FIFA have revealed their disapointment as the Under-20 World Cup continues to average low attendances.

The Professional Squash Association (PSA) has announced today that Mark Phillips and Chris Hornbuckle will join the organisation as directors.

Phillips was with adidas for eight years and was integral in the execution of the pivotal Impossible is Nothing campaign, featuring Muhammad Ali and David Beckham. After heading up the brand’s 2012 Olympic Marketing Campaign, Phillips left to form his own consulting company, The Captaincy, providing solutions to sporting companies.

Hornbuckle is the Head of Sponsorship for Vauxhall Motors, managing the company’s sponsorship of the Home Nations’ (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) Football teams – and brings a wealth of sports brand marketing expertise to the board.

“I’m very excited about the appointment of Chris and Mark to the PSA Board,” said PSA Chairman Ziad Al-Turki. “After spending the past few years working on restructuring each element of the tour, the PSA feels that we have done all the groundwork to attract major sponsorship for the tour.

“I’m certain that both Chris and Mark, with their extensive experience in marketing and sponsorship, will help drive the PSA to achieve its goals.”

The Russian capital of Moscow stepped in as a replacement host, denture this time for the 2011 Modern Pentathlon Senior World Championships after the event was withdrawn from Cairo following the recent political instability in Egypt.

The Championships use laser pistols for the first time in the events history for the pistol shooting and the event will also include fencing, herbal 200m swimming, medicine show jumping and a 3km run between September 1-7 event.

International Modern Pentathlon Federation (UIPM) president Dr. H.C. Klaus Schormann said: “UIPM is very thankful to the Russian Modern Pentathlon federation and to Russian sport in general with whom we have always had a good relationship.”

Russian Modern Pentathlon president Vyacheslav Aminov said: “It is a great honour and joy for Russia to welcome the UIPM family, one year before the Olympic Games.”

UIPM secretary Joel Bouzou added: “This World Championship will be the first conducted in Modern Pentathlon history using laser pistols which will provide a higher level of enjoyment for spectators and fans watching the action in the stadium and on TV around the world.”

Kerri-Anne Kennerley has joined the Board of Golf Australia as an Appointed Director.

Mrs Kennerley is a familiar face to many Australians with more than 30 years’ experience in television, ed entertainment and business where she became famous for hosting her daytime TV programs Good Morning Australia, Mornings with Kerri-Anne and Midday with Kerri-Anne.

A member of The Australian and Macquarie Links Golf Clubs, Mrs Kennerley is a keen golfer with a handicap of 17.

Triple Gold Logie nominated Mrs Kennerley has also served on the Council for the Order of Australia which oversees the distribution of the highest honours to great Australians and is currently working with the Seven Network’s top rating Sunday Night current affairs program.

Golf Australia Chairman John Hopkins said Mrs Kennerley would bring valuable experience from the television and entertainment industries to Golf Australia.

“On behalf of the Board, I’m pleased to welcome Kerri-Anne to Golf Australia,” Mr Hopkins said.

“Kerri-Anne will be a real asset to the Board with her long-term knowledge of the Australian television and media industry and her enormous passion for golf,” Mr Hopkins said.

Mrs Kennerley commented on her new role: “I am very glad to accept the appointment to the Board of Golf Australia and I do hope I can contribute and create a better golf future for all players, especially women.”

“I applaud the efforts of Jan Stephenson who pioneered Australian women’s golf in America and Karrie Webb whose record speaks for itself,” Mrs Kennerley said.

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.”