ESPN STAR Sports, Asia’s No. 1 sports content provider, today announced that it has reached a multi-year broadcast rights agreement for exclusive coverage of the Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) in India.

The first edition of this T20 league will be played in August 2012.

The multi-year deal includes a minimum of 24 T20 matches per season. The first edition of the SLPL will see seven provisional teams compete for the coveted trophy as well as a qualifier berth to the Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) to be held later this year. The SLPL will feature 42 international players participating from seven countries. STAR Cricket, STAR Sports and ESPN will broadcast all the matches live and exclusive in India starting on 11 August 2012.

ESPN STAR Sports’ broadcast rights agreement also includes live coverage of the SLPL in the territories of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Nepal, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand

These rights, in addition to the existing T20 leagues from Australia, England and Bangladesh and along with CLT20 and ICC WT20 make ESS the undisputed leaders in this coveted cricket format.

Speaking on the occasion, Peter Hutton, Managing Director, ESPN STAR Sports, said, “We are delighted to be able to telecast the live matches of the SLPL in India and throughout the region. It is an excellent addition to STAR Cricket’s remarkable catalogue of content in the next year, headlined by India’s home series against Pakistan, England and New Zealand, the ICC World T20, the Champions League T20 and the ICC Champions trophy.

“Sri Lanka cricket becomes the 6th cricket body with whom we are working on the shortest form of the game. Our coverage of Australia’s Big Bash and the T20 leagues in England and Bangladesh have already shown our commitment to the format, and we look to further growing our live cricket content.”

The SLPL will see all leading international and domestic cricketers from Sri Lanka joining hands with talented U-21 players. The tournament has also attracted players from Australia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and West Indies.

According to UEFA Champions League sponsors Mastercard, the winners of tomorrow’s final, May 28, between Manchester United and Barcelona, will receive a record US$178m.

The report, put forward by Professor Simon Chadwick of the sport business unit at Coventry University, says that the losing club in the final is still set to gain $103.9m. The final match alone is now worth an estimated $525.25m, a rise of $24.9m on last year and an increase from when the two sides met in the 2009 final, of $84m.

Due to the English capitals staging of the game at Wembley, London is expected to benefit to the tune of $74m as fans spend money at the stadium, on accommodation, and on food and drink.

The report says the estimation that this year’s final will break all economic records was in large part down to the two finalists.

Chadwick stated: “While the UEFA Champions League is a strong brand in its own right, the nature and strength of the brand is clearly heavily influenced by its constituent parts – the participating clubs.

“This year’s UEFA Champions League final has the perfect ingredients to drive economic activity – Europe’s two biggest clubs playing in a city such as London.”

Melita has secured the exclusive TV rights for The FA Cup, find the Community Shield  as well as the broadcasting of home friendly and qualifier matches for the English national team until 2014.

As from August 2012, anesthetist Melita will be broadcasting some 60 matches from The FA Cup, as well as the prestigious Community Shield. These matches will be broadcast as part of the Melita Sports package including simultaneous broadcast in High Definition.

“These great sporting events will join the other events in our portfolio such as the UEFA Europa League, and Bundesliga. We know that the English national team has a great following in Malta and we wanted to ensure that the Maltese TV viewers get access to these events,” said Michael Darmanin, Director of Business Services and Marketing at Melita.  

“These events also complement our wider sports offering with extensive coverage of local sports on Malta Stars, UEFA Champions League on TVM, US sports on ESPN HD as well athletics, tennis and more on Eurosport HD, motor sports on Motors TV, fishing and sailing on Caccia e Pesca and Nautical channel respectively and so much more”, 

Mark Shannon, Head of Broadcast at The FA, added: “The Football Association is delighted to announce a new partnership in Malta with Melita. We are very aware of how popular and well supported both the English National team and The FA Cup are in the country. We are very much looking forward to working with Melita to further enhance both this support and The FA’s competitions, in the years to come.”

Alisher Usmanov, the Russian billionaire and second largest shareholder in English Premier League soccer club Arsenal, is attempting to block American Stan Kroenke’s bid to take full control of the club.

Kroenke became the majority shareholder last month after buying the stock belonging to Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith and the late Danny Fizsman and as a result, was forced to table a formal takeover for all the club’s shares.

The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust (AST) indicated that they would not be selling their eight per cent holding, as well as encouraging Usmanov to retain his stock with spokesman Tim Payton stating: “We still advise small shareholders to hold their shares because it’s about joint custodianship of the club.”

The Russian has been purchasing shares at US$23,000 each from minority holders in recent weeks and in doing so, has increased his shareholding slightly to just over 27 per cent.

This represents a $2,458 increase on the $20,485 he has been paying for shares to date, and a spokesman for Usmanov’s Red & White Holdings Ltd, which the Russian created to purchase club stock, indicated that formal offers could be sent in the next day.

Kroenke, who owns approximately 64 per cent of the club, has offered $19,256 per share to holders who have until today, May 27, to accept his offer.

Usmanov has also made it clear that he does not intend to sell his shares to Kroenke, whilst the American has refused to meet his counterpart to discuss plans for the club going forward.

Setanta has secured the Australian broadcasting rights to the English football league’s second tier, hospital the NPower Championship.

The broadcaster will show three games per round, including the play-off at the end of the season in May.

It takes on the rights from Fox Sports.

Setanta has also picked up the Capital One Cup, formerly known as the Carling Cup, and the rights to the UEFA Europa league, although part of the coverage will be shared by SBS.

Fox has the rights to the English Premier League, the upper tier of English football.

After newly promoted English Premier League soccer club Queens Park Rangers sacked its CEO Ishan Saksena, vice chairman Amit Bhatia quit after a boardroom disagreement.

Bhatia is the son-in-law of Lakshmi Mittal, the metals billionaire whose family owns a third of the west London team. QPR also said Ishan Saksena, chairman of QPR Holdings Ltd., had “parted company” with the club, which is majority-owned by Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone.

The team recently survived a probe by the Football Association (FA) into a player signing that could have cost QPR a promotion-blocking penalty.

QPR said on its website: “Bhatia has stated his disagreement with some of the decisions taken by the board majority, namely season ticket prices and changes in the club management following the handing of the F.A. inquiry.”

Bhatia said in an open letter to fans cited by Press Association Sport: “It is with a heavy heart that I tender my resignation. However, it is clear to me from recent board meetings that my vision, strategy and direction for the club is very different from that of the other shareholders and board members.”

He added that the “decisions to sack club CEO and chairman Ishan Saksena and significantly increase season ticket prices are just two of the decisions I disagree with.”

The club have come in for huge criticism having hiked their ticket prices by 40 per cent following promotion to the elite league of English soccer. QPR claim that the decision was made in alignment with the other London clubs in the league, three of whom are high-fliers Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham.

The most expensive ticket next season will cost £72 (US$117.4), a massive 106 per cent increase from last term. The most expensive season ticket will cost £999 ($1,629), a £300 ($489) increase on the club’s Championship season, which included four more home games. The cheapest adult season ticket is £549 ($895), compared with £379 ($617.9) at nearby Fulham, and the average price is £739 ($1205), a rise in real terms of more than 57 per cent. The cheapest tickets will be £47 ($76.6) – more than double this term’s £20 ($32.6).

ESPN have secured Oceania rights to the UEFA Champions League for the until 2015. 

ESPN has obtained  the pay rights to all matches and will broadcast two live matches per matchnight, buy including the final, on its channels ESPN and ESPN2. ESPN will also broadcast each matchweek the Wednesday highlights programme and four delayed matches.

All rights have been granted on a platform-neutral basis with the rights being exploited on television, on broadband network ESPN3.com available in Australia, on the internet via ESPN.com, as well as on mobile.

Guy-Laurent Epstein, Marketing Director of UEFA Events SA, said: “UEFA is delighted to renew its partnership with ESPN for the UEFA Champions League in Oceania. ESPN has proven its commitment and dedication to the competition and UEFA looks forward to continuing this successful relationship through to 2015.”

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president and FIFA presidential challenger to current incumbent Sepp Blatter, Mohamed Bin Hammam says he is disappointed the English FA has decided to abstain in next week’s FIFA presidential election.

The Qatari called for FA chiefs to “reconsider their position and make moves to engage fully with the global football family”.

In his latest blog Bin Hammam wrote: “The football family is vast and diverse – perhaps more so than any of us can truly comprehend – and that is one of our sport’s greatest strengths.

“So it is always disappointing when someone opts not to engage with the rest, when one of our national associations takes the decision not to try to affect change from the inside. 

“It was with some surprise that I learned that the Football Association has taken the decision not to back either candidate in the upcoming election. Of course, that is the FA’s prerogative and it is a position I respect, even if I don’t agree with it.”

Last week, the FA board agreed to abstain in the June 1 vote for the FIFA presidency, citing a “range of issues both recent and current which make it difficult to support either candidate”.

The decision followed on from England’s 2018 World Cup bid failure and former FA chief and England 2018 bid chairman David Triesman’s bribery claims against four FIFA Ex-Co members at a parliamentary football inquiry two weeks ago.

A Sunday Times submission to the inquiry also alleged that Qatar 2022 rigged the voting process by paying FIFA Ex-Co members Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma $1.5 million in bribes. 

Bin Hammam claimed to be baffled by the FA’s decision to abstain, saying that as the oldest football association it was “one of the most important institutions in world football”.

He added: “As a result, they should be working with FIFA and the rest of the global game to improve and enhance football. By choosing to abstain, the FA is, sadly, forfeiting that right.

“I realise they have their reasons for making their decision but I hope in the days leading up to the election that they will reconsider their position and make moves to engage fully with the global football family, both on June 1 and beyond.”

With eight days until the FIFA presidential election, Bin Hammam said that in his campaigning he had heard “from my friends and colleagues around the world how they would like to see FIFA grow”.

“There is a strong sense that a new approach is required to tackle the issues that will surely arise in coming times,” he wrote.

“There is a growing appreciation, too, that FIFA needs to be more inclusive; we have to set our sights on working not only with the various associations and confederations but with all those who have the love of our great game at heart.”

MP & Silva, mind an owner of media rights for English Premier League soccer and French Open tennis, clinic said online video programmer Rightster Ltd. will distribute its content on YouTube, news sites and tablets.

The deal will include the creation of MP & Silva YouTube channels, integrated betting rights services for bookmakers, as well as online video and streaming to news sites and Web-enabled televisions, MP & Silva Chief Executive Officer Andrea Radrizzani said in an interview.

Video sites such Google Inc. (GOOG)’s YouTube, Hulu LLC and Netflix Inc. (NFLX) are rapidly expanding as people increasingly watch TV, videos and films online. More than 1.2 billion people viewed video content online in May, with YouTube being the most watched, followed by Vevo LLC, according to ComScore Video Metrix.

“Digital is a huge outlet and I expect most of our content will be eventually watched online,” Radrizzani said. Through Rightster, MP & Silva’s footage will be customized and localized to various segments and populations, he said.

The company, based in London and Singapore, provides some 10,000 hours of programming a year to more than 500 broadcasters, for events such as FA Cup, German Bundesliga and Major League Soccer. Rightster clients include The Guardian, Elle and ITN Productions.

MP & Silva is targeting about 60 million pounds ($94 million) a year from platforms such as YouTube, betting services and streamed live events, Radrizzani said.

“Some events wouldn’t be available on TV, for example, but you could find them on digital,” he said. “We aren’t seeking to replace the TV but to integrate and compliment the television.”

The most watched TV entertainment sites are the HuffPost TV Group, followed by CBS Entertainment and Groupe TF1, according to ComScore figures.

Under its deal with MP & Silva, Rightster will also develop an application for bookmakers for mobile phones and tablets.

After refusing to resign from their posts, Scottish Premier League soccer club Rangers’ chairman Alastair Johnston and director Paul Murray have been sacked, with the former urging Rangers fans to “remain vigilant and continue to exert pressure” on new owner Craig Whyte.

Along with the high profile departures, chief executive Martin Bain and finance director Donald McIntyre have been suspended pending an internal inquiry.

Johnston said of Whyte’s plans for Rangers: “He needs to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.”

Johnston had indicated previously that he would step down at the end of the season which was later delayed with the agreement of Whyte, pending the disclosure of more details about the buyout to shareholders, information that is due on or before June 6.

New appointments to the Ibrox board are likely to be made within the next two or three weeks though, it is understood John McClelland and John Greig will not be asked to resign their positions.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, Johnston added: “I’m not going to make any comment with respect to the current circumstances at the current time, except that I will say – as a lifelong Rangers fan and a real one – that the 26,000 other shareholders in Rangers, as well as the hundreds of thousands of other supporters need to remain vigilant and continue to exert pressure on Mr Whyte to support the club financially as he has publicly committed to do.

“As far as I’m concerned, the next time we see a photograph of him holding up the SPL trophy, let us all hope – especially me – that he has earned the right to do it.”