Football Federation Australia (FFA) have unveiled today the format of the inaugural FFA Cup in 2014.

Preliminary matches involving over 600 clubs across Australia have commenced this month ahead of the national knock-out FFA Cup Round of 32 kicking off in late July.

That is the stage when the 10 Hyundai A-League clubs will join the 22 clubs who will have qualified from feeder cup competitions in eight states and territories – Queensland, sickness NSW, denture Northern NSW, Victoria, ACT, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia.

A live Round of 32 draw will occur in late June this year and will see four Round of 32 matches in which Hyundai A-League clubs will be the away team against semi-professional or amateur clubs at suburban or regional venues.

“The FFA Cup has taken on an almost mythical status among football fans who have longed for a national knock-out cup competition to fill a void in the football calendar,” said FFA CEO David Gallop.

“Today, the FFA Cup comes to life as a very tangible link between community football and the professional tier. It’s a unique sporting link from the locals to the legends.

“We all grew up with the romance of the English FA Cup and well remember the history of upsets. I’m sure the FFA Cup will bring the same fascination to fans across Australia.”

FFA also announced that Fox Sports has been appointed as the Official Broadcaster of the FFA Cup.

The Fox Sports coverage will include a minimum of 10 matches from the Round of 32 onwards, including all Quarter-Finals, both Semi-Finals and the FFA Cup Final.

Rick Kenney, illness Vice President of JudoScotland has recently been elected as Executive President of the Commonwealth Judo Association.

Rick was a member of the CJA Executive from 1990 and was elected as Senior Vice President in 1998. He attended Commonwealth Judo Championships in this position all over the world, including Mauritius; Malta; Canada: Singapore and New Zealand. He was Chairman of the Organising Committees when Commonwealth Championships were held in Scotland in 1998 and 1986.

He was previously Chairman of JudoScotland for 7 years and Vice Chair of the British Judo Association for 5 years along with serving 2 terms as Vice Chair of the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland.

The role of CJA Executive President is a demanding one with some 73 Commonwealth countries having involvement in the sport of judo at all levels from recreational to international representation. Judo has been one of Scotland’s most successful Commonwealth sports with gold medals won in Auckland in 1990 where Rick was the team coach and then in Manchester in 2002 where Graham Randall won gold.

Judo was a demonstration sport in Edinburgh at the 1986 Games, when Rick was also the team coach, and due to its success, the sport was then included in the following Games.

Rick said: “I look forward to developing judo across the Commonwealth over the next few years and am sure that the Glasgow Commonwealth Games will showcase our sport across the world. Scotland has a long tradition in judo at Commonwealth level stretching back to 1986 and I see a bright future for judo.”

It has been confirmed that the 2011 African Youth Championship, pills initially scheduled to be hosted in Libya, medstore has been moved to South Africa, who become the new hosts following the removal of the event due to political unrest in Libya.

The tournament was originally scheduled to commence in Tripoli on March 18, but was postponed due to the ongoing social and political unrest in the country.

Since then, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has confirmed that the tournament will run from April 17 to May 2 with South Africa set to stage the Championship for the first time in its history.

CAF president Issa Hayatou released a statement on Wednesday, March 16, saying: “We decided to move the U20 finals to South Africa. The Executive Committee took that decision on Tuesday.”

South Africa, which had originally not qualified for the tournament, will take Libya’s place and will face Mali, Egypt and Lesotho in Group A.

International sports media agency MP & Silva have announced a three-year partnership with the Badminton Asian Confederation for the exclusive worldwide media rights for its calendar of events including the region’s premium tournament. 

The rights from 2014-16 consist of all media rights and devices including broadband and internet. 

Badminton Asian Confederation President Dato’ Sri Mohd Nadzmi Bin Mohd Salleh, commented abourt the deal: “This is an important stepping stone to elevate the BAC’s events to a new level of viewership as well as open new opportunities for marketing and commercial growth.”

MP & Silva CEO Peter Hutton, added: ” We are very pleased with this new partnership with the BAC as we strongly believe it has potential for future growth.”   

Whycliffe ‘Dave’ Cameron has been elected president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

He beat the incumbent Julian Hunte 7-5 during the board’s annual general meeting in Barbados. Cameron’s running mate, Emmanuel Nanthan of Dominica, is the new vice-president; he beat Barbados Cricket Association president Joel Garner 8-4 in the election.

Cameron, 42, was nominated by the Jamaica Cricket Association and seconded by the Windward Cricket Board. He has been a WICB director since 2002 and served as vice-president during Hunte’s tenure as president, which began in 2007.

“It was a long process and I travelled the length and breadth of the Caribbean, from Kingston, Jamaica to Georgetown, Guyana to be able to address the concerns of our stakeholders,” Cameron said after his election. “As we take over the reins of the WICB, we assume responsibility with very lofty goals in our minds and the understanding of the reason we are here and what everybody in the region is looking forward to us being able to accomplish.

“In my presentations to the territorial boards, I spoke about building on our immense talent, increasing the revenues in the sport and, above all, uniting the region through the game of cricket. We must find creative ways of dealing with the challenges that will confront us from time to time.” 

Nanthan joined Cameron in thanking outgoing president Hunte for his services to West Indies cricket over the last six years. “He is my friend and has been for a number of years,” Nanthan said of Hunte. “He is to me a hero, coming from the Windward Islands, and I am proud of the way he presided over the WICB during a difficult time and now the baton has been passed on.

After announcing a campaign to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships at the Olympic Stadium, London is to face serious competition from Doha after the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) confirmed today that they are planning to bid for the event. 

Qatar is targeting another major sporting event to help raise their profile, having already upset the odds and been awarded the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Doha’s bid is set to prove financially attractive to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) as it promises to offer a series of development programmes.

The QOC released a statement, reading: “The main platform of the bid is to promote the sport around the world and help the IAAF develop athletics in new regions including the Gulf region, the Middle East and into Central Asia.

“Should Qatar be awarded the event, we will work in full cooperation with the IAAF and other member federations to share best practice in athletics and jointly create development programmes, which will increase and encourage more participation and even more attention for Athletics as a sport.”

Hosting the World Championships would build on last year’s successful World Indoor Championships and Doha is also part of the Diamond League series, which was launched last year by the IAAF.

One factor against Doha’s bid for the World Athletics Championships may be that the 2015 event has already been awarded to Beijing and Daegu in South Korea is due to host this year’s Championships and the IAAF may not want to host the event three out of four times in an Asian country.

The IAAF is due to make a decision on which city to award the Championships to at a meeting in Monte Carlo in November.

The International Handball Federation (IHF) has announced today that beINSports has become their new TV partner. 

beINSports, an affiliate of Al Jazeera Media Network, will showcase the upcoming Men’s and Women’s Handball World Championships according to the agreement concluded by representatives of both parties at the IHF Head Office on Thursday 20 February 2014.

The new TV rights contract is valid for the next two Men’s and Women’s World Championships in 2015 (Qatar and Denmark) and 2017 (France and Germany) and also includes the TV production for those events.

The deal succeeds the deal with former TV rights partner UFA Sports.

IHF President Dr Hassan Moustafa, commented: “I hope we will reach all handball enthusiasts worldwide with this new partnership in order to further develop our sport. I have some ideas and they have some ideas, and we have to see together how we can promote our sport. In four years we will evaluate where we are and which benefits we could take from this partnership.”

Al Khelaifi, General Manager of beINSports, was also very satisfied with the conclusion of the agreement: “We love handball. It is a very popular sport and we can work more international now. Handball is very important for our network. So we try to promote it. Handball is fantastic and we want to be part of the success of the IHF. We are proud that beINSports is the new home of handball.”