The second annual Global Sport Industry Congress took place on Monday in London. Amongst the participants of Congress are representatives of the IOC, symptoms National Olympic Committees, bronchi International Sports Federations, and Sports Editors from some of the world’s leading media outlets.

The major themes discussed at the Congress include the opportunities and challenges associated with ‘Emerging Sport Nations,’ the vision and the mechanics behind preparations for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the future direction of world football.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, the President and CEO of Sochi 2014 presented a progress report which covered all elements of the preparation for the Games in Sochi:

“All of the work is being carried out in accordance with the schedule, approved by the IOC. More than 20,000 people are working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, creating a base for the most innovative Games that the world has ever seen. By the year 2012, all of the competition venues will be put into operation so that we can ensure that two full-seasons on test competitions can be held before the opening of the Games.”

The program of test competitions will include 74 races, including 29 international and 5 World Championships. There will be over 5,000 athletes participating in the test events in front of more than 250,000 spectators. The first “test” will be the European Cup in alpine skiing, which will be held in Sochi in February 2011.

Speaking about financing for the preparation for the Games in 2014, Dmitry Chernyshenko praised the success of the Sochi 2014 marketing program committee:

“Sochi 2014 has attracted major sponsors and broken Olympic sponsorship records with a commercial program worth more than $1bn. Our commercial program is so successful, we self-financed the 2009-2010 financial year, without Government support,” he said.

Touching upon the topic of media coverage of the 2014 Games, Dmitry Chernyshenko said, that journalists visiting Sochi will have their expectations “met and exceeded”.

USA Wrestling have announced today a broadcast partnership with Universal Sports Network to air a series of Olympic-style wrestling competitions in the U.S.

The multi-year deal gives Universal Sports exclusive TV rights to the Freestyle World Cup, U.S. Open, U.S. World Team Trials and additional USA Wrestling programming including an ongoing news and highlights show. This is the first multi-event network television agreement for USA Wrestling, the national governing body for Olympic wrestling.

The announcement comes in advance of the 2014 Freestyle Wrestling World Cup, the annual international dual meet championships, which will air on a tape-delayed basis on Universal Sports Network on Monday, March 24.

“This is a foundational piece in moving wrestling to a more relevant level within the American sports community. We see this as just a beginning, and something we can look back on years from now as a historic moment in the expansion of our sport,” said USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender.

“We are pleased to provide a home for USA Wrestling’s premier events and bring some much-deserved attention to a sport steeped in Olympic history,” said Universal Sports’ V.P. of Programming and Acquisitions Robert James. “This agreement plays an important role in reinforcing our commitment to delivering world-class event programming our fans crave.”

Universal Sports’ 2014 wrestling season coverage begins with the Freestyle Wrestling World Cup, which will be held in Los Angeles, Calif. March 15 and 16. The World Cup features the top 10 men’s freestyle wrestling teams in the world.

The re-elected Governor of Tokyo, Shitaro Ishihara has confirmed that the city will bid for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in the hope that it will be a “big catalyst” for Japan’s recovery from last month’s earthquake and tsunami.

The Japanese capital had already signalled an intent to launch a bid for the Games but there were fears that they would have to abandon their campaign after the disaster last month which has ravaged its Pacific coast and left tens of thousands of people dead.

However, Ishihara stated: “Although they [the 2020 Games] are nine years from now, we can start raising our hand now.

“If we will work hard with hopes for nine years ahead, it will be a big catalyst for our country’s reconstruction and revival.”

Tokyo bid for the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics, but was always the outsider as the Games were awarded to Rio de Janeiro, the first time that a South American city will have staged the event.

Ishihara is now hoping that the Olympic Movement will get behind their latest bid as a way of helping rebuild the country, adding: “There seems to be some tendency within the International Olympic Committee to help Japan, at any rate nine years later when it is expected to have been revived.”

IOC President Jacques Rogge is due visit Tokyo in July for the Japanese Olympic Committee’s (JOC) centenary celebrations.

The London 2012 organising committee has received over 240, help 000 applications from across the UK for volunteers.

Out of these, the organisers will be hiring up to 70,000 of them to work as volunteers during the mega event. 

The volunteers will undertake a wide variety of roles – from athlete escorts to stewards to radio operators.

Those who are successful through a selection and interview process will attend at least three training sessions.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson is also recruiting up to 8,000 London ambassadors to help and advise all the visitors who will travel to London at Games time.

Movistar, anesthetist the local subsidiary of the Spanish operator Telefónica today announced an exclusive agreement with the Organization of Ibero-American Telecommunications to transmit all matches live of the next World Cup in Brazil to phones and tablets to customers in Chile.

According to the company, impotent the agreement means that all Movistar customers, including those with prepaid mobile, may enter with their account details to a new application to be launched shortly before the World Cup that will allow all Chileans to watch the matches live.

The transmissions can be seen via WiFi and using 3G and 4G mobile data.

This is the first time that the matches of World Cup will be transmitted to mobile phones in Chile. For the 2010 World Cup,YouTube negotiated rights in Latin America, but Chile was the exception, with two channels of free TV getting the authorization for online transmissions.

The matches will be in HD (available by connection speed) and up to six simultaneous viewing angles.

Soccerex has announced today that Gianni Infantino, sale UEFA General Secretary, sale will be taking part in a special one-to-one session at the Soccerex European Forum on 10-11 April, Manchester.

The session, moderated by David Davies, former Executive Director of the FA, will see Gianni discuss a number of topics including the brand launch and the ‘week of football’ concept for the UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying competition, racism in European football and an exclusive insight into the UEFA EURO 2020 bidding process, which will be approved at the meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Sofia, Bulgaria in March.

Gianni Infantino remarked:

“It’s great to be coming back to Manchester and Soccerex, which has always provided a worthwhile platform for UEFA to address the European football industry. The next few years will be an exciting period for European football and I’m looking forward to sharing our plans for the future.”

Soccerex CEO Duncan Revie said:

“We’re honoured to welcome UEFA and Gianni back to the European Forum once again. The decision by UEFA to choose the Forum as the first public platform to discuss the UEFA EURO 2020 bidding process is a huge privilege for us and underlines the importance and reach of our events.”

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 the game’s biggest names.

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

The French bid of Annecy to host the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics has suffered another major setback after deputy director general Herve Madore resigned yesterday, April 10.

Internal conflicts are what Madore based his decision upon, one that coincided with Annecy sending a high-powered delegation to London where they gave a presentation at SportAccord.

Madore was not part of the public face of Annecy’s team but played a vital role behind the scenes directing operational affairs.

Following Annecy 2018 President Charles Beigbeder’s decision to draft in Pierre Mirabeaud as the new director general in January, Madore claimed that he did not feel he fitted in.

French officials have been playing down Madore’s resignation but it adds to the perception that it is a bid in crisis, especially following the resignation in December of former Olympic champion Edgar Grospiron as chief executive in a row over the budget.

A spokesman for the bid stated: “Annecy 2018 confirms Herve Madore has decided to leave his position as deputy director general of the bid to move on to a new opportunity with the Ministry of Sport.

“Our President, Charles Beigbeder and the rest of the team are all enormously grateful for the contributions he has made to the bid; particularly in leading the production of our excellent bid book.

“We wish him well in his new position and thank him for the role he has played in helping us develop a bid we believe can win the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

‘We have a committed and talented team in place who can deliver in every area required in the final phase of our campaign. 

“We will continue to do everything we can to make this bid a success.”

There is also growing unrest, however, among International Olympic Committee (IOC) members about the low profile adopted by triple Olympic champion Jean-Claude Killy in backing the bid.

Killy, an influential member of the IOC who is the chairman of the Coordination Commission for Sochi 2014, has so far failed to appear at any of Annecy’s international presentations.

He only appeared in their presentation at SportAccord via a six month old video though Beigbeder insists that Killy is fully behind the bid and had a meeting with him before leaving for London to discuss their campaign.

“He told us to keep to the the basics, stay focused and sell the product,” he said.

“He thinks and wants us to win.”