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.”

The Japanese capital looks set to be the country’s candidate city in their attempts to stage the 2020 Olympic Games after it was announced that it’s sole rival of Hiroshima had scrapped plans to bid for the event due to a lack of funding and public support.

Mayor of Hiroshima Kazumi Matsui confirmed to the Kyodo news agency that he had decided to dissolve the bidding committee following a meeting yesterday, May 22, leaving Tokyo as the sole Japanese city in the running to stage the Games.

The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — hit by atomic bombs in World War II — had initially expressed an interest in a joint Olympic bid before Nagasaki’s bid faltered and then Hiroshima suffered a major setback when Tadatoshi Akiba, the leading advocate of a bid, announced he would not seek re-election as the Mayor of the city this spring.

National Olympic Committees have until September 1 to submit the names of 2020 bid cities to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has repeatedly said he hopes his city will bid for the 2020 Olympics.

Tokyo came third in the vote for the 2016 Olympics, behind second-placed Madrid and Rio de Janeiro, which secured the hosting rights. Despite the defeat, Tokyo’s bid was praised for its technical excellence by the IOC in its evaluation report.

The British Fencing team have made wholesale changes to its coaching staff in an attempt to ensure success at the upcoming London 2012 Olympics. The main change sees performance director Graham Watts dropped from his role after 10 years in the job.

Watts first held the position in a voluntary agreement but was rewarded with a part-time contract as a paid contractor. He will now leave his post with immediate effect to be replaced by a Performance Management Group along with a full-time performance manager.

Olympic Qualifying begins in April and the new system has been introduced to enable the new management to work alongside UK Sport to offer state-of-the-art performance management tools and processes to the team.

Last year fencing was awarded £2,519,335 (US$3,899,227) funding by UK Sport for the four-year cycle which also includes London 2012 with at least one bronze medal being set as a target. Britain’s previous record in the sport features just one gold amongst 16 medals in total though the nation has not made the podium since 1964.

British Fencing’s chief executive Piers Martin has promised that coaches and support staff will remain in place for now, but warned an immediate financial and performance review will determine future needs.

Two true legends of the game, prescription Sir Bobby Charlton and Eusébio, ed will come together at the Soccerex European Forum in Manchester on 10-11 April.

The relationships between Manchester United, Benfica, Charlton and Eusébio were shaped during the 1960s when they were playing at the pinnacle of their careers, culminating in the 1966 World Cup semi-final and the 1968 European Cup final at Wembley. In a special 1-2-1 session moderated by Jeff Powell, Sir Bobby will discuss his amazing career at Manchester United and with England, his current role as an ambassador for the club and his view on European football. Joined on stage by Eusébio, the pair will relive those epic encounters in 1966 and especially in 1968, which saw Charlton score twice and Eusébio have a match-winning shot miraculously saved by United keeper Alex Stepney.

In the era of the Busby Babes and the aftermath of the tragic Munich Air Disaster, Charlton, arguably England’s greatest ever midfielder, became an international and national football legend. Part of the 1966 World Cup-winning team, he earned 106 caps and scored a national record 49 goals. An icon of Manchester United, he made a total of 758 appearances, scoring a club record 249 goals, winning one European Cup, three English League titles and one FA Cup. 

Born in Mozambique, Eusébio is regarded as one of the finest strikers to have ever played the game and is hailed as Africa’s first great footballer. He joined Portuguese club S.L. Benfica in 1960, went on to make 715 appearances for the club, scoring an incredible 727 goals and winning 11 Primeira Liga titles. He earned 64 caps for his adopted nation of Portugal, scoring 41 goals and earning the Golden Boot at the 1966 World Cup as Portugal finished in third place.

Soccerex CEO Duncan Revie said:

“To welcome Sir Bobby and Eusébio to Manchester is a great honour for us. To have these two living legends on the same stage is a surreal moment and will be one of the most exciting and prestigious meetings in the history of Soccerex.”

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 1-2-1s 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 visit www.soccerex.com/europe.

IOC president Jacques Rogge claims that he expects the race for the 2018 Winter Olympics to go right to the wire, after Annecy, Munich and PyeongChang had made 45-minute presentations to IOC members Wednesday, May 18, at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

Rogge stated: “I think it’s very close. Don’t ask me numbers. I don’t see a big gap between cities,” adding that he was pleased with the standard of presentations at the bid cities briefing to 88 IOC members. 

He added: “We had three very good presentations emanating from very well-organised bids and these bids come from countries that are also very well-organised in terms of winter sport… good experience and a stable economy.

“Whoever wins will definitely be able to stage very good Games.” 

Rogge said the 2018 bids had made significant progress since the IOC named the candidate cities following the IOC Evaluation Commission’s report last week, another milestone in the bidding process.

He said: “The progress has been fuelled by their own experience but also by the evaluation commission because it has given very valuable advice to the candidate cities and the cities have adapted their plans to the observations of the commission.”

---

Related Discussion: Predict 2018 Olympic Winter Games Host and win a prize! – Sree Varma

 

London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games have agreed a £37m (US$57.5m) contract to make Aggreko the official power supplier for the event. The company specialises in providing generators for major events with an impressive portfolio.

Aggreko is expected to provide around 220 megawatts of power at the London Olympics after supplying the Beijing 2008 Olympics with 160 megawatts. The Glasgow-based firm also secured its largest ever events contract by value in providing the power at the football World Cup in South Africa.

Aggreko raised profit expectations last Friday as it said work on the soccer tournament boosted first-half revenues by nearly £29m ($45m).

Turnover in the events division soared to £85m ($132.2m) from £48.5m ($75.4m) a year earlier, recipe helping drive a 19% rise in interim profits to £127.1m ($197.7m).

As well as the strong performance at the World Cup, capsule Aggreko enjoyed a boost in trade from the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Glastonbury Festival and the US Superbowl.

beIN SPORTS has announced today it will be more prominent in Indonesia after pay-TV platform K-Vision agreed to showcase its sports content.

Sports fans in Indonesia can look forward to compelling and premium LIVE content across beIN SPORTS 1 & beIN SPORTS 2 on K-Vision, allergist | led by a comprehensive line-up of top football content including the Barclays Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga and the Ligue 1, amongst other top sports content.

Commenting on the news Nasser Al Khelaifi, Chairman of beIN SPORTS, said: “beIN SPORTS has enjoyed rapid growth in Indonesia over the last eight months and we’re very pleased to expand our presence on one of the most exciting and ambitious new pay-TV platforms in the country.” 

Harya S. Pratama, Executive Director of K-Vision added: “Football is the most watched sport in Indonesia, and our goal is to serve sports fans with the best football coverage that pay-TV can provide. The sports genre continues to be a game changer in the pay-TV industry, and K-Vision is delighted to partner with beIN SPORTS to build and expand our brand with its high-quality sports programming.”