A UK Government spending review this Autumn could lead to at least half of Britain’s Olympic sports having their funding cut before the London 2012 Games, it is reported.

The director of performance at UK Sport, Peter Keen, has said he would be willing to divert money from 50 per cent of the country’s sporting bodies to athletes who have a more realistic chance of success at the 2012 Games.

Keen said: “Like all publicly funded organisations, we’ll soon hear our budget. You must remember that our London mission was funded by a dramatic increase in exchequer funding, not Lottery funding. But we’re dependent on exchequer funding that will be determined in the Autumn.

“With any reasonable budget we will give the backing [prospective medal-winning] athletes deserve. And so if that means we can only fund half the sports, then that’s all we can do.What we really don’t want is to dilute our commitment to excellence.”

Keen revealed the sports that could take priority were cycling, athletics, rowing, sailing and swimming.

He added: “My ultimate loyalty is to elite sport. I learned early on that if you compromise, if you don’t look the monster in the eye, you invariably fail. If you distribute money to the point where you are spreading it so thinly then you’re not recognising a key point: that to do it properly does cost.”

ELTA TV has obtained the exclusive rights to broadcast all of the 2014 FIFA World Cup matches across Chinese Taipei.

An ELTA TV executive said the network inked a deal to secure all the media rights to air the tournament taking place in Brazil in Taiwan with world soccer’s governing body, cialis FIFA, and that it will collaborate with Chunghwa Telecom to make matches available on mobile devices and computers.

ELTA TV and Chunghwa Telecom officials said that all 64 World Cup games would be available to viewers, from the June 13 kick-off to the final on July 14.

The network will air the ties on its channel, which is available on Chunghwa Telecom’s Multimedia-on-Demand (MOD) cable subscription and Video-on-Demand services.

“It will be a month-long soccer carnival in Brazil. We are happy to announce that the Taiwanese public will not miss out on this big, international sports event,” Chunghwa Telecom president Shih Mu-piao said at a press conference yesterday.

Aldershot Town Football Club confirmed today that as part of its continued restructure and refinancing Kris Machala has decided to handover the Chairmanship of the Club and the Board to Shahid Azeem.

Kris has been Chairman since July 2010 and will remain a major shareholder and a Board Director. Kris also has external business interests which require more of his time.

In a statement Aldershot Town said: “Shahid Azeem assumes the role of Chairman with the full support of the Board following his two year involvement as a Non executive Director with the Football Club.  As new Chairman his priority will be to lead the Club through a period of financial restructure, discount including the attraction of the new investment needed to further the strategic aims of the Club.

“On behalf of all the Directors, staff and supporters  we take this opportunity to formally thank Kris for his dedication and commitment during his tenure as owner and Chairman. We formally welcome Shahid to the role of Chairman and have every faith that with everyone supporting him he will lead the club through a difficult but improving position.”

The sponsors of the London 2012 Olympic Games have marked the two-years to go landmark through different marketing initiatives.

There are now 34 commercial sponsors of the Games and 36 licensees who will be manufacturing and selling over 10, shop 000 individual pieces of London 2012 merchandise.

To mark the two-year milestone, viagra VISA provided 70 of its VISA Team 2012 athletes to join in with the celebrations at the Olympic Park.

The watch company Omega provided the starting blocks for Michael Johnson to use in the Olympic Stadium as he sprinted around the new track.

Electronics company Panasonic had a giant screen in Trafalgar Square to celebrate the day with wide ranging initiatives taking place throughout the day.

Royal Mail has issued the latest set of London 2012 stamps featuring Olympic and Paralympic sports.

Cricket South Africa has bid farewell to Acting CEO Jacques Faul and introduced Naasei Appiah, mind who was the Chief Financial Officer of CSA, shop as their interim CEO.

“Jacques took over as CEO on 17 March 2012 and has not only made sure that the operational side of CSA has continued to function extremely smoothly and efficiently but has also ensured stability in the working environment, viagra 40mg ” commented CSA President Chris Nenzani.

“He took charge of restoring CSA’s badly damaged reputation and did a lot of good work behind the scenes to restore the confidence of existing sponsors and to create the environment for new ones to come on board.

“As he leaves us, all our commercial properties have been snapped up in the market place and he hands over the baton to his successor with CSA once again in a good place. He is to be congratulated on a job well done.

“I would also like to thank North West Cricket for making Jacques available during this period of almost a full year and to wish Jacques everything of the best in his future business ventures with the Northerns Cricket Union, Titans Cricket and the Eastern Titans franchise.

“I am pleased also to announce that our Chief Financial Officer, Naasei Appiah, will assume the role of Acting CEO until the selection process of the new CEO is complete. This latter process is well under way in terms of the procedure outlined by the new Board of Directors at their inaugural meeting earlier this month.

“The Board has every confidence that Mr. Appiah will build on the excellent work done by Mr. Faul during this period of transition,” Mr. Nenzani concluded.

European sports broadcaster Eurosport has started the selling of advertising spots surrounding the London 2012 Olympic Games, as well as around broadcasts linked to the Games in the two years leading up to them.

“Road to London” is the marketing campaign offering advertising opportunities around international sporting events featuring Olympic sports.

The main events in the scheme are the major European and World Championship events that as qualifiers for the 2012 Olympic Games.

There will also be an environmental initiatives developed by the organisers of the Games, and magazine programmes focusing on the athletes and events appearing at the Games.

Nearly 75 per cent of Eurosport’s schedule is made up of Olympic sports. It has created advertising-funded programming around the theme.

The English Football Association (FA) has announced a partnership with media training company Brightness Media.

The agreement will see FA personnel, administrators, coaches and players at all levels of the game receive guidance and media training as well as education on The FA’s media policies and practices.

Brightness Media will also provide training for specific FA Learning courses, including the UEFA Pro-Licence.

Working closely with The FA’s commercial team at St. George’s Park, Brightness Media will provide a unique insight to the workings of the modern media as well as develop social media training for The FA and its clients.

Chairman of St. George’s Park, David Sheepshanks, said: “We have been through a vigorous tender process to identify the ideal partner for our media training, and we are delighted that Brightness Media, with their excellent stable of professional journalists and trainers, have come to the fore.

“As well as training our own people, we have worked with Brightness Media to develop an exciting offering for corporate clients and executives.”

Gavin Scovell, of Brightness Media, said: It’s a great honour for Brightness Media to be chosen to work as official media trainers to The Football Association. Having worked closely with hundreds of sportsmen and women and improved their media skills, both on screen, in print and in social media circles, we are looking forward to this challenge.”

Brightness Media’s James Pearce also added:  “During my 20 years at the BBC I’ve conducted hundreds of interviews with many high profile figures, from footballers to Prime Ministers.

“The modern media is changing so fast, and it’s very important that individuals, particularly those in sport, have a good understanding of it. For sportspeople, the aim is to give them all the knowledge that they need to perform as well off the pitch or track as they do on it.”