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.

Association of Surfing Professionals International (ASP), pills the governing body of professional surfers announced today the appointment of Michael Lynch as its Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer.

Lynch joins ASP shortly after the organization announced Paul Speaker in the role of ASP Chief Executive Officer. Together they will work to build surfing’s new global sports league.

In his new role, Lynch will be responsible for helping the organization optimize its growth potential worldwide and specifically manage all ASP marketing, communications and sponsorship activities for professional surfing’s governing body. As 2013 is a transitional year, Lynch and other ASP executives will use this season to focus on data-gathering, analysis and preparation as they build toward the 2014 ASP World Championship Tour launch.

“Michael is a highly respected global marketer, a top influencer in the sports industry and a leader in building brands,” Speaker said. “His extensive experience and expertise identifying and activating sponsorships with the most recognizable sports properties in the world make him the ideal candidate for the position and an invaluable asset to ASP. He will play a vital role with ASP as we continue to build our infrastructure and grow the organization to better benefit our surfers, sponsors and fans.”

Lynch’s more-than-25-year tenure in the sports industry includes premier sports and entertainment divisions with category leading organizations. During his nearly 17 years with Visa, Lynch led the company’s global sponsorship marketing/management strategy and execution including activations with the Olympic and Paralympic Games, FIFA World Cup, NFL and numerous other properties. He and the organizations he led, have received numerous industry awards and recognition including, tabbed by The Sporting News magazine as one of the “100 Most Powerful People in Sports”, “Sports Sponsor of the Year” by the Sports Business Journal, and “The 25 Best Sponsors in America” by Event Marketer Magazine.

“The excitement, passion, energy and entrepreneurial spirit of building a new centralized global sports league with Paul was too much for me to pass up. The ASP’s potential is inspiring and I’m looking forward to working with all those associated with ASP as we deliver the very best world-class experience for the fans, surfers and sponsors,” Lynch said. “As we implement the business-wide fan-centric philosophy, our commercial and broadcast partners will find ASP has the right recipe for success and a compelling marketing and sales platform to build their business.”

The vice-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the leader of Rome’s proposed bid for the 2020 Games, Mario Pescante has claimed that Tokyo will not pursue its bid for the event following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Pescante said that he had been told by Japan’s Ambassador to Italy that they wanted to concentrate on rebuilding the shattered country following the devastation caused by the natural disasters earlier this month.

In an interview with an Italian radio station, Pescante stated: “Yesterday the Japanese Ambassador was with me at the start of the Rome Marathon and told me with great regret that his country could not continue with Tokyo’s bid.”

Pescante had picked out Tokyo last month as potentially being Rome’s closest challengers, adding: “If we had been beaten by Tokyo [following the earthquake] maybe we would have reasons to rejoice.

“But they have other things to think about.”

The World Bank has estimated that it could take Japan five years to rebuild following the damage from the earthquake and the tsunami at a cost of as much as US$235bn.

The cities bid would have been heavily influenced on whether Pyeongchang were awarded the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics as it would have been unlikely that the IOC would have awarded consecutive Games to Asia.

In their absence, Pescante has picked out South Africa and Istanbul as Rome’s most dangerous rivals, continuing: “There is great determination in Africa to put together a strong campaign.

“Turkey as a country is very strong and Istanbul is a very big candidate,” said Pescante, who refused to accept that Rome were the early favourites.

“It is very early to pick favourites. The vote is still a long way off.”

Reports have indicated that since Pescante has made the claims, the Japanese Olympic Committee have refuted the suggestion that they have withdrawn their interest in hosting the Games in 2020.

Morocco’s Sports Minister Moncef Belkhayat has revealed that the country’s second largest city, Casablanca could be set to launch a bid for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.

Casablanca has long been touted as a possible candidate to be the first in Africa to host the Games though cities such as Durban and Johannesburg have seemed more likely of late.

Belkhayat has now confirmed that serious planning has already taken place about a possible bid, stating during the Africa International Sports Convention: “Morocco has committed itself to becoming a great sport nation that stages great sporting events.

“Casablanca has a very good chance of positioning itself as a great sports city and organising the Olympic Games.

“One day Casablanca will be organising the Olympic Games.”

Despite refusing to commit to a bid for the 2020 edition of the Games, Belkhayat left the possibility very much open, adding: “We will bid for the Olympics soon – whether that it is 2020, 2024 or 2028.”

National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have until May 16 to let the International Olympic Committee (IOC) if they are interested in bidding with a final deadline of September 1 to name an applicant city.

Construction of an 80,000 seat stadium is expected to begin shortly, to be completed some time in 2013 on a new US$300m state-of-the-art venue in Casablanca to host the final of the 2015 African Nations Cup, which Morocco was awarded earlier this year.

Belkhayat, a former senior executive with Olympic sponsors Proctor & Gamble before entering politics, wants Morocco to try to host more major events having lost by a mere four votes to South Africa in bidding for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) have announced they have expanded their live coverage for the UCI Track World Championships after media partner Infront Sports & Media secured more TV deals.

With new regions being added for the first time, the overall number of countries and territories where fans can follow the event in real time increases to more than 100.

Together, Infront and the UCI have licensed international media rights for live, delayed, highlights and news coverage to around 30 media companies, broadcasting on free and pay TV as well as online and mobile platforms. The number of broadcast partners taking the live signal has even been doubled as compared to the 2013 edition. In total 140 media representatives have been accredited for this year’s event that takes place in Cali, Colombia.

The HDTV signal will be provided by the domestic television network RCN Television, carrying out host broadcast operations with a total of 12 cameras. RCN Television reaches out to 97% of the Colombian population via its 13 TV stations – providing the event with extensive exposure in the host country.

Other partners on the American continent include DirectTV (Pan South-America), Universal (USA) as well as RDS and Rogers Sportsnet (both in Canada). Across Europe, a total of 13 broadcasters will continue to feature the event in programming schedules including the BBC (UK), FranceTV (France) and BeIn Sports (France and further French-speaking territories), NOS (Netherlands), Polsat (Poland), Rai (Italy), the Viasat Group (Scandinavia) and VRT (Belgium).

In Asia, the event is growing in popularity. For the first time ever, live coverage will be available in India (through an agreement with Sony) and Malaysia (Astro). In Japan, NHK Media will broadcast a live unilateral production dedicated to their domestic audience. Al Jazeera continues to broadcast in the Middle East. In Oceania contracts were closed with SBS (Australia) and Sky New-Zealand (New Zealand). In addition, worldwide news access is ensured by SNTV and Perform.

UCI President Brian Cookson said: “Whilst strong results were already achieved in the first year of our partnership, the collaboration with Infront is now realising its full potential. Jointly, we have secured more live broadcast partners than ever before for the UCI Track World Championships, meeting fan demand and establishing a sustainable presence on screens worldwide.”

Stephan Herth, Infront’s Executive Director Summer Sports, added: “The UCI Track World Championships have never been more accessible to fans. As always, the UCI and Infront have worked very closely to select the best possible media outlet for the event in each region. Also, looking toward the future, our focus will be on live exposure to maximise audiences and share the excitement of all the cycling disciplines and aspects of the sport.”