Glasgow 2014 have hired London 2012 client service director Ty Speer as its Deputy Chief Executive, health following the end of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The 46 year-old American will head the £100 million ($162 million) commercial programme for the Commonwealth Games, erectile making it the largest event ever to be staged in Scotland.

The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games have a budget of £524 million ($850 million), of which the Organising Committee will have to raise a fifth of the pot through commercial revenues.

For Speers, it is a return to familiar grounds, having worked for Melbourne 2006 as its General Manager of Sales and Commercial.

Following his stint at Melbourne, he joined the London 2012 Organising Committee in August, 2007, making him one of the longest serving members of the team.

His responsibilities included leading all client partnerships with 55 sponsors and constant communication with the British Olympic Association, the British Paralympic Association, and various public sector partners, such as Greater London Authority, Visit London and UK Sport.

Also, his roles over the past 18 months include ensuring a smooth integration of the London 2012 commerical programme into the general Games delivery operation.

Glasgow 2014 Chief Executive, David Grevemberg, said: “Glasgow 2014 will be a world-class sporting and cultural celebration full of opportunities for Scotland and I am delighted to welcome Ty as part of our winning team,” said Grevemberg.

“Ty brings with him a wealth of delivering experience at the highest levels of international sporting events.

“His knowledge, experience and leadership will all be great assets to the Organising Committee in delivering on our ambitions of an outstanding Commonwealth Games for Glasgow and for Scotland.”

Speer said: “Glasgow 2014 is a dynamic and exciting opportunity for Scotland and I am thrilled to be part of what will be a great success story for the city and for Scotland

“I look forward to maximising all opportunities to deliver an outstanding sporting and cultural celebration of which Scotland can be proud.”

Chris Townsend, the Commercial Director of London 2012, said:  “Ty has made a valuable contribution to the overall success of the London 2012 commercial programme, both in generating income, and in providing delivery leadership for our Commercial Partners

“I am sure he will commit himself to the success of Glasgow 2014.”

Scottish Premier League team, Hearts have agreed a resolution with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in a dispute over tax and national insurance contributions.

Hearts will pay £1.5m over a three-year period, with the deal separate to the settlement of a £450,000 bill on Monday which staved off the threat of a winding-up order.

The SPL club had been in dispute with the tax authorities regarding the treatment of players loaned to Lithuanian club Kaunas.

In a statement on the club’s official website, Hearts director Sergejus Fedotovas said: “We are satisfied that this resolution provides the club with an opportunity to now move forward with certainty.

“We believe that the payment terms agreed with HMRC allow the club to manage repayments in a way that will not be detrimental to longer-term development of the club.”

Derby County have appointed Sam Rush as the club’s new President, replacing the departed Tom Glick, who left to join Premier League champions Manchester City earlier this year.

With 15 years’ experience in the sports business industry, Rush said he was ‘honoured’ to be taking the reins at the Midlands club.

He said: “Derby are seen as an innovative club and I look forward to delivering some of the exciting plans in place, and some of my own.”

Rush, a former rugby union player for Saracens, currently leading football operations at global sports and entertainment agency the Wasserman Group (WMG), will take up the position on January 1, 2013.

He added: “It has been a tough decision to leave Wasserman Media Group and I thank Casey Wasserman and his team for their support over the past six years.

“The opportunity to work at Derby, at this exciting period in their history, was one though I could not turn down.

“I look forward to working with Nigel Clough and the rest of the staff. In due course I also intend to move up to Derby with my own family and look forward to sharing in future successes with the rest of the Rams supporters.”

Derby County Chairman Andy Appleby said: “Sam’s experiences at the forefront of the sports business industry, plus his global football connections, mean he will come to Derby well prepared to tackle the next stage of the club’s development.

“We have been looking for a strong candidate who could work effectively with the ownership group, plus the strong management and executive team already in place at Pride Park.

“Sam fits the description perfectly and I am delighted that somebody of his calibre has agreed to join.”

Soccerex, here the global leader for the business of football, capsule has launched a Fantasy League game for the 2012 UEFA European Championships. The game, powered by Fantasy League Ltd, is free to play and will allow people from across the industry to test their skills against friends and colleagues during the tournament (8^th June – 1^st July).

There is added incentive to play the Soccerex Euro 2012 Fantasy League game with Soccerex offering a range of prizes including signed football shirts, an ipad2 and, for the winner, a VIP trip for two to Rio de Janeiro for the Soccerex Global Convention 2012.

The game is live now at http://soccerex.fantasyleague.com. You have until 18.00 BST on 8^th June to submit your team, with unlimited team changes available until this date. For full details of game regulations and prizes please go to http://soccerex.fantasyleague.com.

Commenting on the game’s launch, David Wright, Marketing Director, Soccerex, said:

“The football industry will be focusing on events in Poland and Ukraine this summer and our game will give our clients a light-hearted way to engage with each other around the tournament. Whether you are playing to win the trip to Rio, to beat your colleagues or just for the fun of it, there is something it for everyone involved in football.”

Richard King, Commercial Director, Fantasy League added:

“We are delighted to partner with Soccerex and run a Fantasy League for their audience during Euro 2012. We wish all the entrants the very best of luck in winning a fantastic trip to Rio for the Soccerex Global Convention 2012!”

The 2014 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup will be hosted in the Maldives, here the AFC competitions committee announced on Wednesday.

India, advice which was among four countries that had submitted bids, remedy was not considered since it had already hosted the tournament in 2008.

India was interested in hosting the tournament as the winner would have earned direct qualification to the Asian Cup 2015 in Australia.

The committee also approved DPR Korea’s exclusion from future AFC Challenge Cups and maintain automatic qualification for top three teams from the 2015 edition in the next edition.

Taking into consideration the views of AFC Technical Committee, the members decided to maintain a format of festival for U-14 age group rather than organising AFC U-14 Championship.

Olympic medallist Rebecca Adlington has been announced as an ambassador for the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

Adlington said: “It’s a privilege to be involved as an ambassador for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and I’m thrilled to be able to voice my support to the next major sporting event coming to the UK.

“The huge success of London 2012 will only increase the excitement and interest towards the Games and I can’t wait to be part of the journey to 2014.”

She will be involved held in event in Glasgow on Thursday at which the official Games mascot will be launched.

Lord Smith, chairman of Glasgow 2014, said: “Rebecca is Great Britain’s greatest ever swimmer and she is such a well-known personality across the sporting spectrum.

“Alongside Sir Chris, Rebecca will promote the Games and help ensure as many people as possible make the most of Scotland’s largest ever sporting and cultural event.”{jcomments on}

TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE

2,000 BMX riders descend upon Birmingham this week to take part in the UCI BMX World Championships at the National Indoor Arena (NIA) from May 24^th-27^th.  The event will showcase four days of exhilarating, adrenaline fuelled BMX Racing, with Olympic GB hopefuls Shanaze Reade and Liam Phillips competing in their last event before the London 2012 Olympics.  Tickets are still available at www.bmxworldchamps.com to watch them in action.

A BMX Racing track is being built from scratch in the NIA in just one week, building dirt jumps and trails to replicate an outside BMX track, with capacity to seat an audience of over 4,000 on each of the four days of racing.  Over 8,000 pallets and 3,000 tonnes of dirt have been sourced to construct the track from local suppliers.

The event has two different standards of rider competing, including an elite racing ‘Championships’ competition and the amateur ‘Challenge’ class.  Whilst tickets can be bought across the whole Championships, the organisers have packed most of the finals into two showcase nights of racing and entertainment including music from international DJ Christian Stevenson. ‘Challenge’ class finals and elite time trials will be the focal point of the Friday evening, whilst Saturday night will see the Elite Championship finals, where the world’s best riders will race elbow to elbow for the honour of wearing the rainbow stripes of World Champion for the next 12 months.

Three times winner of the UCI BMX World Championships Shanaze Reade said, “I’m really looking forward to competing in Birmingham in a few weeks. It’s fantastic that Birmingham is hosting the World Championships and taking another World Championships title would be great preparation before the Olympics. I’m really excited about competing in my home country at major competitions twice this year.”

Steve Hollingworth, Assistant Director of Sport & Events at Birmingham City Council said, “In what is a huge year for the sport of BMX, hosting the BMX World Championships is yet another major event to further enhance Birmingham’s reputation as a World Class Sporting City. The sport of BMX is rapidly growing in popularity in the city and the legacy of the BMX World Championships can be appreciated with the newly built Birmingham BMX Track at Perry Park which opened last year.”

Jonny Clay, Event Director for the UCI BMX World Championships said, “The 2012 BMX World Championships is the latest in a string of major events that British Cycling has successfully bid for in recent years. We can already see the legacy of the event here in Birmingham with the creation of the new International BMX facility at Perry Park.  It’s really exciting that the World Championships are in Birmingham this year, only months before the Olympics.”

or follow @BMXWorlds on Twitter

 

Michael Roche, medical the Executive of Singapore GP, recipe the promoter of the Formula One race in the country, says that despite incredible success, the circuit can do much to improve itself.

Speaking exclusively to iSportconnect, Roche said that the track cannot afford to stand still in today’s environment. “There are so many areas we can improve and we try and cover every touch point; how our website looks, how our ticketing website and how you book a ticket, when you get the confirmation of a ticket and then when you receive the ticket’s in beautiful packaging, so the whole experience must follow through to when you get to the circuit,” he said.

Following on from that point, Roche said: “You can always improve and you must improve because what you did five years ago is now passé. If all you do is deliver what you did before, people will say it’s not as good, as perception is “oh, I already been to that.”

“So, all the time you have to sharpen your pencil and look at all areas and see how you can innovate, how you can make it different and how you can put a spin on it.”