Annecy, the underdog in the bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, received a US$3.2m boost yesterday, February 2, on the eve of a crucial visit from inspectors.

The funding increase comes as the government look to play down suggestions that they have not shown enough financial backing to the bid after former chief executive of the Annecy bid, Edgar Grospiron quit in December claiming underfunding issues.

Charles Beigbeder has since replaced the outgoing Grospiron and is more optimistic, hoping to announcing a bigger cash injection into the bid following negotiations with several major firms. 

Beigbeder stated in an interview with the Associated Press: “I have several other projects with private companies which need to be finalised. The money doesn’t make everything but it’s important to promote the bid.”

When speaking of the impending visit from IOC officials the bid chief added: “We can’t win the Games during this visit but we can lose them. They are coming to check that we can actually host the Games. We will be auditioned 16 times over four days and we need to be super-professional.”

In an effort to boost their bid, Annecy have also appointed Britain’s Andrew Craig as a consultant. Craig previously worked on winning bids for Vancovuer 2010, London 2012 and Sochi 2014. 

“Of course we can’t bet all our money on him, but it’s certainly an extra something for us. Promotion is really important and we need to use the best people,” Beigbeder said.

Kickboxing promotion GLORY Sports International (GSI) have renewed a number TV broadcast deals in the Americas and Europe.

In 2014 alone, GLORY will produce well over 100 hours of programming including GLORY Live, GLORY Super Fight Series,GLORY Rewind, Countdown to GLORY and a GLORY magazine show currently in development.

The deal with Eurosport grants availability in 300 million European TV households. Deals in The Americas include renewals for Esporte Interativo in Brazil, Sky Mexico in Mexico and Central America, Suriname (Telesur) and DirecTV in South America.

As a barometer of the sport’s steadily increasing popularity, GLORY 13 Tokyo, broadcast from Japan on December 21^st, 2013 internationally and on Spike TV, pulled in nearly 1 million US viewers at its peak, the strongest audience numbers to date for the new league in the US as part of a 3-year multi-fight deal announced in June of last year.

“We are thrilled with the momentum that international rights renewals has brought to our young company,” said Andrew Whitaker, CEO, GLORY Sports International. “Additionally, the deals in the Americas and Europe reflect the overwhelming receptivity to our programming worldwide. We are certain that GLORY branded kickboxing will continue to deliver the anticipated advertising, subscription and viewership results our partners rightly demand.”

GLORY 14 Zagreb, taking place on March 8^th, 2014 in Croatia, will feature well-known MMA and kickboxing fighter Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic in a highly-anticipated international event.

In the year when The FA celebrate their 150^th anniversary, cheap  Soccerex has announced that Roy Hodgson, ailment Bryan Robson and Kevin Keegan will all be speaking on ‘the Three Lions’ panel hosted by Hayley McQueen at this year’s Soccerex European Forum, on 10-11^th April in Manchester.

The panel will see the current England manager joined by two of the country’s greatest ever players in a special session on English football. The panel will discuss their illustrious careers, the national team’s preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and the current state of European football.

Hodgson is England’s 14^th full time manager having taken over the national side in May 2012. In his short tenure, Hodgson has taken them to 3^rd in the FIFA rankings, their highest ever position. They are also well on track to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Nicknamed ‘Captain Marvel’ for his heroic performances in an England shirt, Robson was capped 90 times for England, including three consecutive World Cups in 1982, 1986, 1990, scoring 26 goals. He enjoyed similar success at Manchester United where he made 461 appearances for the club, becoming the longest serving captain in the club’s history, scoring 99 goals in the process.

Keegan is regarded as one of England’s finest players ever produced. Capped 63 times by England, 31 of those as captain, he went on to score 21 goals. He also enjoyed vast success at Liverpool winning three League titles, two UEFA Cups and a FA and European Cup, as well as being one of the few players to have both captained and managed England.

Soccerex CEO Duncan Revie said: “I’m delighted to welcome Roy, Bryan and Kevin back to Soccerex and to welcome Hayley to her first Soccerex event, which is particularly heart-warming for me and her dad, bearing in mind the Revie and McQueen history. In what is a busy and important year for English football it is a real honour for us to have the current England manager and two of the country’s greatest ever players speaking at the Forum.”

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

1	Owen Leed Appointed Total Sports Asia Chief Revenue Officer	Wednesday, 30 January 2013
2	Brian Barwick Appointed Chairman of RFL	Wednesday, 30 January 2013
3	Julio Grondona to Step Down as Argentinean Football Federation President	Tuesday, 29 January 2013
4	Zhang Jian Appointed as Chinese Soccer Chief	Tuesday, 29 January 2013
5	D.C. United Announce New Executive Management	Tuesday, 29 January 2013
6	John Williams Appointed Chairman of Professional Game Match Officials Limited	Monday, 28 January 2013
7	Durham Cricket Reveal Organisational Changes	Sunday, 27 January 2013
8	Prince Felipe Named Honorary President of Madrid’s 2020 Bid	Friday, 25 January 2013
9	Gloucestershire Cricket CEO Tom Richardson to Step Down	Friday, 25 January 2013
10	Triathlon England Appoints Four New Board Members	Thursday, 24 January 2013
11	International Cycling Union President Replaced on IOC Panel	Thursday, 24 January 2013
12	David Joy Named England Golf CEO	Thursday, 24 January 2013
13	Brendan Flood Steps Down from Burnley’s Board	Tuesday, 22 January 2013
14	Exclusive: New Havas Recruit Gordon Lott Looking to Improve Company’s Record Growth	Tuesday, 22 January 2013
15	FA Appoint Andrew Crean as Chief Financial Officer	Monday, 21 January 2013
16	Toto Wolff Joins Mercedes as Director of Motorsport	Monday, 21 January 2013
17	Cleveland Browns Adds New CFO & General Counsel	Thursday, 17 January 2013
18	Head of Chinese Football Association Dismissed	Thursday, 17 January 2013
19	Kate Hardcastle Joins Bradford Bulls Board	Wednesday, 16 January 2013
20	Penny Briscoe Named ParalympicsGB Chef de Mission for Sochi 2014	Tuesday, 15 January 2013
21	Brad Drewett to Step Down as ATP President Following Illness	Tuesday, 15 January 2013
22	Michel Nandan Appointed Team Principal of Hyundai’s 2014 WRC Return	Friday, 11 January 2013
23	Earl Buchholz Appointed Chairman of WGC’s Cadillac Championship	Thursday, 10 January 2013
24	Bill Pulver Appointed New CEO of Australian Rugby Union	Thursday, 10 January 2013
25	Varshaviak to Step Down as Olympic Committee of Israel President	Tuesday, 08 January 2013
26	Former Goldman Sach Partner Jason Cahilly Becomes NBA’s New CFO	Tuesday, 08 January 2013
27	Canadian Paralympic Committee CEO Henry Storgaard to Step Down	Tuesday, 08 January 2013
28	Joanna Manning-Cooper Joins England Rugby 2015 as Communications & Marketing Director	Sunday, 06 January 2013
29	Thomas Dieckhoff Becomes WTC’s New President for Europe, Middle East & South Africa	Friday, 04 January 2013
30	Niki Lauda Leaves Air Berlin Board to Focus on Mercedes GP Role	Thursday, 03 January 2013

The Munich 2018 Winter Games bid team have been boosted by the announcement of Germany and Bayern Munich soccer stars Sebastien Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm and Thomas Muller as bid ambassadors.

The hat-trick of German icons will add valuable backing to the bid as representatives of Munich based soccer giants. Philipp Lahm is the national team captain while Muller and Schweinsteiger were both highlighted as top performer’s in last summers World Cup, with the former picking up the Golden Boot award.

The players helped to launch the nation’s top soccer league, the Bundesliga’s support for the Bavarian capital at the recent Munich 2018-branded match against FC Kaiserslautern.

Philipp Lahm said: “I am convinced that Munich 2018 has developed the perfect concept, offering great benefits to athletes visiting from all around the world.

“The Munich Olympic Park with the Olympic Stadium would be a perfect site for the Winter Games in 2018.

“I will be very excited if the Games come to Munich as not only am I a resident of the city, but I know that it would be a great opportunity to relive the amazing atmosphere that surrounded the FIFA World Cup in 2006 – the bid gets my vote.”

Bastian Schweinsteiger, who in his youth was a talented Alpine skier before embarking on a career in football, said: “Skiing is a passion of mine and I have always had a strong connection with winter sports.

“Many children dream of playing in a FIFA World Cup or competing in the Games in front of a home crowd.

“I was lucky enough to take part in a FIFA World Cup in my own country and, by supporting the bid to bring the Games to Germany in 2018, I hope to give all the young winter sports talents the chance to see their dreams come true as well.”

Echoing his teammate’s sentiments, Thomas Müller said: “The Olympic and Paralympic Games are one of the biggest and most important sports events in the world – that is why I am backing Munich’s bid and want to show my support as a sports ambassador.”

 

MAVTV has joined NBC and NBCSN as broadcasters of the 2014 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, it was announced today.

Once again, NBC and NBCSN will combine to provide live coverage of all 12 rounds of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship this summer, while the series welcomes an all-new television partner with the addition of MAVTV this season.

“Given the tremendous growth and success of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, we are excited to collaborate with MAVTV to present additional coverage of the series to a national audience,” said Mark Carter, General Manager, Alli Sports Motocross. “As the leader in Motocross television coverage, we look forward to the continued growth of the series, and the opportunity to provide more content to fans.” 

In addition to NBC and NBCSN’s coverage of every race, MAVTV will air one set of motos from all 12 rounds of the Nationals. 

With programs such as AMA Endurocross, The Motocross Files, Lucas Oil Off Road Racing, and now the Mtn. Dew ATV Motocross National Championship Series and Lucas Oil Pro Motocross, MAVTV is quickly becoming the go-to place for motorsports enthusiasts.  

“World class motocross cuts to the very core of our audience,” said Bob Patison President of MAVTV and Executive Vice President of Lucas Oil Products, Inc. “We will televise the opening motos of all 12 rounds of the 2014 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship working in conjunction with our television partners from NBC Sports Group, so that fans will not miss any of the mind blowing action.” 

The 2014 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship will kick off Saturday, May 24 in San Bernardino, Calif. with the return of the Glen Helen National.