English nPower Championship soccer club Leeds United has announced that its controlling stake is now owned by Ken Bates after consistent political and media pressure to reveal the club’s ownership

Bates, formerly the owner of Chelsea, has denied owning FSF Limited, the company that has owned Leeds since 2007 after the company took over at Elland Road when Bates had put the club into administration.

The Guardian, banned from Elland Road for questioning the club’s ownership, reported: “Bates had said he and [Patrick] Murrin were the owners of the club as holders of the two management shares in FSF. But he later said he had made an “error” and that there were in fact 10,000 shares in FSF with undisclosed owners.”

A statement from the club, attempting to resolve the confusion, read: “There has been much speculation in the media as to the ownership structure of Leeds United and its compliance with the relevant regulations of The Football League and The Football Association.

“The speculation has been further fuelled by the coverage of the Football Governance enquiry and the political obsession with the ownership of Leeds United. Both the Football League and the Football Association have confirmed that the current ownership structure of Leeds United complies with both their regulations.

“The scaremongering arising out of the football Governance enquiry has not been helpful and, whilst the Board were always confident that there were no issues, recognise the concern the unknown outcome of any Premier League questions, may have on our Members.

“To address this issue and in the hope that this brings an end to the speculation, the chairman, Ken Bates, has completed the purchase of FSF Limited for an undisclosed sum. FSF Limited is now owned by Outro Limited which is wholly owned by Ken Bates.”

Broadcasters Mediaset and Sky Italia have agreed a new exchange rights deal with UEFA over football coverage of the Champions League and Europa League in Italy.

Both operators will be able to offer coverage of the matches of Italian teams in the two championships for the next two seasons.

Mediaset will also be able to offer the best Italian Champions League match from Wednesday nights and the best Europa League match on Thursday via its free-to-air channel Italia 1.

Mark Palios, the former chief of the Football Association (FA), believes that recently promoted English Championship soccer side QPR will be deducted points following the hearing into their 2009 signing of Alejandro Faurlin.

As of yesterday, May 3, a hearing commenced centering around seven charges relating to the initial deal arising from the Argentine midfielder’s ownership. If the side are deducted points they could slip out of the automatic promotion places, meaning that Norwich would go up as Champions, followed by Cardiff City in second place.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4, Palios said that if the club are found guilty they would be docked points based on set precedents.

QPR manager Neil Warnock reacted angrily to media claims that the club could be docked as many as 15 points, which would scupper their elevation to the top flight.

The charges are with regards to an alleged agreement between the club and a third party in respect of Faurlin’s economic rights, and the alleged failure by the club to notify the FA of that agreement before the player was registered to play for them in England.

The club has also been charged with allegedly using or seeking to pay an unauthorised agent as part of the Faurlin deal. In addition, both the club and chairman Gianni Paladini have been charged with allegedly submitting false information in documents provided to the FA relating to a contract extension signed by Faurlin in October.

Palios stated: “There is a lot of precedent around playing an ineligible player and that ranges from the clerical errors around the transfer window, when they get small points deductions, to more serious situations.

“I think following the [Carlos] Tevez affair it is necessary for a statement to be made. This is more serious than a clerical error, so deserves a points deduction almost certainly.

“The second charge with regard to illegal payment to agents, I think there is a precedent when Luton got 10 points deducted for doing that.

“Interestingly, the FA said they tried and didn’t say they actually did make the payments to unregistered agents.”

Australia’s Seven Network could secure rights to future Olympics as Nine network may not be in any shape financially to make a bid.

The IOC has not yet entered negotiations with any Australian broadcasters for the rights to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics or the 2016 Rio de Janiero Summer Games.

Seven was broadcaster of five summer Olympics in a row from Barcelona in 1992, until Nine won the London 2012 rights.

Industry sources said Network Ten was believed to be uninterested in bidding.

Several major sports broadcast deals are availableover the next 18 months, including the National Rugby League, Cricket Australia, V8 Supercars and the Australian Open. {jcomments on}

The three Home Nations Football Associations opposed to their players taking part in next year’s Olympic Games look set to continue their boycott despite a written guarantee from FIFA that a unified team will not affect their individual independence.

A letter sent by FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland promised that London 2012 would be a one-off in terms of an all-British team

However the assurance is believed to have made no difference and will not in any way change entrenched positions.

Britain’s new FIFA vice-president, Northern Ireland’s Jim Boyce, revealed that he would be happy – but only if formally requested to do so – to lobby FIFA on behalf of the three rebel Associations who fear that taking part in a unified team would ultimately lead to them losing their individual status within world football.

However, Boyce said Valcke’s letter of re-assurance was not prompted by him, adding: “I understand Jerome Valcke has written to them but I wasn’t the one to go to FIFA because I was asked not to do so.

“It was made abundantly clear to me by the Presidents of Scotland and Wales especially, and Northern Ireland, that they had already made their decision – and that they were not going to change it.

“It’s entirely up to them to decide if they are going to look at this but, as I say, they have told me they have made their decision and as the British FIFA representative, I have to respect that.”

It is understood that at least two of the three Home Associations – believed to be Scotland and Wales – took particular exception to the very suggestion of a written FIFA guarantee even though Boyce had no intention of going down this road without being requested to do so.

Boyce hinted that there would be no way out of the current impasse, with the last resort of a written FIFA assurance falling on deaf ears, saying: “[FIFA President} Sepp Blatter has stated it [a British Olympic team] would not affect in any way the independence of the three Associations.

“That was a verbal statement. I don’t know what prompted Valcke’s letter. Maybe FIFA themselves thought the British associations needed the same thing in writing.”

One other suggestion is that Olympic officials, increasingly anxious for a unified British men’s team at the 2012 football tournament, were the ones to put pressure on FIFA.

A free-TV executive said viewers in Thailand who rely on satellite or the Internet for their TV signal may experience blackouts during broadcasts of the 2012 Olympic Games.

Channel 3 Vice President Surin Krittayapongpan said because the TV Pool of Thailand had bought only terrestrial broadcast rights for the Olympics, thumb a black screen phenomenon similar to what occurred during Euro 2012 “could happen again.”

Krittayapongpan said the right to terrestrial broadcasts can be received by conventional antennae, but does not cover any satellite or Internet platforms.

Cable satellite TV operator True Visions has its own licence to broadcast the Games through its nine HD channels.{jcomments on}

William Gaillard, the advisor to UEFA President Michel Platini who claimed that the English FA was the ‘weakest’ in Europe, has claimed that the previous ownership at Liverpool was a classic example of why new financial fair play rules have to be introduced.

Gaillard told a Parliamentary hearing into English soccer that Liverpool had come dangerously close to going under after Tom Hicks and George Gillett loaded it with debt before the club was taken over by American tycoon John Henry’s New England Sports Ventures (NESV) company.

He stated: “Leveraged buy-outs for many clubs end in disaster. Just take Liverpool where you have owners who came, contracted debt, bought out the previous owners and saddled the club with the debt.

“What brought them down were two failed banks, one British, one American, that had been nationalised. They suddenly found themselves being owned by two failed banks that had been taken over by Governments – RBS by the British Government and Wachovia by the US government.

“The club has now been rescued and thank God because it has tremendous heritage – but it was a close call.”

The new financial fair play rules being introduced by UEFA are designed to force clubs to break even after an initial period of flexibility and when Gaillard was asked why it was wrong for clubs to be given fresh investment to fulfill their ambition of climbing through the leagues, he added: “There is nothing wrong with it but what we’ve seen is that when you get an investor who invests his own money at a loss it drives transfer prices up and drives wages up.

“It pushes other clubs who cannot afford it to try to match the club who has suddenly become rich, and creates an imbalance. We’ve seen more than 80 clubs in Europe in 10 years going into administration.”

Chello Central Europe have been awarded media rights for the 2012-15 UEFA Champions League in Hungary.

Chello Central Europe has secured the rights to the best match on Tuesday, case the final and UEFA Super Cup, stomach as well as Tuesday highlights.

Each matchweek the live match and highlights will be broadcast on basic tier channel Sport 1. All rights have been granted on a platform neutral basis, with the rights being exploited on television, the internet and on mobile. 

Royal Emirates Group, chaired by a member of Dubai’s ruling Al-Maktoum family, has confirmed a deal to buy struggling Spanish La Liga soccer club Getafe after the group’s managing director, Kaiser Rafiq, told a press conference in Dubai that it had sealed a deal to acquire 100% per cent of the club for between Eur70-90m (US$102-131.5m)

Sheikh Butti bin Suhail al-Maktoum, the group’s chairman, told reporters: “We are very happy to sign this agreement with Getafe, which will be called Getafe Team Dubai,” though it has not been confirmed yet whether the new owners will be allowed to change the name of the team as planned.

If the acquisition is rubber-stamped, Getafe will become the third Spanish club to be purchased by Gulf-based investors. Qatari billionaire Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Thani bought Malaga in May 2010 for $36.5m and Dubai-based Indian tycoon Ahsan Ali Syed bought indebted Racing Santander in January for a reported $43.8-58.4m.

TalkSport has agreed a deal with BoxNation to offer live coverage of the mouthwatering fight between rivals David Haye and Dereck Chisora in London. 

The UTV Media-owned sports radio station will broadcast live commentary of the clash between the two British heavyweights at West Ham United’s Upton Park stadium on July 14.

As exclusive radio partner to the fight, TalkSport’s coverage will be aired on AM, digital radio and online through Talksport.co.uk and TalkSport’s Facebook app.

At a press conference for the fight in early May, Haye and Chisora had to be separated by a steel fence due to the bad blood between the two men. 

Munich police are still investigating a brawl between the two fighters three months earlier at a press conference following Chisora’s defeat to Vitali Klitschko in Germany. 

The London fight has been given extra spice in that it is not sanctioned by the British Boxing Board of Control as neither Haye nor Chisora holds a British licence.

The Luxembourg Boxing Federation had to sanction the fight as Haye gave up his licence when he retired last year, and Chisora had his withdrawn after several incidents following the Klitschko fight. 

TalkSport programme director Moz Dee said that the controversial fight will stir plenty of debate among sports fans, and stated that it is important for TalkSport to be at the “heart of the action”. 

“This event is of huge interest to sports fans, whilst there has been a lot of discussion on the rights and wrongs of this fight there is an undoubted demand to know the outcome of this contest,” said Dee. 

“TalkSport has taken the opportunity to broadcast the fight exclusively on UK radio, providing a platform for debate and discussion whilst being at the very heart of the action.”

Frank Warren, who manages Chisora, said that he was “delighted” that the fight would be broadcast live on TalkSport. 

“It is the biggest domestic fight this century that has had huge attention from sports fans and the media alike,” said Warren. 

“Those that tune in to listen will be in for a real treat as the fight should be an absolute cracker.”