ITV received the highest audience figures this year for their coverage of England’s 1-1 draw with France.

The press might be playing down England’s chances at Euro 2012, but that didn’t stop the punters knocking off work early to tune in to the team’s first game of the tournament.An average audience of 12.3 million viewers watched 90 minutes of England’s 1-1 draw with France on ITV, with the full broadcast drawing an impressive 8.9 million viewers (47% share) between 4pm and 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITV1 HD.

Viewing peaked in the final five minutes of the game as 15.3 million Englishmen, women and children collectively teetered on the edge of their seats as their team clung on for a point in Donetsk.

It was ITV’s highest peak audience of the year so far, with more than three million of that number watching in high definition on ITV1 HD.

Unsurprisingly, both the peak and average audiences for the game were higher than any ITV coverage of Euro 2008 – a tournament that England did not take part in.

And the fans weren’t just watching on television. ITV have reported almost 250,000 simultaneous live streams of the England game via its website, with more than 425,000 unique visitors to its sport website throughout yesterday.

BBC1 also enjoyed good sporting numbers last night: an average audience of 5.3 million (22% share) kept an eye on England’s group D opponents as Ukraine took on Sweden between 7pm and 10pm.

Great Britain’s Davis Cup captain Leon Smith has been given additional roles by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), now becoming head of men’s and women’s tennis, and also retains his Davis Cup post.

He was already in charge of men’s tennis since 2010. Smith takes over as head of women’s tennis at the LTA following Nigel Sears’ recent departure to become coach of Serbian former world number one, Ana Ivanovic.

Smith told BBC Sport that he would not be setting any bold targets for his tenure.

The LTA has been criticised in the past for setting targets such as how many players it expected to have in the top 100 on a certain date. 

However, Smith did reiterate: “What I’ve learned is not to give targets. We’ve done that before – it’s not the way to go. If we focus on the process, these could be exciting times.”

Currently, Andy Murray is the only men’s British player in the ATP top 100, while Elena Baltacha, Heather Watson and Anne Keothavong are in the WTA top 100.

The shake-up of the look of the LTA’s Performance team now means that Smith will be working alongside a number of coaches – not necessarily known outside of tennis, ending LTA CEO Roger Draper’s experiment with big-name coaches on large contracts.

But the new head of men’s and women’s tennis denied that the experiment was a failure.

Smith added: “I don’t know if it’s a U-turn but it’s certainly good to see young British coaches given opportunities to work at the top end of the game. A lot of people say it was a waste of money but I totally disagree, absolutely not. The results might not have been there but those ‘big names’ contributed to what we’re seeing today.”

Former British number one Greg Rusedski has also agreed a new four-year deal, after guiding Great Britain to their first Junior Davis Cup title.

Neo Sports Broadcast has acquired the broadcast rights to showcase all domestic and international cricket played in New Zealand until 2020.

The seven-year deal includes 261 days of live cricket including 18 T20s, 63 ODIs and 36 Tests and includes rights for all of Asia excluding Middle East.

The broadcast rights for New Zealand were earlier held by Multi Screen Media (formerly Sony Entertainment Television). However, the broadcaster was only willing to renew the property at a favourable price.

Pitch International, New Zealand Cricket’s exclusive international broadcast and sponsorship agents, managed the sales process.

Neo had recently secured the broadcast rights for the Asia Cup. This deal ensures a consistent presence of cricket on the Neo network for the rest of the decade.

The seven year rights cycle will involve two India tours in 2014 and 2019. It also includes a Trans-Tasman rivalry double header with Australia in 2016 and 2018 and England being hosted thrice in 2013, 2018 and 2020.

New Zealand Cricket CEO David White said: “Neo are market leaders in cricket broadcasting in the Indian sub-continent and we are delighted to have established a direct relationship with them for the next seven years.”

Neo Sports Broadcast COO Prasana Krishnan added: “We are thrilled to partner with New Zealand Cricket and to have the opportunity to showcase New Zealand Cricket on our channels for the next 7 years. New Zealand has been the venue for some stellar cricket and memorable performances and we look forward to showcasing more of these in the years to come.”

The hiring of Walter De Gregorio as the new Director of Communications & Public Affairs has led FIFA to make more personnel changes to their Communications Division.

Nicolas Maingot, 41, has been appointed Deputy Director. Pekka Odriozola, 36, has been promoted to Head of Media. Both have worked in various positions and on various projects within the FIFA Communications Division in the past.

In addition to that, Bernd Fisa, 40, joined FIFA on 1 October. Fisa was press officer of Michael Schumacher at Ferrari and headed the Austro-Swiss bid for EURO 2008. He will mainly look after the FIFA President’s communications.

Furthermore, Brian Alexander, 54, has come on board as media adviser for the UK. Alexander has plenty of experience in various media outlets and is a former BBC presenter. Over the last twenty years he has also worked for various British newspapers.

To see Gregorio’s appointment news click here

Sportsnet, a Rogers Media company, has announced a five-year agreement with IndyCar for exclusive Canadian multiplatform rights to IZOD IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights events, beginning with the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 24.

Sportsnet will deliver more than 100 hours of racing coverage in 2013 across TV, online and mobile.

Additionally, through Sportsnet’s agreement with TVA Sports, the deal also includes expanded French-language race coverage across the same platforms.

“The IZOD IndyCar Series is the ultimate series in auto racing,” said Navaid Mansuri, vice president of Finance & Sports Programming for Rogers Media. “We are thrilled to partner with INDYCAR for the exclusive Canadian rights for this series and to deliver coverage of these events to Canadian auto racing fans like they’ve never seen. This agreement bolsters Sportsnet’s diverse portfolio of premium sports assets, content and championship events, as well as furthers Rogers’ and Sportsnet’s commitment to investing in sports to drive future growth.”

Sportsnet, launched in 1998, is comprised of the nationally distributed Sportsnet ONE and four regional channels. All are available in high definition.

Football fans buying shirts of their favourite Euro 2012 team could be risking their health, Europe’s consumer watchdog has warned.

The shirts of tournament co-host Poland are so bad they should be banned, said BEUC, the umbrella group representing the EU’s national consumer organisations.

Research into the chemicals used in official team strips in Poland, Spain, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Portugal, showed all nine national shirts contained “worrying” levels of chemicals.

Lead, a heavy metal, was found in the team strip of six of the countries – Spain, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, France and Italy.

In kits from Spain and Germany, lead exceeded the legal level for children’s products and Portuguese and Dutch shirts also contained nickel.

A BEUC statement said: “Host country Poland’s shirt should be banned outright from shops as it contains an organotin compound, used to prevent sweat odour, in higher doses than the legal limit. Organotin can be toxic to the nervous system.”

Another chemical, nonylphenol, which is banned from waste water because of its harmful effect on the environment, was found in Spain and Italy shirts.

BEUC director-general Monique Goyens said: “Football fans pay up to 90 euros (£73) for the shirt of their favourite team. The least they should expect is to have a quality and safe product.

“It is inexplicable that heavy metals are used in mass consumer products. It is clearly foul play by manufacturers to use substances harmful to both people and the environment.

“Our members’ test results are a sad reminder that Europe’s chemicals legislation is unfit for the purpose of banning dangerous substances from consumer products.”

BEUC is now calling for a forthcoming review of current EU chemicals legislation to be used to tighten controls against potentially harmful and toxic “chemical cocktails” in retail goods.

Ms Goyens said a plan to deal with “endocrine-disrupting chemicals” would be an opportunity for the EU to be on the offensive against harmful chemicals.”

FIFA have appointed China’s Zhang Jilong, current acting head of Asian football, to chair next week’s meeting of the London 2012 Olympic football tournament’s Organising Committee.

Jilong’s appointment comes three weeks after Confederation of African Football (CAF) head IssaHayatou, an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, was embarrassingly and mistakenly announced as being given the role instead.

Hayatou is still being investigated by the IOC’s Ethics Commission over allegations that he took backhanders from FIFA’s former marketing partner, ISL.

FIFA blamed a technical error for saying Hayatou was to head its Olympic football body for London 2012.

Zhang took over as acting boss of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) from Mohamed Bin Hammam when he was banned for life over the recent bribery scandal.

His appointment still needs to be certified by FIFA’s Executive Committee on October 20 but that shouldn’t be a problem given that Zhang will sit on the Committee in place of Bin Hammam.

The San Jose Earthquakes have announced a new broadcast partnership with Comcast SportsNet for the second consecutive year.

Comcast SportsNet (CSN) will televise 29 Earthquakes games in 2013 in High Definition. With the five remaining games televised nationally, the Earthquakes will have all of their games on television in 2013 for the second straight year.

In addition to the schedule, the Earthquakes also announced their broadcast team for the 2013 season. Jim Kozimor will return to the play-by-play booth for his fourth season and be joined by color analyst and former Quakes defender Kelly Gray. Dan Dibley will return as the sideline reporter for all home matches and will handle play-by-play duties for away games. Dan is also a sports talk radio host for 95.7 The Game.

“We are thrilled to work with Comcast SportsNet and our national broadcast partners to ensure our fans are able to watch all of our 34 regular season matches in High Definition,” said Earthquakes President Dave Kaval. “Comcast SportsNet has been a tremendous partner over the years and we’re looking forward to having Jim Kozimor, and Kelly Gray back in the booth at Buck Shaw. The club is also excited to have Dan Dibley doing play-by-play for our road games in 2013.”

The Quakes’ telecast schedule begins on Comcast SportsNet California with their home opener against Real Salt Lake on Sunday, March 3 at 7 p.m. PT. Among the marquee games is the Earthquakes’ June 29 match against the LA Galaxy at Stanford Stadium, presented by XFINITY. That match drew a capacity crowd of 50,391 for a thrilling 4-3 comeback win for San Jose in 2012.

San Jose will appear on Comcast SportsNet California 22 times with two games on CSN Bay Area and four on CSN Plus. Four of those matches will also be broadcast nationally on Spanish-language flagship Unimas. The Earthquakes will also play on ESPN or ESPN2 three times and NBC Sports Network twice.

Comcast SportsNet California Vice President and General Manager Larry Eldridge added, “The Earthquakes are one of the premier franchises in MLS with one of the most passionate and loyal fan bases in the league. We are pleased to present our most comprehensive Quakes telecast schedule to date along with season-long news and analysis on SportsNet Central, Chronicle Live and SportsNet Reports.”

In der WDR-Sendung eins zu eins hat sich Michael Vesper, Generalsekretär des DeutschenOlympischen Sportbundes, zum Umgang mit der Ukraine geäußert. Von einem Boykott desTurniers durch Politiker hält er nichts:

“Man sollte gerade dann hingehen und verlangen mit Frau Timoschenko sprechen zu dürfen,mit Oppositionellen sprechen zu dürfen, sich möglicherweise auch äußern – öffentlich, weildas den Menschen in der Ukraine mehr hilft, als wenn man einfach wegbleibt.” Vesperweiter: “Ob nun der ein oder andere Politiker kommt oder nicht kommt, wird das Regimeweniger beeindrucken, als wenn die Frau Bundeskanzlerin Frau Timoschenko zu sprechenwünscht.”

Auf die Frage, ob er als Vertreter des DOSB sich auch mit Oppositionellen treffen wolle,meinte Vesper: “Ich würde für meinen Teil ein solches Treffen gerne machen, wenn dieOpposition dazu bereit ist.” Sein Besuch sei noch nicht geplant, aber: “Wenn es um ein Spielin der Ukraine geht, würde ich das verbinden mit einem Treffen mit Oppositionellen”, soVesper.

Der Generaldirektor des Deutschen Olympischen Sportbundes riet aber davon ab, Sportlerneine zu große politische Rolle zu übertragen: “Ich warne davor, die Sportler als verlängertenArm des Auswärtigen Amtes zu sehen, Sportler können nicht Probleme lösen, vor denen diePolitik kapituliert hat”.

Falls die deutsche Nationalmannschaft im Finale stehen sollte, hält der ehemaligestellvertretende Ministerpräsident von Nordrhein-Westfalen den Besuch von BundeskanzlerinMerkel im Stadion für sinnvoll: “Ich meine, sie gehört dann da hin, um die Mannschaftzu unterstützen. Die Entscheidung muss sie natürlich alleine treffen, aber ich würde dieMannschaft auch anfeuern.”