Die DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga wird ihre Einnahmen aus der internationalen Vermarktung weiter steigern.

In der kommenden Rechteperiode (2012/13 bis 2014/15) können nach aktuellen Hochrechnungen auf Basis bestehender Verträge über 70 Millionen Euro jährlich erlöst werden. Dies entspricht einem Wachstum von mehr als 50 Prozent im Vergleich zur laufenden Rechteperiode (2009/10 bis 2011/12). “Die Eigenvermarktung durch die DFL-Tochter DFL Sports Enterprises hat sich bewährt. Die Bundesliga-Erlöse aus der internationalen Vermarktung wachsen stärker als die der anderen Top-Ligen. Die internationale Neupositionierung der Marke Bundesliga als sportlicher Wettbewerb und als Medieninhalt gelingt zunehmend”, sagt Christian Seifert, Vorsitzender der DFL-Geschäftsführung.

Zur Unterstützung der Wachstumsdynamik wird die DFL Sports Enterprises im 1. Halbjahr 2012 eine Asien-Pazifik-Repräsentanz in Singapur eröffnen. Mit zahlreichen bestehenden Medienpartnerschaften gehört diese Region bereits heute zu den Kernmärkten der Bundesliga. 

“Nachdem wir den Umsatz in Asien seit 2008 kontinuierlich steigern konnten, wollen wir diese Dynamik fortführen und weitere Marktanteile im harten Wettbewerb gewinnen. Das lässt sich am besten mit einer Repräsentanz vor Ort gewährleisten, die eine noch größere Nähe zu den TV-Partnern ermöglicht”, sagt Jörg Daubitzer, Geschäftsführer der DFL Sports Enterprises.

Flankiert wird die internationale Vermarktung ab der kommenden Saison vom neuen Onlineportal Bundesliga.com. Das Angebot soll nicht nur eine Übersetzung der Inhalte des deutschen Internetauftritts darstellen, sondern individuell auf einzelne Märkte zugeschnittenes Programm bieten.

“Mit Bundesliga.com wollen wir die Fans weltweit mit allen Informationen über ihre jeweiligen Stars versorgen. Neben einem Mantelteil werden wir dabei länderspezifische Inhalte für die Fans weltweit liefern”, sagt DFL-Geschäftsführer Tom Bender.

The Asian Le Mans Series, whose first full championship will take place in 2013, has found two prestigious TV partners to show its endurance races: ESPN STAR Sports and Eurosport Asia-Pacific.

Asia’s leading sports content provider ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) will broadcast highlights of the events across its networks covering television, internet and mobile platforms after each race. The deal includes VOD rights and covers ESPN STAR Sports’ footprint of 24 countries in Asia.

ESPN STAR Sports showcases an unparalleled variety of premier sports from around the globe featuring some of the most iconic sports events to millions of viewers through its 26 television networks and 3 broadband networks, each localized to deliver differentiated programming to meet diverse needs of Asian sports fans. Its comprehensive portfolio of multimedia assets includes its television networks (ESPN, STAR Sports, STAR Cricket, FOX Football Channel, ESPNEWS, ESPN HD, STAR Cricket HD), broadband network (ESPN Player), and digital content services (espnstar.com, Mobile ESPN).

The division of Eurosport called Eurosport Asia-Pacific, which has a particularly developed network on the Asian continent, will show the 2013 Asian Le Mans Series in 17 countries: South Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia, Hong-Kong, The Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Australia. Seven million homes have already subscribed to this channel, which was launched in January 2006. 

Not only will Eurosport broadcast six 26-minute magazines after each of the six events on the calendar, but it is also studying the possibility of broadcasting some of the races live or slightly delayed. The full programme of live broadcasts will be announced shortly. 

In the near future other agreements with additional television networks will also be announced. 

In 2013, the Asian Le Mans Championship will consist of six 3-hour events open to the following categories: LM P2, Formula Le Mans, LM GTE, FIA GT3/Super GT 300 and GTC. 

Three rounds will be held in China (Zhuhai, Shanghai, Ordos) and the other three in South Korea (Autopia, 4th August), Japan (Mount Fuji, 21st September) and Indonesia (Sentul, 8th December). 

The full Asian Le Mans Series calendar will be announced at the FIA World Endurance Championship round in China (25-28 October) of which the Automobile Club de l’Ouest is the promoter and organizer. 

Mark Thomas, S2M Executive Director and promoter of the Asian Le Mans Series: “We’re very proud to have ESPN STAR Sports and Eurosport on board as broadcasters of our championship in what is its first season. In 2013, the power of these networks will guarantee excellent coverage of our series. Through them all motor racing fans will be able to follow this rapidly expanding championship, and our teams and partners will benefit from fallout in keeping with their investments. It will also enable the Automobile Club de l’Ouest to pass on the message to the greatest number of people in Asia about Le Mans-type races, the high level of involvement they require and the technical and sporting values on which they’re based.”

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp reacted angrily as he denied taking bungs, a court heard on Tuesday.

Redknapp also said Milan Mandaric ”don’t know what he is f****** talking about” in a 2009 telephone conversation with a News of the World reporter, who had spoken to Portsmouth chairman Mandaric days earlier.

In short extracts read out to a jury at Southwark Crown Court, Redknapp told the paper’s Rob Beasley he had ”the best accountants in England”, claiming the Inland Revenue was fully aware of his dealings in Monaco.

When Beasley described how Mandaric said the money sent to Redknapp’s offshore accounts were investments outside football, the Tottenham manager replied: ”He don’t know what he is f****** talking about. What is he talking about? It is a bonus.”

Explaining that the payments surrounded profit made on the sale of Peter Crouch from Portsmouth to Aston Villa, Redknapp added: ”If it was something dodgy I would have gone over there and brought it back in a briefcase.”

When Beasley asked him whether he had paid any tax in the UK on it, Redknapp replied: ”Haven’t been asked to, Rob” and went on to say: ”There ain’t nothing crooked in it”.

When asked if it was a ‘bung’, Redknapp replied: ”Don’t say bung. It’s nothing to do with a bung. It’s paid by the chairman. How can it be a bung when the chairman of the football club paid me? What’s a bung? It’s a f****** sick word.”

According to the transcript, he told Mandaric: ”I don’t want to have a problem with the tax man. They was aware of it from day one.”

When asked about the bonus clause in his contract, Redknapp said: ”My accountant has got my contract … I’m not going to f****** show you.”

He added: ”The Inland Revenue know all about it. I’ve got nothing to defend, Rob. I ain’t done nothing wrong … I ain’t done nothing wrong, Rob. I got paid a bonus … everyone is aware of it.”

Redknapp subsequently told police ”I don’t fiddle”, the court heard, as John Black QC, prosecuting, read out an interview which took place with a detective four months later in June.

The manager was said to have told a detective: ”I said to him many, many times ‘Milan, I don’t want to end up with a tax bill. I was told I wasn’t liable for income tax on so many occasions. For the sake of that amount of money or any amount of money, I don’t fiddle. I pay my tax since I have been in football my entire life. I pay every penny.”

Redknapp’s account differed from what Mandaric told Mr Beasley on February 26 2009, the Crown claim. Mandaric was said to have told Mr Beasley that the payments to the Monaco account were nothing to do with Portsmouth securing promotion to the Premier League.

Redknapp declared his Monaco account to inspectors less than two weeks before joining Spurs, the prosecution allege.

Reading FC are close to an investment boost from Thames Sports Investments (TSI) after an initial deal was agreed. 

TSI, a newly-founded company, is owned by Russian tycoon Anton Zingarevich and 51% of the club will be acquired if the agreement passes a Football League due diligence test. 

A statement on the club’s website said that the deal is likely to be completed in March. Funds have also been made available to the Berkshire club. 

“The transaction, as agreed with Sir John Madejski, includes providing Reading Football Club with some limited funding now to enable Brian McDermott and [director of football] Nick Hammond to strengthen the playing squad during this January transfer window,” the statement read. 

Madejski will remain chairman, a role he has held since 1990, until at least 2014 and will become life president if he steps down. 

The Royals are currently fifth in the Championship.

Major European clubs have been given a wake up call after it was reported clubs incurred annual losses of €1.6 billion euros (£2bn/£1.3bn) according to Uefa’s latest club licensing report.

The latest figures, for 2010, show overall losses from the leading leagues around the continent are up from 1.2billion euros ($1.5bn/£1bn) the year before – a 36% rise.

Uefa said there were some positive changes including a 6.6% rise in overall income, a small drop in the proportion of clubs’ revenue going on players’ wages, and an increase in the number of home-grown players in the Champions League.

The European governing body said the findings of the club licensing benchmarking report will take on “an increasing significance” with the financial fair play rules starting to be measured from this season and implemented for European competitions in the 2013/14 season.

A Uefa statement said: “The need for financial fair play measures and strong governance is strongly emphasised by the report findings.

“Whilst the level of losses was one of a number of warning signs that confirms the need for football to act, there were some improvements with the 64% percentage of income spent on employee costs, representing a small decrease on the previous year after four years of rising percentages.”

MP & Silva, viagra a leading international media rights company, has secured a rights distribution deal with the Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA).

The deal includes territories outside Hong Kong for international matches, such as the 2015 Asian Cup qualifiers, where Hong Kong has been grouped with Uzbekistan, UAE and Vietnam.

Mark Sutcliffe, HKFA CEO, said: “Distributing rights abroad is a positive initiative for the HKFA. MP & Silva has a strong football distribution franchise in both Asia and abroad and we know they are well placed to distribute our media rights in agreed markets. Through the initial package of matches, we are very excited by the prospect of reaching out to international fans and commercial partners of Hong Kong football”.

MP & Silva has a strong media rights portfolio in Asia that includes Asia Football Confederation, Oceania Football Confederation, Japanese Football League, Japanese baseball and the Olympic Council of Asia.

Andrea Radrizzani, MP & Silva Group CEO, said: “We have been extremely successful in the last five years in distributing football rights in Asia and I’m glad to use our network of clients and partners to boost Hong Kong’s football internationally.”

MP & Silva’s deal with the HKFA will allow it to distribute HKFA rights across cable, satellite, betting, terrestrial, Web TV, IPTV and mobile platforms.

Portsmouth’s parent company administrator has claimed that they are facing a winding-up order from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs making a need for an investor even more pressing.

Andrew Andronkiou, diagnosis who is the administrator of Convers Sports Initiatives and the owner of the Championship club, medicine has described the situation as “extremely serious”, pills as Pompey reportedly owe HMRC £1.6million following an unpaid PAYE bill.

“The club effectively ran out of cash at the end of December,” Andronikou told The Observer. “We’re under extreme pressure to find a buyer and time is against us.

“The issuing of the petition effectively means the club loses its ability to use its bank accounts. But we’ve made other provisions. We’re not fazed or worried by it. The club’s debts are not significant, we haven’t got millions and millions of liabilities.

“We pretty much have two months’ PAYE outstanding. We’re waiting to see what the Revenue will do. They will probably advertise the petition [in the London Gazette] next week. I think there is a hearing date at the end of February.

“We need to focus on finding a buyer to completing a transaction to raise cash. In terms of working capital and cash it’s only going to come from two sources: a buyer or player sales. We’re working on both.”

RTÉ Sport announced today that it has retained the rights to broadcast the RBS 6 Nations Championship for a further four years, price until 2017. 

RTÉ has been awarded exclusive Irish terrestrial rights to the championship as part of a four year extension to their existing contract covering television, symptoms radio and online coverage.

Ryle Nugent, Group Head of Sport, RTÉ, said: “The RBS Six Nations is a major international sporting event, steeped in history and a key part of our public service broadcast offering.  This is good news for Irish sports fans and means that all 15 matches will continue to be free-to-air for Irish audiences over the next five years. We have always enjoyed a successful relationship with John Feehan and the Six Nations Committee and are very pleased to be continuing our partnership up to and including the tournament in 2017.

John Feehan, Chief Executive, Six Nations Rugby, added: “We are delighted to have extended our contract with RTÉ for an additional four years.  The work of the broadcasters in the promotion and development of the game is of tremendous importance and we would like to thank RTÉ for their efforts over the years.  We look forward to working with them for a further four years.”