Soccerex have revealed that Manchester United and England Legend, current England assistant coach and Sky Sports News pundit Gary Neville has been announced as a Soccerex ambassador.

The role will see Gary become an ambassador for all Soccerex events in Manchester, starting with the European Forum on 10-11 April, and for Soccerex’s flagship event the Soccerex Global Convention, which moves to the city of Manchester in 2014. The Convention, which has previously been held in the UAE, France, the USA, South Africa and is currently hosted in Brazil, is returning to the UK for the first time since 2000. It is expected to attract over 20,000 delegates to Manchester during its four years in the city and will command significant international media attention, further strengthening Manchester’s position as one of the world’s major footballing cities.

Commenting on his new ambassadorial role, Gary Neville said:

“Soccerex is a global brand whose network stretches all over the world. With the Soccerex Global Convention coming to Manchester in 2014, there is a natural affinity and I’m looking forward to welcoming the world of football to Manchester not only as a football destination on the pitch, but a major international city for the business of football off the pitch.”

In addition, Gary will also be speaking at this year’s European Forum in a special 1-2-1 session, where he will relive his incredible career with Manchester United where he made 602 appearances, winning eight Premier League titles, three FA Cups and one European Cup. He will also discuss his current role in the England national team as assistant coach and his seamless transition into the media industry, where he has become one of the most insightful and passionate pundits currently working in the game.

Gary continued:

“I enjoyed speaking at last year’s Forum, I am more than happy to be involved again and play a bigger role at this year’s event.”

Soccerex CEO Duncan Revie commented:

“We’re delighted that Gary has decided to become a global ambassador. As one of the greatest players in the history of Manchester United and an icon of Manchester itself, he is the perfect ambassador for Soccerex as we strengthen our ties to the city.”

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

Seb Coe, London 2012 chairman and International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) vice-president has backed the bid of England’s capital to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships, stating the city “would be a fantastic venue” for the prestigious event.

London was the first city to publicly announce its interest in hosting the event, but is set to face stiff opposition from three cities to host the 2017 competition as Doha, Budapest and an unnamed city from Spain, likely to be Barcelona or Madrid, have put themselves forward to host the event.

Britain has failed on three occasions already this decade to secure the Championships but with the London 2012 Olympic Stadium in Stratford set to have an athletics legacy after the Games and therefore the capacity to host the competition, Coe is confident the IAAF will want to bring the event to the city for the first time.

In an interview with insidethegames, Coe stated: “There is obviously a lot of stiff competition for the 2017 World Athletics Championships but I think it’s very important to bring the event to London.

“UK Athletics, under Ed Warner and Niels de Vos, are very keen explore that and I think London would be a fantastic venue for the competition.”

The biggest threat to London’s bid is believed to be that of Doha, the capital of Qatar, which put itself on the international sporting map when the country surprisingly won the right to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Obtaining the rights to host the 2017 World Championships would be another major event that the nation will have secured to help raise its profile, but while Coe stated the IAAF does want to expand in new countries, he revealed they also want to recognise the core markets for the sport such as the UK.

“I think the IAAF is very clear that while they certainly want to extend the sport in developing countries, they also want to recognise the really solid markets for the sport,” Coe said.

“There is no country in Europe that has a stronger base in track and field than the UK.

“The way UK Athletics is structured; there is hardly a country in the world that has that kind of strength in depth.

“We’ve now got the venue, we’ve now got the facilities and under the leadership of Ed and Niels, I think we will put up a really serious case.”

The International Skating Union (ISU) has confirmed that the Russian capital of Moscow will be the host of this year’s World Figure Skating Championships after the Japan Skating Federation was forced to give up Tokyo’s staging rights in the wake of the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami earlier this month.

The union received a number of applications to hold the event from the likes of Graz in Austria, allergy Zagreb in Croatia, Turku in Finland and Colorado Springs or Lake Placid in the United States, while the 2010 Winter Olympic host city of Vancouver in Canada had also expressed a desire to host the Championships.

However, yesterday, March 24, the ISU announced that the event would be held at the Megasport Arena in Moscow from April 24 to May 1. With only one month before the start of the Championships, Russia has pledged to speed up the processing of visas for participants.

A statement from the ISU read: “Under these extraordinary circumstances, we ask for the full co-operation and understanding of the skating community in making this a successful event. The full co-operation of all participating ISU member federations hopefully attending in full strength will be of utmost importance.”

The president of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) Bobby Mihaylov has revealed his “desire” to enter a joint bid with Romania for UEFA Euro 2020.

This week Mihaylov became the first Bulgarian to be elected on to UEFA’s Executive Committee, and the BFU president has since outlined a plan to host junior level tournaments before stepping up to European soccer’s showpiece event in nine years’ time.

Mihaylov told reporters: “We know it’ll be better to first stage some junior European Championships and then to bid for the senior men’s tournament. We have many friends in Romania and will take it step by step before bidding to host the Euro 2020 finals with them.”

Romania has prior history in expressing an interest in the European Championships having abandoned plans to bid for Euro 2012 due to a lack of financial backing from its government.

Among those to have been credited with an interest in hosting Euro 2020 are the likes of Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey, with joint bids from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, along with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia also said to be in contention.

Major League Soccer (MLS) team Chicago Fire have announced that WPWR My50 Chicago will once again be the official television broadcast partner of the Chicago Fire for the 2014 season.

WPWR My50 Chicago will cover the Men in Red beginning with the team’s visit to take on the Portland Timbers at Providence Park Field inPortland, Ore., on Sunday, March 16, at 2 p.m. CT. Last season was the first time that all Fire games were broadcast locally on one channel (My50), a trend that the club is excited to continue for 2014.

“We are pleased to continue our partnership with My50 Chicago as the ‘Home of the Fire’ for Chicago Fire matches throughout the 2014 season,” said Fire COO Atul Khosla. “Returning to My50 Chicago is tremendous because we are able to offerour matches on a widely available local affiliate, and one that is nowrecognized as our television home.”

In addition to the 26 matches available in HD on My50 Chicago, the Fire willappear on national broadcast partners NBC Sports Network (four games), ESPN(one game), ESPN2 (two games), Univision Deportes (one game) and UniMas (fivegames). Time Warner Cable SportsChannel is the “Wisconsin Television Home ofthe Chicago Fire” and will also carry 23 regionally telecast games in 2014.

“My50  is proud to once again be the official ‘Home of the Fire’ for the 2014 season,” said Dennis Welsh, Vice President and General Manager for My50. “The Fire is an elite MLS Club and we look forward to bringing Chicago viewers all the exciting action as they race toward the playoffs. Partnering with the Fire is just another example of My50’s commitment to bringing local programming to Chicago-area viewers.”

TaylorMade-adidas Golf Company have announced the appointment of David Silvers as Vice President and Managing Director, cough EMEAP (Europe, order Middle East, Africa, Pacific).

David Silvers replaces Ben Sharpe who has moved to the Carlsbad, US to take up the position of Executive Vice President of adidas Golf and Ashworth

David Silvers has been in the business of golf and sport throughout his professional career. For the past 12 years, he has been a principal at a sports marketing agency, The Professional Sports Group and now joins TaylorMade-adidas Golf Company to oversee the future success of the business in the region.

With this year’s World Figure Skating Championships, due to be scheduled in Japan, having been cancelled due to the horrific earthquake and tsunami in the nation, Russia has formally declared itself a bidder to host this event.

They have written to the International Skating Union (ISU) putting forward Moscow as a replacement for Tokyo, with Valentin Piseyev, executive director of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, saying: “Today we sent a formal letter to the International Skating Union, telling them of our desire to stage the competition in Moscow.”

Russia is one of several countries who have offered to step in as replacements, including Vancouver, which hosted last year’s Winter Olympics, Colorado Springs and Lake Placid in the United States, Turku in Finland and unnamed cities in Austria and France.

However, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has revealed his country would be willing to cover all the costs of staging the event in Moscow, stating: “I think we could give a helping hand to our Japanese colleagues as well as the ISU.

“We are not demanding anything, it’s more of a goodwill gesture by us. 

“It wouldn’t cost much, so we could cover all the expenses ourselves.”

Moscow has proposed the 14,000-seat Hodynka arena, built in 2007 to host that year’s ice hockey World Championship, as the venue after the ISU said it was seeking applications to stage the championships last week.

The ISU set today as the deadline for submitting applications and plans to announce the decision in a few days, releasing a statement on their official website reading: “Based on spontaneous proposals from ISU Member federations received to host the Championships and possibly additional members who might be interested and available, the ISU Council is evaluating the different options taking into account all relevant aspects and points of view.

“This primarily involves the tremendous logistical challenge to organize and conduct such major event on short notice. 

“Also, the [ISU] Council cannot ignore legal and contractual constraints as well as timing conflicts with other skating or sporting events.

“The ISU Council is conscious that a solution satisfying all points of view is probably difficult to be achieved and begs all involved for their understanding and cooperation in these truly exceptional circumstances.”

Arsenal legend Tony Adams has criticised the club’s decision to appoint Sir Chips Keswick as their new chairman.

Former chairman Peter Hill-Wood was forced to stand down from the role because of health reasons, and the Gunners have turned to British businessman Keswick to fill the vacancy.

But Adams said in The Sun: “Chips is a great guy but not a very imaginative choice by the owner – and he is 73.

“If they just wanted a figurehead, they should have gone for me. It would have been a better visionary decision than Chips.

“They should be lining up the new manager. Chief executive Ivan Gazidis is in a tricky situation and could do with some help.

“It’s time that Arsenal won something again, even the FA Cup or League Cup. But I can’t see it, to be honest. They are still not good enough in certain areas of the team. And they are miles off the title.”

Adams made 669 appearances for the North London club and won 10 major trophies.