Major League Soccer and USL PRO announced today a groundbreaking, arthritis multi-year partnership that will enhance the development of professional soccer players in North America, drugs strengthen the competition in both leagues, allergy and establish a solid foundation for future collaboration. 

For 2013, the partnership will include interleague play between USL PRO and MLS Reserve League teams, and the establishment of several exclusive team affiliations.  These initial programs will immediately improve professional player development in the United States and Canada. Additional technical and commercial initiatives between the two leagues will be announced as they are finalized in the coming months.

 “This partnership represents the first step in a long-term alliance between MLS and USL PRO to connect domestic professional soccer through a system that benefits player development, competition and the overall business of our sport ,” MLS Executive Vice President of Player Relations & Competition Todd Durbin said.  “Over the past several years, USL PRO has made great strides in restructuring their league in a manner that serves to complement the objectives of MLS.  This is a win-win for all involved, and it demonstrates our strong commitment to growing North American professional soccer at all levels.”

Each club affiliation will be customized to meet the needs of the respective teams, but all will include at least four players on long-term loan from the MLS parent club to its USL PRO affiliate.  Those MLS teams with formal USL PRO affiliates will not participate in the 2013 MLS Reserve League.  Neither MLS nor USL PRO clubs are required to enter into an affiliation, and specific affiliations will be announced in the coming days. 

Each of the 13 USL PRO teams will compete in two interleague games against MLS Reserve teams.  With the exception of Antigua, which will play both of its games at MLS Reserve teams, USL PRO teams have been paired with a single MLS team to play a home and home series.  All interleague games will count in both the official USL PRO and MLS Reserve League standings.  Details of the fixtures will be announced in conjunction with the forthcoming release of the official 2013 USL PRO schedule. 

“USL PRO has for the past several years been the most sophisticated and competitive professional soccer league under MLS,” USL CEO Alec Papadakis said. “This new partnership with MLS will elevate and strengthen the level of competition for domestic professional soccer while simultaneously creating a more sustainable financial model for team owners. As a result, we expect this partnership will forge a seamless system for the development of players and coaches, and promote the expansion of professional soccer into new North American markets.”

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) have appointed Nazmul Hasan Papon, son of the country’s president as their new president. 

This follows the current president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) A.H.M. Mustafa Kamal recently being nominated as the International Cricket Council (ICC) vice-president. He had to relinquish his role at the BCB to accept the position.

Kamal recently wrote to NSC chairman Sarker, who is also state minister for Bangladesh’s youth and sports, requesting him to appoint a new president of the BCB so he could hand over his responsibilities as chief of the apex cricket authority. 

Bangladesh’s Youth and Sports Ministry Secretary Mahbub Ahmed confirmed to Xinhua the appointment of Papon as the 14th president of the BCB. 

Also the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has sold the worldwide broadcasting rights for the home series against West Indies to Virgo Media Ltd.

The outgoing BCB president Mustafa Kamal said Virgo, the owners of Channel 9 in Bangladesh, will produce the matches. “Channel 9 will handle the production and the board will be paid $50,000 dollars for the sale of the rights,” Kamal said. “We received a few other offers but this seemed like the most profitable deal.” 

Soccerex has announced Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) will be hosting a special workshop titled ‘Sport and Foreign Affairs: The Softpower of Nations and the Megaevents’ at the Soccerex Global Convention, ambulance Rio de Janeiro, 24-28, November.

The workshop will feature a range of influential speakers including Ministra Vera Cintia Alvarez ,Head of the General Coordination of Exchanges of Sport Cooperation, Stavros P. Xanthopoylos, Executive Director of FGV Online, Ricardo Trade, Executive Director of Operations of the Brazil 2014 LOC and Luís Antônio Paulino National Secretary of Football.

FGV Online, the Distance Learning division of the GetulioVargas Foundation, fuses state of the art technology with the FGV knowledge tradition and its renowned quality standards. It develops and delivers continuing education projects incorporating e-learning solutions, videoconferencing, satellite TV and webcasting an blended solutions – all designed to meet the expectation and needs of professionals and corporate clients.

The session will look at the successes and failures of previous ‘megaevents’ such as Olympic Games in Barcelona, Atlanta, Athens and the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games. In particular the ‘megaevent’ legacies, or lack of, such as urban transformation, economic strategy and overall national delivery strategy. The main focus of the session will be to look at the ‘Softpower’ of host nations with a spotlight on Brazil and the transfer of their success in football into success in governmental international relations.

Commenting on the FGV Online workshop, Soccerex Sponsorship and Commercial Partnerships Director, Paul Brighten said “It is great to see an institution with such an excellent reputation as FGV Online taking a leading role in the Soccerex Global Convention. They have brought together a good group of speakers and this should be an extremely educational and relevant session.”

The Conference kicks off on Monday 26th November where Brazilian Minister of Sport, Aldo Rebelo will be among the dignitaries in the opening ceremony. A packed international exhibition and a programme of networking and social events complete the schedule for what is widely acknowledged as the world’s leading football business event.

The Sacramento Kings have announced a new broadcast agreement with Comcast SportsNet California.

Comcast will air 70 of the team’s 82 games during the 2013-14 regular season. This year marks the 10th consecutive season that CSNCA has served as the Kings primary broadcast partner.

The Kings commitment to providing the best TV experience continues with production of Kings games by the organization’s 10-time Emmy Award-winning broadcast team, including all telecasts produced in High Definition (HD).

“Comcast SportsNet is committed to providing the region’s most comprehensive Kings coverage through this 70-game telecast schedule along with season-long news and analysis on SportsNet Central and Yahoo! SportsTalk Live,” said Ted Griggs, President of Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and Comcast SportsNet California. “Vivek Ranadivé and his executive team have done a terrific job in assembling one of the most dynamic franchises in the NBA. General Manager Pete D’Alessandro and Head Coach Michael Malone have a tremendous roster of players to work with and we are confident that the Kings will provide their passionate and loyal fans with a playoff-caliber season.”

“Our continued partnership with Comcast SportsNet California will once again allow us to provide excellent coverage and serve the most Kings fans possible on television,” said Kings President Chris Granger. “This season is the debut of a new era for Kings basketball in Sacramento, and we’re excited to collaborate with Comcast to share a variety of compelling storylines associated with this team.”

The Volvo Ocean Race has appointed Australian Nick Bice, shore manager for Team Sanya in the 2011-12 edition, to manage its Yacht Maintenance Centre which will oversee shared services for teams competing in the new one-design boat in the 2014-15 race.

Bice, 34, has sailed in two Volvo Ocean Race campaigns and been involved on the shore side in two others. 

His involvement with the world’s leading offshore sailing event goes back to 2001-02, when he was a boat builder with the Amer Sports campaign. He then raced with ABN AMRO TWO in 2005-06 and Delta Lloyd in 2008-09 before joining Team Sanya as shore manager during the past edition. 

His fifth race will see him take on the key role of Yacht Maintenance Centre Manager for 2014-15, the first edition to be contested by the new 65-foot one-design boats designed by Farr Yacht Design and built by a four-boatyard consortium – Green Marine (United Kingdom), Persico (Italy), Multiplast (France) and Decision (Switzerland).

“The new one-design concept extends a lot further than the boat,” Bice explained. “We’re setting up a Shared Services Centre, even to the extent that all the bases are going to look exactly the same. So we’re not only turning the boats into one-design: we’re hopefully turning every element of the race into a one-design race.

“I’ll be helping out all the suppliers and supplying the service to the teams to make sure their boats are 100 percent not only for the race but also at the stopovers.”

Volvo Ocean Race Chief Operating Officer Tom Touber believes Bice has all the skills and experience needed for the job. 

“With his background both as a sailor being involved in the race twice as well as shore manager/boat captain, he has exactly the experience to run this important part of the next race,” said Touber. 

“Personally I have very positive experience with Nick in both in the challenging two-boat campaign with ABN AMRO, where he was intensively involved from the day we built the boats to the moment we won the race.” 

That opinion is shared by Green Marine Managing Director Marcel Müller. 

“It’s fantastic to have Nick on board,” said Müller. “He comes in with a vast amount of experience in both sailing and fixing the boats. He is trusted by all the teams and sailors and for our consortium of boatyards. It’s another important milestone defining the Service Centre. Having a strong partner in there like Nick will add to the success of this boat.”

The switch to the new 65-foot one-design boat makes it simpler – and cheaper – for teams to enter in 2014-15 and the shared services concept is a key part of that. 

“All the teams will still have a shore crew but there will be no need for the teams to have an excess of shore crew,” the Australian said. 

“Doing this also reduces the cost of an overall team budget. You don’t need 15 or 20 shore crew on your books for the length of the race, which when you add up all the logistics, the flights and all the wages, is a big chunk of the budget.” 

Bice added: “From a sailing point of view, some of the best racing I’ve ever done has been on one-design boats. That makes it very exciting. It basically means everything is left to what we do out on the water.”

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ESPN have expanded their agreement with ATP World Tour in a new long-term deal.

The Disney owned company have extended their coverage of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells Sony Open Tennis in Miami; and the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals currently played in London.

More than 44 hours will be aired, drug including, pills for the first time, impotent both the women’s and men’s championships from the South Florida event.  Also, more live action from every ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and 500 tournament will be on ESPN3 – totaling up to 1,200 hours annually.

“ESPN is thrilled to expand coverage of three of the biggest events outside the Major Championships – Indian Wells, Miami and the ATP World Tour season finale,” said Jason Bernstein, ESPN senior director, programming & acquisitions who oversees both ESPN3 and ESPN’s tennis business.  “ESPN3 presents more live tennis action than any other U.S. outlet year-round, with multiple simultaneous matches available on broadband and via WatchESPN no matter where you are.”

Mark Young, CEO ATP Americas and Chief Media Officer, said, “We’re delighted to sign this extended agreement with ESPN, paving the way for even greater TV coverage and viewership in the US of our biggest events.  ESPN is a terrific broadcast partner for the ATP and, with more fans tuning into ATP World Tour events than ever before, it’s a very exciting time to be a part of the Tour.”

Barclays has renewed its sponsorship of pre-season football tournament, medic the Asia Trophy, anabolics which will take place in Hong Kong in July.

The deal marks the fourth time Barclays has been naming rights sponsor of the tournament. Local side South China FC will compete with Sunderland AFC and two other English Premier League clubs, possibly Manchester City FC and Tottenham Hotspur.

The previous editions of the tournament were played in Kuala Lumpur (2003), Bangkok (2005), Hong Kong (2007 and 2011) and Beijing (2009).

Other sponsors include Nike, EA Sports, Carlsberg, Etihad Airways, Abu Dhabi Tourism and Now TV.{jcomments on}

Paul Brazeau, medstore NBA Vice President of Basketball Operations since 2001, denture has been named Senior Associate Commissioner for Men’s Basketball at The Big East Conference

who has been NBA Vice President of Basketball Operations since 2001 and has nearly two decades of college basketball experience, has been named Senior Associate Commissioner for Men’s Basketball at The Big East Conference, Commissioner Mike Aresco announced. 

For the last 10 years, Brazeau has been part of the group that has overseen NBA game operations, scheduling, player rules, conduct and discipline.  He worked closely with the league’s general managers, head coaches and national office personnel regarding policy issues.  Brazeau has directed a staff of 30 league observers and five staff direct reports. 

Brazeau also has extensive experience in college basketball.  He was the head coach at the University of Hartford for eight seasons (1992-2000) and served five-year terms as an assistant coach at Ohio State (1987-92) and Boston College (1982-87).  Ohio State and Boston College earned five NCAA invitations and three NIT berths during that period.  He served on the staffs of Jim O’Brien, Gary Williams and Randy Ayers. 

“TheBig East is very excited to have Paul Brazeau join the conference as our Senior Associate Commissioner for Men’s Basketball,” said Aresco.  “He has been one of the NBA’s top administrators for the past decade and we’re pleased he has decided to join the Big East.  Paul has outstanding credentials.  He knows how to deal with many different constituencies and has been a college head coach and assistant coach for almost 20 years.  I know our athletic directors and our coaches are going to enjoy working with him.” 

“The Big East has been the premier college basketball conference for over 30 years and it is poised to continue its high level of championship play into the future,” said Brazeau.  “I am looking forward to working with the student-athletes, coaches and athletic department administrators of these great institutions as we build on the Big East’s excellence.” 

At the Big East, Brazeau will be the lead administrator and contact for men’s basketball.  He will represent the conference in overall administration, management and control of the men’s basketball programs.  He will serve as the conference’s liaison with Madison Square Garden, home of The Big East Championship.  Brazeau also will work with all internal basketball constituencies, including institutional administrators, coaching staffs and game officials. 

In addition, Brazeau will help develop and cultivate relationships with television and sponsor partners.  He will assist with basketball television and scheduling issues. 

A native of North Adams, Mass., Brazeau earned an undergraduate degree in economics from Boston College in 1981.  He earned a master’s degree in business administration from Boston College in 1988.