Glasgow 2014 has appointed Australian Jacqui Murdoch as its director of Games time delivery, they announced today.

Murdoch has been connected to major events since 2000 when she was the venue manager for beach volleyball at the Sydney Olympics. She has also worked for Vancouver 2010, where she was the vice-president Games services and accommodation at the Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Murdoch has also worked on the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games respectively, working as the deputy director sport and venues at Manchester and as the general manager, venues and overlay in Melbourne.

She also worked as a consultant for London 2012, where she was an expert advisor for venue planning, and most recently Rio 2016, where she advised on Games strategy and governance.

Her responsibility in Glasgow will involve her overseeing the management of all Games time delivery functional areas, including ensuring the areas of family relations, services, sport, venues and Athletes’ Village and volunteering are all developed and ready to be delivered in July 2014.

David Grevemberg, Glasgow 2014 chief executive, said: “Jacqui is a fantastic appointment for us here at Glasgow 2014. Bringing 20 years of international sporting events knowledge and experience to Scotland, Jacqui’s role will be absolutely crucial in ensuring that we remain on track to deliver an outstanding Games in July 2014. Jacqui and her team will be working tirelessly over the next three years to ensure that everyone attending the Games, especially the athletes competing, have a great experience in Glasgow.”

Murdoch, who has already started her role in Glasgow, is excited by the opportunity handed to her.

“Joining Glasgow 2014 is a huge honour for me,” she said.

“Having been involved in the successful preparation and delivery of past Olympic and Commonwealth Games, I am looking forward to getting to work on what I know will be an outstanding Games for Glasgow and Scotland in 2014.”

FIFA is very happy to announce Steven Pienaar, a famous South African Football player as a new ambassador for FIFA’s  “Football for Hope” programme.

Pulling himself out of the poverty of his childhood in Johannesburg’s Westbury township, Steven Pienaar has become one of the true heroes of South African football. The speedy wide midfielder, playing for FC Everton and for the South African National team, says he owes a lot to football:

“Football meant everything to me in my childhood. Football was a school of life which also allowed me to become what I am today. I am an avid believer in FIFA’s Football for Hope programme, because it uses the beautiful game of football to bring young people closer to education and health services, as well as teach them the values of fair play. “

The English Premier League has announced that Multi Media Sports Group (MMS) has been awarded exclusive audio visual broadcast rights for all 380 Barclays Premier League matches per season for seasons 2013/14 – 2015/16 in Spain and Romania. 

The rights for the two territories were acquired in separate auction processes.

Premier League Chief Executive, anesthetist Richard Scudamore, clinic said: “We are extremely pleased that MMS has chosen to invest in our broadcast rights in both Spain and Romania for seasons 2013/14 – 2015/16.

“We look forward to working with them and are confident they will distribute the best action from the Barclays Premier League in a comprehensive and innovative manner to our fans in both countries.”

Multi Media Sports Chief Executive Officer, Ylan Singer, said: “We are delighted to be working with the Premier League again and look forward to building value and reach for these fantastic rights in Spain and Romania.”

This announcement follows recent broadcast deals for Premier League matches in Ukraine, Italy, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, France, Belgium, Middle East, North Africa and Russia.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has urged that Soccer in the country should be halted for two or three years to get over the match-fixing scandal which has tarnished the image of Italian Soccer.

The soccer federation and several clubs rejected the idea, which is Monti’s personal opinion and is not binding.

The widening scandal has seen a number of top players arrested, the coach of this season’s title-winning club placed under investigation and the national team training headquarters raided by police.

“It’s particularly sad when a world which should be an expression of the highest values – sport, youth, competition, fairness – turns out to be a mass of foul play, falsehood and demagoguery,” Monti said at a news conference with visiting Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“This isn’t a government proposal, but I wonder if it wouldn’t be a good idea to suspend the game for two or three years.”

The idea is unlikely to gain much traction in Italy, a country which is both obsessed by soccer and inured to an apparently endless series of financial, political and sexual scandals in recent years.

“I understand and share the bitterness of Prime Minister Monti,” Italian soccer federation president Giancarlo Abete said in a statement.

..but to stop the championship would mean humiliating all of football, penalising the majority who work honestly and it would also mean the loss of thousands of jobs. It is not the solution.”

Monti’s suggestion underscores the growing disgust over an affair which has shone a harsh light on the pervasive corruption at many levels of Italian society.

“It’s so easy for the great majority of citizens to see the origin of all Italy’s problems in politics,” Monti said. “It’s a big mistake.”

In the latest phase of an operation which began last year, police placed Antonio Conte, coach of championship-winning Juventus, under investigation on Monday over allegations relating to a 2011 match between previous club Siena and Novara.

They also arrested Stefano Mauri, captain of Lazio – one of the two big clubs in Rome, and raided the Italian national team’s training base at Coverciano after placing Italy defender Domenico Criscito under investigation.

Criscito was then dropped from the squad for the upcoming European Championship.

The scandal echoes earlier match-fixing affairs in 1980 and 2006, further tarnishing the image of Italian soccer which has long lost the pre-eminent position in the European game it enjoyed during the 1990s.

With less than two weeks before the start of Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, Italian fans may draw comfort from the fact that previous scandals preceded Italy’s victories in the 1982 and 2006 World Cups.

Prosecutors believe an international gambling ring paid players to throw matches deliberately. Dozens of current and former players in teams ranging from the Serie A top division down to the lower leagues may have been involved.

However, reaction from clubs has been largely defensive and the head of one Serie A club said Monti was “talking rubbish”.

“Before saying we need to stop playing football he should think about his own problems and everything he is destroying and closing down with his laws,” said Maurizio Zamparini, president of Palermo.

“Monti is showing his ignorance because professional football clubs pay 800 million euros ($1 billion) to the state every year.”

The scandal comes at a time when Italian clubs, like many others in Europe, are struggling to make ends meet while paying astronomical salaries to their top players.

According to a report in business daily Il Sole 24 Ore on Tuesday, losses at Italian clubs totalled 428 million euros during the 2010/11 season.

The acting secretary general of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), medic Hitcham El Amrani, order has been officially given the job after an executive committee met in Cairo on Tuesday and Wednesday confirmed the permanent placement.

The 32-year-old Moroccan had been acting secretary general since Oct. 1 after Mustapha Fahmy was snapped up by FIFA as director of competitions.

El Amrani started his CAF career March as deputy secretary general in March 2009. Prior to that, he was one of the managers in charge of marketing at the Asian Football Confederation.

Rothmans, viagra 60mg skippered by Britain’s Lawrie Smith in The Whitbread Round the World Race1989-90 (the forerunner of the Volvo Ocean Race), advice will sail from Sweden to take part in the Volvo Ocean Race Legends regatta and reunion.  At 80’, she is three feet longer than Great Britain II, who is also entered, along with the smallest yacht ever, 45’ Copernicus from Poland, both of whom took part in 1973-74.

Rothmans originally sailed with a crew of up to 16 and finished the race in fourth place overall, taking 131 days to complete the 33,000 nautical mile course.  It was Lawrie Smith’s second race, having completed part of the course on Simon Le Bon’s Drum in 1985-86.

Since finishing The Whitbread, Rothmans has been kept in pristine condition by present owner Bob Erixon and his friends in Scandinavia, who successfully campaigned her in 2003 winning the Round Gotland race and finishing up the order in other Scandinavian regattas.

Erixon formed a syndicate among 16 of his friends to co-own the boat and she still sails under the name of Rothmans.  “The target was to sail the Atlantic and to compete in races like Cowes Week and the ARC,” he explains.  “We think the Volvo Ocean Race Legends regatta and reunion is a fabulous idea and all the owners are very enthusiastic about it,” he confirmed.

“We are all between 44 – 60 years old and we have watched The Whitbread and the Volvo Ocean Race for a long time.  We would love to sail against some of the older boats as well as some of the more modern ones.  We have already raced against Charles Jourdan (WRTRW 1989-90). The Volvo Ocean Race Legends regatta fell right in to place in our Atlantic and Caribbean race tour that is planned for 2011-12,” he added.

The boat is in original and fantastic condition and has been continuously maintained.  Apart from some new electronics, she is in her original racing trim and is sure to be competitive next November in Alicante.

IMG Motorsports, ambulance a division of IMG Worldwide, the global sports, fashion and media company, has secured its first live broadcast deal for the 2013 FIA European Rallycross Championship.

Five rounds of the RX Championship will be broadcast exclusively live from the Nordic region following a new broadcast deal with Viasat, the satellite TV broadcaster.

This is the first of a number of deals with broadcasters around the world and IMG is nearing completion of a full distribution schedule for the RX Championship to be released over the coming weeks.

Kristian Hysen, Senior Vice President of IMG Nordic, said: “Viasat is the leading motorsports broadcaster in the Nordic region offering a wide expanse of properties including Formula 1, MotoGP, NASCAR and SpeedwayGP.  We are very pleased to be working with them and are sure they will provide a solid platform for RallycrossRX to build on.”

The Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish rounds of the RX Championship will be shown live, with the French round at Loheac and the German final round at Estering also confirmed as live events this week. In addition to the live coverage, all rounds of the RX Championship will be covered via a one hour highlights show to be distributed on the same day.

Martin Anayi, Managing Director of RallycrossRX for IMG Motorsports, said: “The inclusion of five live events on the 2013 RX Championship schedule clearly shows the potential of RallycrossRX as an exciting television product.”

Manchester United commercial director Richard Arnold has defended their pursuit of Japan playmaker Shinji Kagawa insisting it is not to simply sell shirts.

Kagawa is reportedly close to moving from Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund to Old Trafford on a €15 million transfer, which could rise to €22 million with add-ons. Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke fuelled speculation further on Tuesday evening, telling Derwesten: “Both sides want to conclude the deal.”

Meanwhile, United’s South Korean midfielder Park Ji-Sung may exit the club this summer, sparking talk the club are looking to the sign Kagawa to boost brand recognition throughout Asia. Arnold, though, believes United’s individual players do not drive the club’s off-field profitability.

“We don’t sign players to sell shirts.” Arnold said. “We are reliant on 25 players and they are all massive stars. We have 25 George Clooneys.

“When you look at the success we’ve seen in that part of the world [Asia], it isn’t down to any one player or person. Of course, Ji is a fantastic player, was captain of the South Korea team and continues to be a key part of our squad.

“But for Manchester United, it’s more than any one player. It was more than George Best, it was more than Bryan Robson, it was more than David Beckham, it was more than Cantona, than Park.

“Ji is very popular in Korea, just as Javier Hernandez is hugely popular in Mexico, but Paul Scholes has his own Chinese character. These are huge stars and the big stars are the big stars in every country. Our games are shown 1.1 billion homes across the globe and you think ‘which film does that 60 times a year?’

“Be it George Clooney or Brad Pitt, what is there where that is shown? There just isn’t anything like it.”

National Sports Marketing Network have announced that Texas Rangers Chief Operating Officer Rick George was named to the national sports organization’s board.

Jennifer Karpf, founder and director of the National Sports Marketing Network, said: “The 25-year sports business leader brings a wealth of experience to the organization and we appreciate his time and commitment to the advancement of our industry.”

George was appointed COO of the Texas Rangers in Oct. 2010, after a seven-year stint with the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour. He works closely with Rangers CEO and President Nolan Ryan and other members of the club’s business operations.

Prior to his work with the PGA, George was president and CEO of Fore!Kids Foundation, a charity organization centered on raising money through golf.

George has been in professional and collegiate sports since his college days at the University of Illinois, where he was a four-year football starter.

The Opening Match of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011™ will set a new European attendance record for women’s football. It was announced today that over 50,000 tickets have already been sold for the clash between hosts Germany and Canada at Berlin’s Olympiastadion on 26 June 2011.