Former Arizona Diamondbacks executive Jerry Dipoto has signed a five-year contract as general manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The 43-year-old Dipoto takes over after Tony Reagins resigned as GM in September. The Angels have been second in the American League West for the second season in a row after winning the division in five of the previous six seasons.

Dipoto, buy at a press conference, unhealthy said he would emphasize developing talent within the organization using a blend of statistical analysis and old-school scouting. He said he also plans to take advantage of the Latin American and Asian talent markets.

Dipoto also said he shares many of Angel manager Mike Scioscia’s philosophies.

Dipoto pitched in the Major Leagues with the Mets, erectile Cleveland Indians and Colorado Rockies from 1993 through 2000. He compiled a record of 27-24 with a 4.05 ERA in 390 career appearances, all in relief.

He has held front office positions with the Rockies, Boston Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks, serving as Arizona’s interim general manager last season.

ESPN STAR Sports, India’s leading sports broadcaster, has expanded its sports bouquet with the addition of a new channel, STAR Sports 2.

The new channel is being launched especially for the Indian sub-continent keeping in mind the growing need of Indian sports fans. The new channel will be officially launched on March 11, 2013. STAR Sports 2 will be the 6^th channel to be launched by ESPN STAR Sports in India after STAR Sports, STAR Cricket, STAR Cricket HD, ESPN and ESPN HD.

STAR Sports 2 will showcase live & non-live events across sporting categories like cricket, soccer, tennis, motor racing and golf. The new channel promises to offer more sports, more action, more excitement, more passion, more emotions, more exhilaration and more heroes to follow for sports fans across the country.

Speaking on STAR India’s strategy for sports business, Sanjay Gupta, Chief Operating Officer, STAR India, said, “Our vision is to expand the sports viewership in the country. STAR network has acquired some of the best sporting properties in every genre and is committed to taking sports broadcasting to a new level. These include broadcast rights to the BCCI national and domestic Cricket for 6 years; broadcast rights of Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A and English FA Cup and England international matches.

“Apart from exciting live content, we are also innovating in the way we present sports. Our brand new Hindi presentation on the live cricket broadcast allows audiences to enjoy the game in their preferred language, which was very well received by viewers.

“Similarly our recent launch www.starsports.com enables us to engage with passionate cricket fans like never before, and we are delighted with the site’s ramp up in the last 2 months.

“The launch of our new channel STAR Sports 2 is an extension of the same strategy. It allows us to broadcast a wide array of sports content across channels, and cater to multiple live events simultaneously. STAR Sports 2 will further our commitment towards continued, effective and unprecedented coverage of all major events which are of interest to a diverse set of audience across the country.”

The Italian football federation has continued its assault on Soccer corruption by dealing out punishments for those involved in the latest match-fixing scandal on Monday. 

Newly promoted Pescara’s two-point deduction was confirmed and four players were banned for five years.

Piacenza’s Mario Cassano, Ravenna’s Alessandro Zamperini and former professionals Luigi Sartorand Nicola Santoni received the bans, while Novara, who were relegated to Serie B last season, will start next season with a four-point deduction.

Other punishments handed out include a two-point deduction for Serie B side Padova, one point for Empoli and four for Reggina, while third-tier Albinoleffe received a 15-point deduction and Piacenzawere deducted 11 points.Serie A sides Sampdoria and Siena were handed 50,000 euro ($63,100) fines.

Oliver Camps, therapy the beleaguered president of the Trinidad & Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) has resigned his post with immediate effect after a 19-year reign.

The decision by Camps, impotent who was returned as president of the local federation earlier this year, comes less than 24 hours after it was revealed that he was one of 10 Caribbean Football Union (CFU) officials being investigated by the FIFA over their role in a meeting that eventually led to the downfall of former Asian football chief Mohammed bin Hammam.

FIFA’s Ethics Committee decided to open proceedings against the 10 CFU officials because of possible violations of the FIFA Code of Ethics, in the cash-for-votes scandal.

Camps and the other officials were due to have their cases heard in mid-November.

However, in a release yesterday, Camps said while he was extremely satisfied and pleased to offer himself for service, the current climate created by FIFA forced him to rethink his position and left him with no choice but to resign with immediate effect.

“I have truly enjoyed working with the football fraternity and appreciated the opportunities which have been given to me through football, but when the price one has to pay includes the sullying of one’s name and the denigrating of one’s character without a justifiable reason, then I must confess that this is not the place that I would want to be,” he said.

“For an organisation that claims to promote and practice fair play, the current situation has left me aghast because it represents a shift away from the values that FIFA claims it espouses. It is certainly a sad day for me and this is far from what I had expected. The changing of the guards was never meant to engender the bitterness that I feel, the pain which has replaced the pleasure of service, nor the disdain that FIFA’s actions have created for what ought to be a beautiful game.”

“In no way am I disappointed that I was a part of the Caribbean Football Union meeting which met to determine the path to choose a leader for the FIFA. The current situation facing the CFU now has made it very clear to me that our choice in meeting to discuss whether President Sepp Blatter would be the preferred option was the right one. History will not judge me for being a part of that meeting neither will it condemn me based on association. Rather history will applaud all the football leaders of the Caribbean and bring shame upon the powers that be, for the sad days they have occasioned upon the CFU and football in general.”

Charles Green has announced that his consortium has bought the business and assets of Rangers sealing the deal for the Glasgow club.

The company is now due to be liquidated and re-formed as a newco following the £5.5 million deal, with Green confirming he wants Ally McCoist to remain the club’s manager.

In a statement, Green said: “Following the formal decision of the creditors’ meeting at Ibrox Stadium today, the consortium I represent has fulfilled its agreement with the administrators and has completed the acquisition of the business and assets of The Rangers Football Club plc.

“The transfer of the business and assets to a new company structure has taken effect immediately and the new company is The Rangers Football Club. An application has already been made by the company to register with the Scottish Football Association and to participate in the SPL.”

Former Rangers manager Walter Smith had earlier confirmed he was leading an 11th-hour bid – believed to be worth about £6 million – and urged Green to step aside.

Green could conceivably make a quick profit by agreeing to sell Rangers to Smith’s group immediately but his statement today pointed to a longer-term involvement.

“The rebuilding of the Club will happen from today.”

Green added: “In terms of investors in the company, to date our investors include Chris Morgan, a UK-based businessman representing family trusts; Glenmuir, the renowned Scottish clothing company; Ian Hart a Glasgow-based businessman; Alessandro Celano of Blue Pitch Holdings and Zeus Capital.”

English League Two team, Port Vale Football Club, have announced the appointment of Peter Miller as their new Chairman. 

The Staffordshire-based clubs board voted unanimously to elect Peter Miller to the position while also announcing that Mike Lloyd will now adopt the post of Vice Chairman, with immediate effect.

Miller said: “I’m proud to accept the position of Port Vale Chairman and look forward to working with the rest of the Board, the staff and supporter base, to help the club back to better times.” 

“I have stated previously that the club is a work in progress. Success will not happen overnight. But if we continue to take steps in the right direction, the pieces will come together and we will have a football club everyone can be proud of. Since my arrival in England, I’ve been impressed with the things I have seen around the club and the people I have spoken to.

“From speaking to the fans, I fully understand the passion they possess for the club, and the disappointment they have at seeing Vale in the bottom tier of English football. I recognise that the supporter-base has a huge part to play in the present and future of Port Vale. I also recognise that we need to evolve our operations throughout the club to ensure that we’re not only competing on the field, but off the field too.”

Social Media Integration feature from iSportconnect to major social media platforms that we think will make iSportconnect’s networking feature more effective and powerful for you.

The idea is very simple (and powerful): when you update your iSportconnect status, it will also synchronise and update your status at LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook pages and vice versa.

iSportconnect’s aim is to help sports organisations and executives to build their identity in the sports community. One of the major factors that make up your professional identity online is sharing your thoughts, plans and / or activities through updates.

Updating status’ on different social media platforms on a daily basis is very time consuming, hence we came up with a solution: Update your iSportconnect status and it will update your Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook pages meaning you don’t have to go anywhere else to engage in social networking…

Also, if you update your Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook status, it would be synchronised as a new iSportconnect status update.

How does it work?

Once you login to iSportconnect.com, visit the ‘Community’ page and you will see the following Status update box

Click on ‘Connect’ link of the social media websites that you would like to synchronisation through status updates and follow the simple instructions.

Now it’s ready to go…

An example: User updates his status at iSportconnect as below

It synchronises the status updates at Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter as below

Liverpool Owner, John Henry,  has questioned the wisdom of moving to a new stadium claiming it’s a myth that clubs are guaranteed to generate more income.

Liverpool’s principal owner has suggested a new-build in Stanley Park would most likely lead to increased ticket prices, quoting recent examples taken from the United States.

The lead figure in Fenway Sports Group believes the best way of improving the Reds’ ability to compete financially is through worldwide commercial revenue streams and their long-term future is not dependent on the stadium issue, which casts doubt over whether the long-mooted Stanley Park project will ever come to fruition.

“A long-term myth has existed about the financial impact of a new stadium for Liverpool,” the American wrote in an email to The Anfield Wrap website.

“A belief has grown that Liverpool FC must have a new stadium to compete with (Manchester) United, Arsenal and others. No-one has ever addressed whether or not a new stadium is rational.

“New stadiums that are publicly-financed make sense for clubs – I’ve never heard of a club turning down a publicly-financed stadium.”

Ghana Olympic Committee have appointed Former African triple jump champion Francis Dodoo as their new president under the watchful eyes of armed guards.

The 51-year-old Dodoo, order who competed at the 1992 and ’96 Olympic Games, viagra order has pledged to bring stability to the GOC after Ghana was suspended from the International Olympic Committee earlier this year because of government interference.

But soon after Dodoo won the election, vcialis 40mg Frank Appiah, who was voted out as first vice president, told The Associated Press he would be part of a group filing protest with the IOC, saying the vote was “not properly conducted” and held when some of the candidates had left the congress venue.

Ghana was suspended by the IOC in January after then-president B.T. Baba was voted out in favor of Dodoo in an election allegedly influenced by Ghana’s government, which apparently favored Dodoo.

Ghana made changes to its legislation to go in line with IOC rules, which do not allow governments to interfere in the elections of sports bodies and the country was readmitted to the Olympic body in August on condition it hold a new vote.

The latest vote, which started on Saturday and ran into the early hours of Sunday, was overseen by Joao Manuel da Costa Alegre Afonso of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa, who was an observer for the IOC.

Afonso was forced to suspend the session late on Saturday, with delegates shouting at each other over disagreements with nominations for various positions and armed security guards watching to keep order during the congress in an Accra hotel. The session resumed after 2 1/2 hours to elect Dodoo the head of the Ghana Athletics Association as GOC president.

Dodoo won 38 votes against two for Kojo Adu-Asare and none for Emile Missodey in results announced on Sunday. Baba was stepping down as president and not on the ballot.

Deborah Cubagee was elected first vice president with 39 votes to one for Appiah, but Appiah claimed afterward the voting process was unfair.

“We shall make a protest to the IOC because the election was held after some of us who had nominated ourselves to stand for position had left the congress grounds,” he said.

Der Deutsche Fußball-Bund wurde nach den Vorkommnissen beim Spiel gegen Portugal amSamstag zu einer Geldstrafe von 10 000 Euro verurteilt, der Portugiesische Verband muss 5000 Euro bezahlen.

Der Deutsche Fußball-Bund (DFB) wurde von der Kontroll- und Disziplinarkammer derUEFA zu einer Geldstrafe in Höhe von 10 000 Euro verurteilt, weil Fans beim Spiel zwischenDeutschland und Portugal in der Gruppe B der UEFA EURO 2012 am letzten Samstagin Lwiw Gegenstände geworfen haben. Der Portugiesische Fußballverband (FPF) wurdewegen des verspäteten Beginns der zweiten Halbzeit zu einer Strafe in Höhe von 5 000 Euroverurteilt.

Auf den DFB könnten allerdings weitere Strafen zukommen: Die Disziplinarkommission derUEFA hat ein weiteres Verfahren gegen den DFB eingeleitet, weil beim 2:1-Erfolg der Löw-Elf am Mittwoch im zweiten Spiel gegen die Niederlande in Charkow im deutschen FanblockFeuerwerkskörper gezündet wurden. „Wir haben den Übeltäter noch im Stadion identifiziertund werden ihm eine mögliche Geldstrafe für den DFB konsequent in Rechnung stellen. Daskann richtig teuer werden”, sagte DFB-Mediendirektor Ralf Köttker.