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that since Pescante has made the claims, the Japanese Olympic Committee have refuted the suggestion that they have withdrawn their interest in hosting the Games in 2020.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

Soccerex has announced that La Liga CEO Francisco Roca will be speaking on the ‘Rise of the Armchair Supporter’ panel at the Soccerex European Forum on 10-11 April in Manchester.

The panel, sale made up of senior representatives from clubs, price leagues and relevant stakeholders, anabolics will discuss the global exposure European leagues and clubs receive due to new multimillion-pound rights deals being secured around the world. In addition, they will tackle how targeted pre-season tours, selected regional partners and highly marketable players have opened up multiple new revenue streams for clubs, leading them to consider their influential foreign fan-base when deciding crucial commercial and logistical club strategies.

Roca, who has been CEO of La Liga since 2005, has been instrumental in its development over the past eight years which has seen it become one of the most commercially attractive leagues in the world. One of La Liga’s top clubs, Barcelona, have already demonstrated their commitment to their global fan-base in the Middle East and Asia by playing a season game at the Nou Camp at midday for the first time in over 45 years, to make it easier for their fans in Asia to watch.

Francisco Roca comments:

“The relationships fans have with clubs are the most important part of football and I’m looking forward to explaining the different approaches La Liga is taking to improve these relationships all over the world.” 

Soccerex CEO Duncan Revie said:

“We’re delighted to welcome Francisco back to Soccerex once again. As CEO of La Liga he is at the forefront of European football and the commercial changes it is undergoing. He will be able to provide a direct insight into strategies being implemented by La Liga to broaden its fan base in what will be a fantastic session for our delegates.”

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

The vice-president for Africa of the Commonwealth Games Federation, Gambian Abdoulie Touray, claims that Jacques Rogge, the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) needs to offer as much support to a bid from Africa for the Olympics as Sepp Blatter gave to the continent’s staging of the World Cup.

The success of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa has raised hopes that an African city will soon be able to successfully bid to host the Olympcis and Paralympics, with Durban emerging as a serious candidate to put itself forward for the 2020 Games.

The subject was top of the agenda at the Africa International Sports Convention (CISA), attended by several IOC members and high-powered delegations from the three cities bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Member of the IOC’s ruling Executive Board, South Africa’s Sam Ramsamy, was confident that there will be an African bidder for 2020 with Durban, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth all having put themselves forward. 

Ramsamy stated: “We presented the bids by the three·cities·to the [South African] Government and we are awaiting the decision on which one of the trio will succeed.

“The outcome·is expected·next month and Africa is definitely in the race for 2020.”

Ramsamy claimed that when an African city did put itself forward then the whole continent would unite behind it, adding: “We will get one city to bid from Africa and the good thing is that in Africa we have unity when it comes to matters of international contests.

“The question is when and where and not whether Africa is ready!”

South Africa’s hosting of the World Cup is thought to be among the best organised tournaments ever and passed off without any major problems, leading Rogge to encourage a city from that country to bid for the 2020 Games.

Gambia’s Touray claimed that Rogge had to go further if a bid was to be successful and follow the lead of Blatter, who consistently backed South Africa’s campaign to host the World Cup and refused to criticise them when they suffered problems.

“Jacques Rogge needs to come out and make a deliberate statement that Africa does have world-class facilities and can host the Olympic Games,” Touray said.

“He needs to do for Africa what Sepp Blatter did.”

There was backing for an African bid from Sergey Bubka, the world pole vault record holder who is now a member of the IOC and a 

Senior vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and pole vault world record holder Sergey Bubka also backed an African bid, but he urged the continent to try to urge more major events, such as the IAAF World Championships.

“I agree that Africa deserves to host the Olympics but then African nations must strive to deliver strong bids that can meet the prerequisite conditions,” he said.

“Africa needs to host many more major championships to gain experience and confidence for the Olympics. 

“But the Governments too must show goodwill and commit to supporting bids and more importantly invest financial resources.”

Hurricane, order the organisers of the FISE (International Festival of Extreme Sport) have announced a partnership with IMG Media that will see the media company distribute worldwide media rights to the action sports events until 2020.

The inaugural FISE World Series (FWS), generic an expansion of the current annual competition in Montpellier, doctor France, which was first staged 20 years ago, will feature four events in 2014, with six planned for 2015. The first to take place this year, in late May, will once again be staged in Montpellier, with new events then following in Andorra in June, and Malaysia and Chengdu, China, in September and October respectively.

IMG Media will market live coverage and highlights of the events in Montpellier, Malaysia and Chengdu, and highlights of the action in Andorra, in a global deal that covers all media rights including distributing coverage via EDGEsport, IMG’s 24-hour premium action sports channel. 

Adam Kelly, Head of Business Development, SVP, IMG Media, said: “The development of the FISE World Series reaffirms the growing worldwide interest in action sports. We are very excited by the potential of these events and look forward to working with Hurricane over the next few years in developing the global appeal of FISE.” 

Joseph Villeflayoux, Head of Marketing, Communication and Media, Hurricane, said: “We have chosen to rely on IMG’s strong experience in sport events distribution. We wanted to share our vision of extreme sports with the world in the same way that we have been contributing to their development for almost 20 years now. IMG will make this possible and we are very excited for the start of the new season.”

Events will include both professional and amateur categories across the disciplines of BMX, Skateboard, Mountain Bike Slopestyle, Wakeboarding and Rollerblade. 

The Professional Squash Association (PSA) has announced today they have expanded their executive team with the appointment of Laurent Cossa, Jeremy Milnes and Hannah Mason.

The trio will work alongside Chief Executive Officer Alex Gough, Chief Operating Officer Lee Beachill and Tour Executive Claudia Schürmann at the PSA head office in Leeds, England.

Cossa has been part of the SquashTV team for the last three years and now joins the PSA on a full-time basis to further the media output of the Tour. He takes the title Creative Media Manager.

Milnes, a former Sales & Marketing Consultant from Doncaster in Yorkshire, is appointed to the new role of Marketing & Commercial Manager. The former Commercial Director of Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster and previously in Sales & Marketing roles at various leading racecourses in the UK, Milnes once trained as a jockey to ride in a charity race over Doncaster’s one-mile flat racing course.

History graduate Mason takes up the position of Tour Co-ordinator. An avid spectator, player and coach in various sports, Mason last year completed an 82-mile charity walk for Help for Heroes.

“Following our decision to move the PSA head office to Leeds in August last year we have been looking to expand the team of PSA employees and are delighted to announce these appointments,” said Beachill.

“Laurent has been working with PSA on a consultancy basis for some time so it was a natural transition to bring him on board full-time. He is an integral part of the Squash TV crew and also has significant experience in social media and design. He will be an invaluable asset for the PSA as we grow.

“Hannah will be working closely with both our promoters and players on servicing their needs during our busy calendar. Her duties will be very much administrative, and having already had three years of administration experience, I am sure Hannah will be an invaluable part of our team.

“Jeremy joins us with wealth of experience in his field. We see Jeremy as a key appointment as the association moves forward, and with his commercial background he will be perfectly placed to not only service our existing partner relationships but also attract further investment into the association.”

Soccerex has announced announce that Sir John Madejski will be speaking on the ‘Captains of Industry’ panel at this year’s Soccerex European Forum, anabolics 10-11 April, capsule Manchester, cough | which will be attended by approximately 1,500 industry decision makers from the world of football.

The panel will be chaired by Andrew Main Wilson, a highly experienced business leader who has interviewed over a hundred of the world’s greatest leaders in the fields of Business, Sport, Politics and Entertainment, including Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Lady Thatcher, Sir Richard Branson and seven England national football team managers.

The session will provide an insight into the unique relationship between big businesses and football; by focusing on what business leaders such as Madejski think of the finances of football and what best practice ideas can be applied from other successful industries.

Madejski, also highly respected for his business expertise in the publishing and hotel sectors, became Chairman of Reading Football Club in 1990, whilst the side was still in the third division of English football. He oversaw the club’s remarkable progress up into the Championship and then into the Premier League, for the first time in the club’s history, after winning the 2005/06 Championship. Sir John created the new Madejski Stadium in 1998 – a stadium worthy of Premier League football. He remains Chairman of the Royals after selling a majority stake to Anton Zingarevich in early 2012. He has also been a benefactor to several highly influential institutions, including the Royal Academy of Arts, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the University of Reading.

Sir John Madejski commented:

“After hearing great things about Soccerex I’m looking forward to attending the European Forum. The subject of business excellence in successfully running football clubs has never been more important and I look forward to debating the many issues with Andrew.”

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