The Sri Lankan city of Hambantota, viagra 60mg a candidate to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games are reportedly paying British firm pmplegacy, price part of the London-based Chime Communications, at least US$3m to aid their bid for the event, according to Sri Lankan Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage.

In an interview with the Sunday Leader, Aluthgamage stated: “In order to prepare the bid documents for the 2018 Commonwealth Games and for promotional campaigns we have offered the contract to a British PR Firm pmplegacy.

“The exact amount is known to Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal as he is the chairman of the organising committee that handles the finances.”

According to the Sunday Leader, the money will come out of the $4.5m Sri Lanka is paying another Chime subsidary, public relations firm Bell Pottinger to boost its post-war image.

Pmplegacy, has a distinguished 25-year track record of working  on the evaluation, bidding, planning and delivery of major sporting events including the likes of the 2008 Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing, the 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Leading media rights agency MP & Silva have revealed today that it has been appointed as media advisor to the Belgian Jupiler Pro League for a period of six seasons, pills starting on 2014/15 season.

The advisory role will allow MP & Silva to develop and implement in close collaboration with the League commercial strategies in relation to sales of media rights and coordinate under the League’s authority the production and technical services to be provided by prospective licensees.

The worldwide agreement covers all matches of the Jupiler Pro League to be distributed to any platform or devices domestically and internationally.

The addition of the Belgian football league to MP & Silva’s extensive media rights portfolio reaffirms the agency’s market leadership in the international distribution of European professional football content. Jupiler Pro League will join a distinctive group of current MP & Silva partners that include Barclays Premier League, capsule Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, French Ligue 1, Scottish Premier League, the FA Cup, the English Football League, La Liga, Turkish Super Lig and Greek Super League.      

Peter Hutton, joint-CEO, MP & Silva said: “We have been very impressed with the professionalism of the league and the clubs through this commercial process, and now look forward to working with them to build a strong future.”  

Michel Dupont, President, Belgian Jupiler Pro League said: “I am delighted with this new partnership as it is completely in line with our long-term strategy. We will grow as an organisation but also the competition will benefit from it, the Jupiler Pro League will be broadening its international reach. This partnership will therefore boost our strategies.

“The clubs chose this partnership for the fans. With the extra money the quality of our competition will get better and Belgian football can participate on international level. Naturally, this partnership doesn’t make us compete with bigger countries yet, but it will with a few other smaller countries. This will also make us able to attract qualitative better players to the Jupiler Pro League.”

Annecy 2018 Winter Olympics Bid committee and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Guy Drut their efforts to be awarded the rights to stage the event are gaining momentum just at the right time, with the bidding race with Munich and PyeongChang ending at the IOC Session in Durban on July 6.

The French city’s bid has been regarded as the underdog of the three competitor’s for some time and was rocked further when former chief Edgar Grospiron resigned due to an apparent lack of funding.

However, since businessman Charles Beigbeder took over the bid has made decent strides in asserting itself as a contender once again having gained remewed support and financial backing, most significantly from the French government.

The first challenge for the ‘new campaign’ is the current visit of the IOC’s evaluation commission which is making a first stop in Annecy before going on to PyeongChang next week and then Munich at the end of the month.

On assessing Annecy’s prospects after its mini French revolution, Drut said: “We will need a bit of luck and team spirit to show the IOC members both that we can do it – and that we want to do it.

“With the new chairman and a new atmosphere the bid has becomes more solid and we have put in place the structures to sell it as well as possible – above all to the IOC members and the Olympic family and to the other National Olympic Committees.

“The first test after the evaluation commission visit will be SportAccord in London when we will be in front of the whole Olympic family.”

Drut confirmed that the bid planned only essential construction to minimise environmental disruption. He said: “There will ne no new roads, we don’t need any. We will use what is already in place. Our goal is to stage a ‘natural’ Games which is why we are trying not to build anything new unless we really need it, such as the Village.”

Francois Fillon, the Prime Minister of France, has pledged state support for Annecy’s bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) evaluation commission arrived in France yesterday, February 8, for its first inspection of the three candidate cities.

Fillon travelled to the city to welcome the 11 members of the commission, which will be shown technical presentations and will undertake site visits. The inspection will take place until Saturday, February 12,  before the commission makes further trips to the other two candidate cities of Munich in Germany and PyeongChang in South Korea.

Fillon told AFP: “I met the commission with the aim of convincing them of why our bid should win. On top of this I offered the total support of the state.

“The candidature file has excellent technical quality and is focused around the two legendary hubs of Chamonix – which hosted the first Winter Games in 1924 – and Annecy. We would organise an exceptional Winter Games under a theme of sustainable development and legacy.”