English Rugby Union club, Gloucester Rugby have revealed that Stephen Vaughan has agreed to join the club as its new Managing Director.

Vaughan, who will start in post on December 17th, possesses a wealth of experience in the sport, leisure and travel sectors.

Most recently, following the announcement of Thomas Cook as an Official Supporter to the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, he was the Managing Director of Thomas Cook London 2012, where he led Thomas Cook’s involvement with London 2012.

Before joining Thomas Cook, Stephen played football for Walsall F.C. before joining the Travel industry by working as an overseas representative and Regional Manager, and then further developed his travel expertise through UK based roles in Tour Operating, Retail and Specialist Businesses.

Notably, he was previously Managing Director of Club 18-30 and the Big events Group.

He subsequently held the role of Head of Sales and Commercial for the Thomas Cook Dynamic Packaging businesses and was heavily involved in the creation and rollout of the brand to the market place.

In April 2009, Stephen was voted ‘Young Business Man of the Year’ by travel’s Hall of Fame committee.

Stephen gained his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from Loughborough University in 2007, and spoke today of his excitement at joining Gloucester Rugby:

“I’m tremendously excited and honoured to be taking on the role of Managing Director at one of the biggest clubs in European club rugby.

“Gloucester possesses a heritage that is the envy of many a sporting institution, with a standing within the community and support base to match, and a thriving commercial arm.

“But what particularly impressed me when I spoke to the board, was the drive and ambition to establish the club at the very pinnacle of the game.

“Nigel Davies and the playing squad have made a fine start to the season, and I can’t wait to come on board to play my part in helping Gloucester Rugby achieve its undoubted potential both on and off the field.”

Meanwhile Chairman Ryan Walkinshaw, welcomed Stephen to the club whilst also paying tribute to his predecessors in the role.

“Firstly I’d like to thank Chris Ferguson who stepped into the breech when Ken Nottage moved in during the summer, and has done a sterling job.

“But I’m thrilled that Stephen has agreed to join Gloucester Rugby. A man of his calibre and experience is always highly sought after, so his appointment is a real coup for the club.

“We have high ambitions for Gloucester Rugby and are confident that Stephen, with the experience he has gained from his previous roles such as his involvement with the Olympics, is exactly the right man to take us forward.

“We’ve already started an exciting new era at Gloucester Rugby, and I truly believe that Stephen will successfully build on the outstanding foundations left by Ken Nottage during his ten years at the club.”

Acting Managing Director Chris Ferguson, who has stepped up from his Finance Director role since former MD Ken Nottage moved on in August, will be leaving the club at the end of December after completing his handover with Stephen.

Soccerex has announced a raft of footballing legends and big business names will speak at the Soccerex Seminar Lagos, 27-28 September.

The Chairman of Nigerian Premier League, Victor Rumson Baribote, President of Fourteen SA and World-Cup wining ex-player Christian Karembeu, International Advisor to TP Mazembe Jerome Champagne and Managing Director of ASEC Mimosas Benoit You will all be speaking on different sessions at the Seminar with the ultimate goal of developing football in West Africa.

The latest footballing legends to have signed up for the Seminar, not only to discuss business in West Africa, but to relive their football glory days, will be former Nigerian international Sunday Oliseh, ex-Bayern Munich and Ghana legend Sammy Kuffour and ex-Feyenoord, Nottingham Forest and Netherlands legend Pierre van Hooijdonk.

The attendees will be speaking on a number of panels including ‘Developing Africa’s Next Star’ and ‘Successfully running a Professional League’, and moderating the key ‘Football in Nigeria’ session which will feature the Chairman of the Lagos State Football Association Seyi Akinwunmi and the President of the Nigerian Football Federation Alhaji Aminu Maigari.

Commenting on his involvement, Sunday Oliseh said:

“It’s with great optimism that I invite you to join me in welcoming the arrival of Soccerex to Nigeria. Nigeria is such a passionate, ‘religiously’ football loving country. There is an endless wealth of talent in Nigeria but there is still much work to do in order to create an appropriate environment for such talent to blossom. Soccerex is passionately interested in playing its part in making this happen and thus I am delighted to contribute to the inaugural Soccerex Seminar in Lagos.”

Christian Karembeu added:

“The Soccerex Seminar Lagos will play an important part in the development of football in Nigeria. I’m looking forward to seeing how the event offers international businesses a platform to develop new contacts and ultimately invest in West African football.”

With the aim of promoting the development of football in West Africa, through providing focused learning and business opportunities, the Soccerex Seminar Lagos will feature a mix of football’s leading decision-makers joining business experts for an in-depth, two-day event made up of a conference, networking and social events.

For more information on the Soccerex Seminar Lagos please go to www.soccerex.com/lagos

Eurosport have inked a new broadcasting deal to air the MCE British Superbike Championship after a new long-term deal was confirmed today.

The satellite broadcaster has extended its agreement past its original contract to air the series until 2015.

Eurosport retains exclusive live TV and digital worldwide rights for every round of the BSB championship, which will be shown in HD.

The new agreement increases live coverage of the premier and support classes in the UK specifically, extending to Saturday’s qualifying sessions, which will see the knockout qualifying phase and the Motorpoint British Supersport Sprint race broadcast live.

British Eurosport Managing Director David Kerr said: “MCE British Superbikes continues to be one of the strongest set of rights on the channel, so extending the term of the deal and adding even more depth to our coverage is fantastic news.

“Working with a dynamic rights holder like MSV allows us to go beyond the traditional broadcaster relationship and spend time discussing what we can do together in the best interests of BSB.

“Extending the term of our agreement means we can take a much longer term view and invest in more live programming that will deliver premium quality content for our viewers and will raise the profile of BSB and the other series even further.”

MCE British Superbikes Series Director, Stuart Higgs, added: “Eurosport is well known as the ‘Home of Bikes’ particularly in the UK and MCE BSB has been the cornerstone of that programming for some time. 

“They understand bike racing and the series, have a strong, growing and loyal viewing audience and they understand how we want the series to grow.

“In addition, being part of the Eurosport family means we now have a far wider global distribution, including the USA through Discovery Velocity,” he added.

“Overseas markets are a key consideration for us and it is an area we want to grow over the t

South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) has re-elected Gideon Sam as President for another four year term at the Quadrennial General Meeting at Olympic House on Saturday.

Sam, capsule who was first elected President in 2008, allergy was elected unopposed for another four years after Dr Irvin Khoza withdrew just over a week before the elections.

In terms of the First and Second Vice-president the status quo remained unchanged for the next four years as Ms Hajera Kajee and Mr Les Williams were returned to their positions. Other nominations for the Vice-Presidency were Wimpie du Plessis, Colin Webster and Kirsten Nematandani.

Also at the meeting, five Board members were elected. Of the 25 original nominations, there were seven withdrawals.

The new Board members who will serve for the next four years are: Ms Keikabile Motlatsi, Mark Alexander, Themba Hlatsho, Kobus Marais and Mubarak Mohamed.

Alexander, Marais and Mohamed also served on the Board for the last term of office.

The electoral process was overseen by Deloitte’s electoral officer Bester Greyling and 82 members of SASCOC accounted for a voting strength of 158.

Speaking at Saturday’s QGM Sam said he would continue with renewed focus on key areas for the next four years.

“Our focus for the next four years will be to strengthen the province’s structures because we are still only scratching the surface when it comes to talent.

“We will continue to assist our coaches and make sure that the councils work in the various provinces. Also, we will strive to build our communications platform to spread the sports word far and wide.

“At all times there must be total accountability. Once again we will fight side by side with the Sports Ministry and Honorable Sports Minister Mr Fikile Mbalula for a better funding model. Even if we have to go against the grain with government we have to. Some of our Federations are dying and we need to escalate the fight in this regard.

“Let us start to flex our muscles as a sporting movement. Let us shake the tree and start seeing some fruit!”

Sam also called for greater unity in the nation’s sporting administration structure. “I call on all our leaders to settle their differences. There’s no doubting sport is a cut-throat business but we cannot afford all these disputes amongs the federations. They are derailing us, there are bigger issues.

“But we need to hold hands and move forward for the next four years and beyond.’

Speaking at the elections Minister Mbalula said he backed SASCOC all the way. “I remain very much committed to working with SASCOC – indeed we need to stengthen them to see that the Federations are doing their job and that the confederation has the mandate to continue their work.

“Things are on the right track though and the task is now to implement the National Sports plan, coaching framework and more.

“Sport is never perfect but we have to work for the good of what we have committed to. It’s about the future of our youth, our country and to make South African sport something that everyone can be proud of.

“To Rio and beyond we are in a position to achieve a lot. The Federations can function freely and corporations can come aboard for funding because we can’t rely on funding from private sector.

“In closing let me say I have had a fantastic engagement with SASCOC, there is a single mindedness from me to support sport and I look forward to another successful journey with SASCOC.”

The concluding morning of the SETE 2012 Conference began with four workshops facilitated by a variety of prominent international and local experts in the sports events and tourism sectors. These workshops were highly interactive between delegates and presenters and acted as think tank for sports tourism in South Africa. The conference then culminated in the highly anticipated National Sports Tourism Bidding and Hosting Strategy before being formally closed and praised by Chairperson of Trade and Investment KZN, herbal Obed Mlaba.

Chris Foy, denture Head of the 2012 Games unit for Visit Britain Tourism, pills facilitated the workshop which explored the marketing and strategy plan of London 2012. Through this discussion, it was clear that Visit Britain Tourism “Levered the Olympic brand to benefit Brand Britain” and intends to utilise this strategy long after the conclusion of the games. Another two outputs in hosting an event of this magnitude were unpacked during this workshop, namely Brand Protection and Restrictions as well as the vital importance Partnerships. Both outputs were tackled in a very practical manner: concrete Brand Restriction guidelines were drawn up and distributed, and strong and valuable partnerships were formed to create tactical relationships between organising committees as well as entities such as global broadcasters which would help to tell the London 2012 story to the world.

Another workshop was headed by Norman Mphake who is the Sport Recreation and Fitness Chamber Coordinator for SETE 2012 partner, CATHSSETA. This workshop explored the projection of CATHSETTA’s values and objections, based on the National Framework for National Skills and Development Strategy, on the sporting sector. The workshop acknowledged that this sector has great potential for skills development and training to lend itself to the development of sustainable employment. Linked to this, the workshop explored the relationship between employers, learners and sectors in creating a contractual obligation in which employees need to develop working skills amongst their employees, plan and create comprehensive reports to monitor the success of projects.

Kamilla Swart, Head of Centre for Tourism Research in Africa, hosted the Major Events and The Environment workshop which emphasised the need to consider the environmental implications of hosting a mega event. This workshop explored how events can have a direct impact on the environment and how they can also be used as an awareness building platform for the conception and implementation of greening initiatives. The outcomes of this workshop suggested that future event planning should emulate success stories such as initiatives that The City of Cape Town has already adopted. The workshop also advocated the notion that greening criteria, which must be an integral part of the event hosting process, ought to become a contractual function of event hosting and funding applications.  It was also acknowledged that resources need to be allocated to the greening initiatives and that they need to be brought down to a local level.

The Online Media Marketing and Communications Strategies for Sports Events workshop was facilitated by Thomas Abraham who is the Editorial Director of Sportz Power India. The core discussion in the workshop explored the relationship between sports owners trying to develop their sport and the media. This workshop looked at mainstream sports which are already in the public mind-space. Thus, the role of media in this sector is to constantly engage the fan base and stay ahead of the curve in upgrading the fans’ experience. The notion that new technology is more important when looking at sports that are aiming to expand was also raised. It was concluded that there are currently tools on hand to gain recognition with technology which has never been accessible before. The workshop identified two major tactics in harnessing this technology to grow out of a purely grant based existence to an economically sustainable sport. These are social networks as well as the use of community outlets where there are few financial restrictions and a huge base.

The pinnacle of the SETE conference was the construction and presentation of the National Sports Tourism Bidding and Hosting Strategy. This document, presented by the SETE Conference Director and Director for Business Development at TEPG, Sugen Pillay, was adopted by the Conference and is a part of a 17 year strategy to be implemented from next year. The objectives of this Strategy, are to prioritise key mega international events that South Africa should bid and host as well as key domestic events that government should support, define the type of support government will offer and lastly, to define the institutional arrangements necessary to implement this Strategy.

The Strategy consists of two phases: Phase one deals with the research and analysis of global trends and best international practices as well as a review on the current strategies and legislation that is in place. During this phase, a number of case studies, legislation, policies and strategies were researched to create a better understanding of what works and what does not.  Phase two deals with using this research to analyse stakeholders and apply these strategies and practises to best suit South Africa’s specific context and develop this into a comprehensive 17 year plan which direction on how to choose feasible future events to consider.

The conclusions drawn from of these phases and a notion that has been discussed throughout the conference is that a collaboration of existing stakeholders in sports and tourism needs to be created to co-ordinate, drive and manage sport tourism development in South Africa. From this, the conception of Steerco arose. SASCOC, through legislated mandate, has the responsibility to manage the bidding process of hosting events and was therefore chosen to chair this collaboration. Other proposed members of Steerco include SRSA (Sports and Recreation South Africa) who will provide legislative and policy direction for the bidding and hosting of events, SAT (South African Tourism) who will provide the marketing support to bid for events, promote domestic events and utilise brand leverage of sporting events towards the national brand image, and lastly, the NDT (National Department of Tourism) who will provide legislative policy support to events that promote tourism in South Africa. Although these are to be the only formal members of Steerco, it is important to note that Sports Federations, the Tourism sector and cities and provinces are also vital to the entire process and should also be on board in the implementation and development of Steerco.

The next step after the Strategy has been approved is for SRSA to incorporate it into its own National Sports Tourism Strategy. Thereafter SASCOC and SRSA are to submit The Strategy for Cabinet approval after which SASCOC is to compile a comprehensive business plan to get the process started.

This paper and the implementation thereof can be seen as a monumental step forward for the development of South African Sports Tourism and can be viewed as a testimony of the success of the SETE 2012 Conference.

Please direct all media queries on the Strategy document to Tubby Reddy, CEO of SASCOC, Cell: 082 990 4149. A copy of the presentation of the National Sports Tourism Bidding and Hosting Strategy can be found on www.sportsandevents.co.za

Smith, the current Lloyds international chief executive and a former director of Bank of Scotland Treasury, has an engineering background and previously spent time with Deutsche Bank and UBS.

Lloyds Banking Group released a statement yesterday announcing Smith had resigned to “pursue other opportunities”.

As part of that statement, the bank said he would remain with the company for a few months to help with the transition.

His appointment ends the long search for a replacement for David Gallop, who was sacked in June.Gallop is now the head of Football Federation Australia.

ARLC chairman John Grant today made no apology for the time it took to replace Gallop.

“This is a person who knows business, who knows how to lead, who loves sport, who is culturally suited to our game and who has a very strong sense of community,” Grant said.

“We’ve spent a lot of time talking with Dave and I can tell you that we are certain he will do a fantastic job for our game.”

The Welshman moved to Australia nine years ago and will leave his role as a senior banking figure with Lloyds International to take up his new job on February 1.

A former soldier with the British Army, Smith said he was very excited about taking on the role.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be a part of the rugby league family,” Smith said.

“I feel a real sense of excitement and duty in taking on the chief executive role at such an exciting point for the game and the NRL.

“It’s a chance to make a real difference at a time when rugby league is looking to grow to a new level.

“The role has everything I could want and I am really looking forward to getting started.

“I think I have got the best job in Australia.

“This is a wonderful opportunity. It is an honour and a privilege.”

Shane Mattiske will continue as the interim ARLC chief executive until Smith moves into his new role.

IOC member Randhir Singh has pulled out of the running for the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) presidency clearing the path for Abhay Singh Chautala to take the role.

The withdrawal of Randhir, anesthetist Secretary-General of the IOA, followed by that of Raj Chopra, former treasurer of the IOA, left Abhay Singh Chautala, former president of the Indian Boxing Federation, as the lone candidate in the field for president in the December 5 elections. 

Randhir said that being a member of the IOC, and Secretary-General of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), it was improper for him to continue to be in the fray since these organisations had issued a warning to the IOA that it faced suspension in case it did not stick to its constitution and the Olympic Charter in the elections. 

He warned of the IOC taking action in case the elections were held under the sports code, suggesting that the IOC had not issued a hollow threat. 

The IOC has sought a reply from the IOA by November 30, providing written guarantees that the elections would be held as per its directive, failing which it said it would be taking up the IOA’s suspension at its Executive Board meeting in Lausanne on December 4 and 5. 

Randhir said that there could have been a dialogue among the representatives of the IOC, government and the IOA as suggested by the Union Sports Ministry to resolve the issues before holding the elections. 

Randhir’s withdrawal had been widely forecast by the opposing camp even before the IOC letter, signed by its president, Jacques Rogge, had arrived. Once the IOC position became stiffer, it was certain that he would find it difficult to continue.

Soccerex is delighted to announce a new media partnership between Soccerex and Goal.com, ambulance the world’s largest football website. The partnership will establish Goal.com as media partners in 2012 for the inaugural Soccerex African Forum in Durban, impotent 23-24 October and the Soccerex Seminar Lagos, 27-28 September, rising to full event partners in 2013 & 2014.

Owned and powered by digital sports media business PERFORM, Goal.com is the world’s largest football website. They are based in over 50 countries around the world and produce an average of 1,000 news stories per day in 18 languages across 34 editions, attracting over 36 million unique users in May 2012 from more than 220 countries.

In Africa, Goal.com is the leading source of local and global football news and video with specific editions for the Egyptian, Nigerian, Ghanaian, Kenyan and South African markets; in August alone the Nigerian site received 3.4m unique visitors.

Commenting on the announcement, Soccerex Marketing Director David Wright said:

“We’re delighted to announce this new partnership with Goal.com. As the world’s leading football website they’re a perfect match for Soccerex. More importantly their presence in Africa and especially Nigeria will be key to the development of our events.”

Stewart Walker, Head of Corporate Development – Africa, PERFORM added:

“Goal.com has a loyal and passionate football fan base in Africa. The Soccerex African Forum and Soccerex Seminar Lagos are the ideal platforms to further our reach and to deliver the latest football news across the African continent.”