Discovery Italy has sealed a deal with RBS 6 Nations to secure exclusive sports rights across TV, abortion online and mobile platforms in Italy for the RBS 6 Nations Rugby tournament for four years from 2014-2017.

The matches will all be broadcast exclusively on DMAX, one of Discovery Italy’s six DTT channels, free to air and live.

Dee Forbes, President and Managing Director, Discovery Networks Western Europe, said: “This deal with the RBS 6 Nations is a great opportunity for our Italian business. DMAX launched at the end of 2011 and has quickly established itself as a destination channel for men aged 20-49 and we are thrilled to be adding Rugby to the breadth of content we offer on the channel.”

Marinella Soldi, CEO of Discovery Italy commented: “We are extremely proud to be able to announce this new deal to host the broadcast of the RBS 6 Nations over the next four years.

“It is great news for Rugby fans across Italy who will be able to follow the tournament and watch the matches on DMAX.

“Rugby Union and DMAX in Italy have a lot in common: they are both young, increasing in popularity and have similar values of passion and honesty. DMAX will be able to engage viewers in the tournament in a fresh and innovative way, in the style and tradition of Discovery.

“We hope to see them grow together thanks to new and existing fans that DMAX will reach.”

John Feehan, Chief Executive of Six Nations Rugby Ltd, said: “We are delighted to welcome Discovery to our family of broadcasters.

Our main purpose is to expand the reach of our sport and we believe that our partnership with Discovery will enhance the popularity of Rugby Union in Italy.”

Alfredo Gavazzi, President of F.I.R. commented: “I am very pleased with thisnew Agreement between Discovery Italy and the RBS Six Nations for three reasons.

“I was impressed by the enthusiasm, commitment and innovative approach to new ideas from Discovery.

“DMAX will bring rugby into the homes of a new audience that we didn’t reach before, and we will have all 15 meetings transmitted free to air.”

The RBS 6 Nations campaign will be supported with a promotional campaign across the entire Discovery Italian channel portfolio from December to March.

Former spanish giants Deportivo La Coruna have joined the financial decline in Spain announcing their intention to file for bankruptcy protection.

The Galicians, who are struggling in 19th place in La Liga, are 99m euros in debt and have sought protection from their creditors.

President Augusto Lendoiro said: “This makes me sad and ashamed, but there was no other option. 85% and 90% of the debt is with the government and banks.

“This is a different stage, but I see myself with the strength to continue,” Lendoiro added. “The club is viable. I would give high marks to my management of these 25 years at Deportivo. I expect to stay here day to day.”

The club have entered ‘Ley Concursal protection’ – a decision which all bar nine current top flight sides (Barcelona, Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Osasuna, Atletico Madrid, Valencia, Getafe, Sevillaand Espanyol) have taken at some stage.

Football Federation Australia (FFA) has announced the appointment of two new directors to the FFA Board in Peter Tredinnick and Chris Rex.

Peter Tredinnick is a partner in corporate law firm Moray & Agnew and a former Socceroo international.

Chris Rex is the Managing Director and CEO of Ramsay Health Care and a former Sydney FC director.

Peter is appointed to a casual vacancy following the recent decision of Ron Walker to retire after nine years of service. Chris fills the third appointed director position provided for under the FFA’s Constitution.

The Chairman of FFA, ailment Frank Lowy, impotent AC, has welcomed the new directors to FFA.

“Peter and Chris are part of the renewal process that’s an essential element in any governance model, whether it’s business or sport,” said Mr Lowy.

“They bring fresh thinking, vast experience in commercial life and particular insights to football from their personal involvement.

“Their addition will give FFA a new impetus as we implement our Strategic Plan towards 2015.”

Mr Lowy paid tribute to the contribution made by Ron Walker.

“Ron came onto the board in 2003 following the Crawford Report and has been with us through the major transformation of the game since then. With his wealth of experience he made his mark in Board deliberations and brought valuable counsel to the table,” said Mr Lowy.

“He will remain a firm friend of football in the years ahead.”

The 4th edition of Expo Estádio takes place from the 21^st until the 23^rd of November in Sao Paulo (Brazil) and promises to be a milestone for the sports infrastructure and equipment industry. The event focuses on the design, construction, equipment and management of sports venues and playing fields. With strong industry players addressing the sector’s central themes; the conference program is packed with content relevant to the sector.

Increasingly, Brazil has proven to be a safe bet for investment. The development is not only noticeable in the building and upgrading of sports venues like arenas and stadiums, but also in public and private sport courts and outdoor gyms, among others.

Some highlights of the upcoming event are:

FIFA Quality Concept
For the last 10 years FIFA has worked on the “FIFA Quality Concept for Synthetic Turf”, to establish a minimum standard to ensure durability, safety and performance of synthetic turf for professional and public playing fields. FIFA participates to inform all those interested in synthetic turf. This can be the buyer (municipalities, sports clubs, schools), technical specifiers or end user (players, sport federations, the government).

” ‘Gramados Sintéticos’ participates at Expo Estádio for a few years now and our participation already provided us with several customer and supplier contacts that have generated big business. The sports engineering market is growing quickly in Brazil and the tendency is to grow even faster in coming years.” Ricardo Sefton Aquino, Commercial Supervisor

Sports Business conference
“The conference opens the possibility to discuss the opportunities and best management practices for organizing the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. The goal is to help the local industry and service providers to take advantage of the ample opportunities that exist in the sport industry this decade. This year we will be introducing matchmaking and procurement sessions with members of the following three sectors: Sports Clubs, the Olympic Movement and Institutions of Education. The conference will also touch the subject on ‘How to Benefit from the Sports Incentive Law’,” says Mauricio Fernandez, Sports Business Organizer.

International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities is the world leader for professionals in the area of ​​sports, leisure and recreation
“We expect 2012 to be the year in which Expo Estádio, the most relevant event for sports facilities and stadiums in the South American market, takes a leap forward,” says Klaus Meinel, Director of IAKS. Felipe Mujica, Vice-President of the IAKS LAC division, praised the organization of the 2011 event, “I think it is a high-potential event due to the high number of exhibitors. This year, we will announce the II IAKS Award for Latin America during the event.” The IAKS-LAC Award is the biggest prize in the sports architecture and engineering branch.

For more information or to reserve stand space, please contact us at: info@real-alliance.com. Or register on the website to receive our monthly digital newsletter: www.expo-estadio.com.

Eurosport has obtained the media rights to the UEFA Youth League from 2013-15. 

Eurosport will get the first-pick of a match each matchweek. In this respect, viagra Eurosport will produce the first-pick matches (including the semi-finals and final) and broadcast them across its pan-European network of channels Eurosport or Eurosport 2.t. 

Eurosport is the first official broadcast partner of the 2013-15 UEFA Youth League, ampoule however UEFA Champions League rights holders will also have the opportunity to produce and broadcast UEFA Youth League matches. 

Commenting on the awarding of these rights, Guy-Laurent Epstein, marketing director of UEFA Events SA, said: “UEFA is delighted to announce Eurosport as the first rights holder of the 2013-15 UEFA Youth League. UEFA is looking forward to working with Eurosport in order to build and promote this newly created competition. Eurosport’s wide reach and promotional and production expertise are key assets for the exposure of the competition and as a long-term partner of UEFA’s other youth competitions, Eurosport is a natural fit for the UEFA Youth League.“

The first match to be produced and broadcast live on Eurosport will be Manchester United FC v Bayer 04 Leverkusen on 17 September.

Major League Soccer announced today that Kansas City will be the host city for the 2013 MLS All-Star Game.

The annual showcase event will feature three days of festivities, cialis culminating in a match between the League’s top players and a renowned international club on Wednesday, medicine July 31 at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, home of Sporting Kansas City. 

The 2013 MLS All-Star Game will be broadcast live at 8:30 p.m. ET on the ESPN, Univision, TSN and RDS family of networks. Exact networks will be announced at a later date. 

The 2013 All-Star Game will mark the tenth time that an elite international club has played the MLS All-Stars, who are 6-2-1 in those matches. In addition to honoring the best players in MLS, the game has featured successful, world-famous clubs such as Manchester United (2010 & 2011), Everton FC (2009), Chelsea FC (2006 & 2012), and Chivas de Guadalajara (2003). The opponent for this year’s game will be announced at a later date. 

Since opening in June of 2011, LIVESTRONG Sporting Park has hosted Sporting Kansas City’s full home schedule — selling out 17 of the 18 MLS games in 2012 — the 2012 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Championship, the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup, the 2012 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying semifinals and championship, both the U.S. Men’s and Women’s National Teams and international friendlies, as well as concerts such as FarmAid and Journey. 

The stadium’s inaugural season saw LIVESTRONG Sporting Park receive recognition locally, nationally and internationally, garnering many awards for venue, fan experience and technology. In 2012, LIVESTRONG Sporting Park was also recognized at TheStadiumBusiness Awards in Turin, Italy, receiving the highly acclaimed Venue of the Year award and the Product Innovation Award. The state-of-art venue was also nominated for facility of the year by the Sports Business Awards.

Harlequins Rugby club announced today that James Kendall has been appointed it’s Commercial Director.

Kendall is a sports industry specialist with 16 years experience working for the Volvo Ocean Race, Volvo Cars and BSkyB. The 40-year-old joins the London club from his position of Director at Portas Consulting, a professional services company specialising in sport.

A graduate of Durham University, Kendall brings strong project management expertise and a track record of delivering major strategic, organisational, membership, commercial and sponsor programmes for rights holders, federations and corporate businesses to his new role.

Announcing the appointment Harlequins Chief Executive David Ellis said: “The club is experiencing a remarkable period in its history both on and off the pitch. Last season’s success has focussed much attention on the club and that has created a wealth of commercial opportunities. It is important that we capitalise on them and I’m delighted that we have attracted an experienced executive of the calibre of James Kendall to lead the club in this vital role.”

Commenting on his move to Harlequins, James Kendall said: “Harlequins has a rich heritage and enviable assets on which to build a really exciting commercial proposition. This combined with the ambition and strategic focus of the club makes this a rare opportunity and a challenge I can’t wait to start. I look forward to bringing my broad experience from the sports industry and making a significant contribution towards the long term success of the club.”

Mr Kendall will take up his appointment on 5th November.

After Spain’s comprehensive defence of their title brought the UEFA European Championships to a close, see there was another spectacular finish with the Soccerex Euro 2012 Fantasy League coming to its climax.

The game, price powered by Fantasy League Ltd, stuff attracted over 1000 users from all over the world, allowing people from across the industry to test their skills against friends, colleagues and their international counterparts during the tournament. All participants are being contacted about the winners of the league prizes which included an iPad2 16GB, an England shirt signed by Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville, Bryan Robson, John Barnes, Phil Thompson, Terry Venables, Mike Summerbee and Stuart Pearce, a Manchester United shirt signed by Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville, Dimitar Berbatov, Bryan Robson and Denis Law and a Brazil shirt signed by Carlos Alberto Torres.

After 3 weeks of intense competition, inspired substitutions and last minute drama Soccerex is delighted to confirm that the winner of the main league was James Root from SEO specialists HP Group. James has won a VIP trip for two to the Soccerex Global Convention 2012 in Rio including flights, 5 star accommodation and VIP passes.

After a successful response to the game, David Wright, Marketing Director of Soccerex, said:

“We are delighted with the reaction we have received for the Fantasy League game and hope the game added extra excitement to the tournament for those who played.  I would like to offer my congratulations to all the prize winners and particularly James; I look forward to seeing you in Rio.”

James Root, HP Group commented:

“I am over the moon to have won; the game was a huge amount of fun within the office and very easy to play. A few tactical substitutions seem to have won it for me and I am very excited to attend the Soccerex Global Convention in Rio to witness the world’s leading business football event.”

The Soccerex Global Convention is the World’s largest football business event, seeing the global leaders in the business of football come together to debate, network and do business. Lasting 5 days, including a 2 day Football Festival on Copacabana Beach, it is held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 24-28 November 2012. Visit www.soccerex.com/events/global for more information.

Sporting News Media, a subsidiary of PERFORM Group, today announced an agreement with the National Football League (NFL), bringing the NFL’s premium video content year-round to Sporting News Media’s SN ePlayer, the largest digital sports video-on-demand (VOD) broadcast platform, reaching more than 18 million sports fans in the U.S. every month.

Sporting News Media will offer VOD highlights of NFL games, as well as additional related video content throughout the year, across SN ePlayer local newspaper websites which includes top local publishing brands such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, among many others. The high quality NFL video content will be distributed across select NFL markets and be made available to sports fans via both their PCs and tablet devices.

“We are always looking for new distribution platforms to deliver more NFL content to our fans,” said Vishal Shah, Vice President, Digital Media at NFL. “The sports video market has experienced tremendous growth, and we are excited to leverage our relationship with Sporting News Media to distribute NFL video in new places.”

Sporting News Media CEO Juan Delgado added: “With demand for NFL highlights at an all-time high, and with sports fans spending 39% of their time each week engaging with digital sports content outside the live broadcast window, Sporting News Media is focused on video consumption opportunities that serve the entire ecosystem. From delivery of content to avid local sports fans, to empowering top professional leagues and governing bodies looking to serve their fans in unique and innovative ways, to marketers that seek high quality sight, sound and motion across their digital footprint, we cover all bases.”

Birmingham City have announced a profit of more than £15 million in newly-published accounts but will continue to cut costs.

The St Andrew’s outfit ended the year to June 30, online 2012 £15.7 million in the black, buy thanks to the sale of a string of players and Premier League “parachute” payments made to relegated teams.

But the directors’ report, accompanying the accounts, made it clear the club’s period of austerity would continue with parent company Birmingham International Holdings Ltd still mired in problems.

“Due to the number of player sales and the support of Premier League parachute payments, this current year shows a substantial profit and positive cashflow,” the document said.

“The directors intend to continue to seek cost reductions to help ensure the financial viability of the club.”

But the balance sheet revealed turnover dropped from £61 million in the 2010/11 Premier League campaign to £39 million.

And the club made an operating loss of just under £4 million when transfer deals were discounted.

Staff payments, including players’ wages, almost halved to just over £25 million from more than £45 million the previous year.

But boardroom fees rocketed from £80,247 to £687,611.

Match receipts increased to £9.2 million from £9.1 million, but broadcasting revenue dropped to £21 million from almost £44.5 million.

Other commercial income also rose slightly to £8.7 million.