusting the EBU with the sale of TV/media  rights in countries that currently do not show ISU disciplines. We are confident that through the EBU network and its new technologies the ISU will be able to offer top of the range content to the widest possible audience.”

EBU Head of Sports Rights, Winter Sports, Ingolfur Hannesson added: “As the ISU’s exclusive long-term media partner, we present a tailor-made strategy to keep Skating one of the strongest winter Olympic sports. We are proud to have reached this 50-year milestone, and we will continue building on our partnership with ISU to bring Ice Skating events to the widest possible audience.”

The next major ISU event will be Figure Skating World Championships in Saitama, Japan, starting on 26 March 2014.

An announcement made in San Jose, California today, May 23, confirmed that the Scottish city of Glasgow has been awarded the rights to host the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, beating rivals from Paris and Orlando.

Paris were eliminated in the first round in the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) Council meeting before the body voted 23-13 in Glasgow’s favour over Orlando in the second round.

The event will be the main qualifying competition for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and is scheduled to be held in the National Arena Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC), that is due to open in 2013 and host the gymnastics at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, which the city is hosting.

The bid was developed by British Gymnastics with the support of UK Sport, Event Scotland and the City of Glasgow’s major event teams and it will be the third occasion that Britain has staged the event, which has been held annually since 1903 – except in Olympic years.

Britain first held it in Birmingham in 1993 and then again in 2009 in London, when they took place in the O2, which is due to host gymnastics during next year’s Olympics.

Glasgow’s bid is underpinned by US$3m of public funding and would be held between October 18 and November 2, 2015, in the $78m SECC arena, holding up to 12,000 spectators.

The 2015 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships were awarded to Stuttgart and the 2015 Trampoline World Championships to Odense in Denmark.

According to leading South African official and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Sam Ramsamy, the nation are hoping to make a decision by the end of the month about whether to bid or not for the 2020 Olympics or Paralympics.

The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) are still waiting to hear whether the Government will back a campaign to try to become the first city in Africa to host the event, with Durban, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth all expressing an interest in bidding for the Games.

There is strong support for a South African bid following the success of last year’s FIFA World Cup but Ramsamy insists that they will only put themselves forward if they have the full support of President Jacob Zuma.

Ramsamy stated: “No city on its own can do it without Government support. We have done a presentation to the Government and are hopeful that they will make a decision by the end of this month. 

“We have asked the city’s to be patient with us. We are hopeful.”

Under the bid procedures launched yesterday by the IOC, South Africa has until September 1 to nominate a city though they hope to be able to pick a city before the IOC holds its Session in Durban between July 4 and 9. This would be the ideal opportunity to impress visiting members and officials of the benefits of hosting a Games in the country.·

Tubby Reddy, the chief executive of SASCOC, knows the importance of the Session, stating: “It’s a major opportunity.

“Of the 115 IOC members who are coming, 99 per cent will be making the final decision [at the IOC Session] in Buenos Aires in 2013. 

“That’s why it is so important – impressions stay.”

International media rights company MP & Silva have announced a record distribution of the Arsenal Media Channel to 130 territories in Europe, unhealthy Asia-Pacific, MENA, Latin America and North America.

MP & Silva, the delivery partner of Arsenal Media, could reach a potential audience of 392 million households.

This is the fourth year of the partnership between MP & Silva and Arsenal, which includes the production and distribution of Arsenal’s International Programming Block, the annual Emirates Cup and Arsenal’s other pre-season fixtures.

The distribution package of the Arsenal programming is the only exclusive and entertaining club football content block for international audiences in HD. It features weekly, three-hour blocks of delayed game casts for Arsenal matches in the Barclays Premier League, the FA Cup and UEFA Champions League with additional content, including interviews, insights and perspectives in the format of two magazines programmes of 26 min each, called Arsenal World and Arsenal 360.

Riccardo Silva, Founding Partner, MP & Silva said: “We are extremely happy with our partnership with Arsenal FC and the quality of the content produced and distributed. The international programming block brings the club and the players closer to fans all over the world and gives broadcasters the opportunity to bolster their content by airing Barclays Premier League action in each region of the globe”.

Tom Fox, Chief Commercial Officer, Arsenal FC said: “Our long-term strategic partnership with MP & Silva was a ground-breaking agreement when it was signed four years ago and today’s announcement is confirmation that we made the right decision.  Together, with the strong team at MPS, we are now producing more high-quality Club content, seen by more Arsenal fans around the world than ever before.”