BHRT and Telekom Srbija have been awarded media rights for the 2012-15 UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Further to the recent announcement of the award of the best-pick live match each Wednesday to free-to-air broadcaster OBN, illness pay operator Telekom Srbija has secured the rights to all remaining matches including, on a co-exclusive basis with OBN, the final and the Wednesday semi-finals. A comprehensive selection of the matches will be broadcast live across the Arena Sport family of channels.

In addition, free-to-air broadcaster BHRT has been awarded, on a co-exclusive basis with Telekom Srbija, media rights to the best-pick match each Tuesday. The live match and highlights programme will be broadcast each matchweek on BHT1, FTV and RTRS.

With regard to the UEFA Europa League, BHRT has been awarded the rights to the best-pick match each matchweek and will broadcast the live match and highlights across BHT1, FTV and RTRS. Telekom Srbija has secured the rights to all matches with the best-pick match being co-exclusive with BHRT. The pay operator will show each matchweek multiple matches from each kick-off slot as well as a highlights programme across the Arena Sport family of channels.

Japan has withdrawn from this summer’s Copa America soccer tournament as the country deals with the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated its northeast region.

Japan had been invited, having been crowned champions of Asia, alongside Mexico to play as guest nations in South America’s continental championship, which will take place July 1-25 in Argentina.

Japanese Football Association president Junji Ogura said on the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) website: “The priority at this moment is to continue saving lives and rebuilding the country. We are sorry to be pulling out.”

CONMEBOL President Nicolas Leoz said in a statement that he “deeply lamented” Japan’s withdrawal from the 12-nation event and that he’d consult other members of the organization to decide what to do with the vacant place in the tournament.

Georgian Public Broadcaster and Rustavi 2 have secured the media rights for the 2012-15 UEFA Champions League in Georgia.

Georgia Public Broadcaster and commercial broadcaster Rustavi 2 will each broadcast every matchnight one live match on 1 Channel and on Rustavi 2 respectively. In addition 1 Channel will show a highlights programme on Tuesday and Rustavi 2 a highlights programme on Wednesday.

All rights have been granted on a platform-neutral basis, healing with the rights also being exploited on the internet, via www.1tv.ge and www.rustavi2.com, and on mobile.

According to the organisers of the inaugural Mundialito de Clubes beach soccer tournament in Sao Paulo, order Brazil, more than 100,000 spectators flocked to the event which took place from March 19-26.

Some of the world’s biggest football clubs were involved in the tournament including Barcelona, Boca Juniors, Sporting Lisbon, Lokomotiv Moscow and Seattle Sounders who all signed up for the competition along with Brazilian clubs Vasco da Gama, Flamengo and Corinthians.

During the eight days of competition, more than 40 beach soccer hours were watched live in over 75 territories around the world thanks to agreements reached with up to 25 broadcasters, including international giants such as Fox Sports, Al Jazeera, Supersport, ESPN Star Sports and Globo, among others.

A statement from the event organisers read: “The 106,000 people who watched from the stands during the competition created an amazingly loud and colourful environment. Mundialito de Clubes is here to stay.”

Modern Times Group (MTG), prostate the international entertainment broadcasting group, viagra usa today announced that it has acquired the exclusive TV broadcasting rights to the men’s and women’s 2016 and 2018 EHF European Handball Championships for Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

The rights include, but are not limited to, broadcast coverage on free-TV, pay-TV, mobile devices and the internet. The rights have been bought from Infront Sports & Media.

Matches will be broadcast on MTG’s free-TV and pay-TV channels, as well as on the Viaplay online pay-TV service. As part of the agreement, matches involving the local national teams, the semi-finals and the finals will be shown on MTG’s free-TV channels. In addition, there will be comprehensive studio programmes and daily highlight shows.

The agreement also covers the qualification games for the 2014, 2016 and 2018 championships.

Denmark is the reigning men’s champion and Norway is the reigning women’s champion. The 2016 Women’s EHF European Championship will be hosted by Sweden.

Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO of MTG, commented: “Handball is a very popular sport in Scandinavia with a large and loyal fan base. We are delighted to have secured these rights and will make high quality coverage of the European Championships broadly available to our viewers. This is further evidence of our commitment to provide viewers with the very best sports content on multiple channels and platforms.”

Michael Wiederer, Secretary General of the European Handball Federation, said: “Norway, Sweden and Denmark rank amongst the leading handball nations in Europe, and the EHF European Championships enjoy a huge following in these countries. We are confident that the coverage across the MTG free-TV channels of the Men’s and Women’s EHF EURO events will attract high audience ratings reaching millions of handball fans across Scandinavia.”

Stephan Herth, Executive Director Summer Sports at Infront, added: “MTG is a specialist in sports broadcasting and has helped to boost many other properties in the past. The media company is therefore the right partner to engage the high public interest for handball in Scandinavia and give the EHF’s flagship events superb visibility across its various platforms. Covering three core territories for the sport, the agreement holds significant value for the future development of the sport in Europe.”

Soccer officials in China’s top league, hit by a series of scandals in recent years, have failed to find a new main sponsor and is beginning a new season without one, or a national TV deal.

Tyre maker Pirelli was previously the competitions primary backer but has torn up its contract with the Chinese Super League, while national broadcaster China Central Television is refusing to show the matches, and there are reports of poor ticket sales at some clubs.

The problems stem from the league and its organisers, with a lack of interest and fans in China never being an issue.

Several senior officials from the Chinese Football Association (CFA) have been arrested over match-fixing allegations, while top referees were sacked for taking bribes and even players have been tainted by claims of corruption.

Many of the fans are now preferring to focus their attention on European soccer instead, with the national team not having helped either – years of poor results have seen China drop to 76 in the FIFA world rankings.

ESPN International has entered into a cricket distribution agreement with ESPN Star Sports (ESS) for International Cricket Council (ICC) events and the Champions League Twenty20 for the Caribbean market.

The development comes in the wake of ESPN exiting the Asian market after selling its stake to News Corp in the Asian sports broadcasting joint venture ESPN Star Sports. Post the clearance of the stake sale, anabolics ESPN will be present in Asia through its digital media products.

The ICC agreement is a four-year deal from 2012 to 2015 and covers several ICC events, including the global showpiece of the cricket calendar, the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The distribution agreement covers terrestrial, cable, satellite and new media platform rights. ICC programming will be presented on two ESPN Caribbean television networks–ESPN Caribbean and ESPN 2 Caribbean and on ESPNPlay.com, the region’s recently launched broadband network for live sports programming.

The Champions League Twenty20 agreement extends ESPN’s current three-year deal by three more years covering 2013-2015. The agreement covers all of ESPN Caribbean’s media platforms including the two networks, ESPN Caribbean and ESPN 2 Caribbean, and ESPNPlay.com.

“We are delighted to again showcase talented cricketers from the West Indies who will play in the ICC World Twenty20 and the Champions League Twenty20 later this year, as well as the crown jewel of cricket – the ICC Cricket World Cup – in 2015,” Stewart said. “Cricket is essential to our programming in the West Indies and has a dynamic following there. This long-term agreement reinforces our commitment to providing world-class cricket to Caribbean fans.”

“We have succeeded in securing some very significant long-term broadcast partnerships for the ICC events and we are very pleased to be working with ESPN to showcase an exciting calendar of ICC cricket events in this cricket market,” said ESS SVP corporate development & cricket rights Anurag Dahiya.

English Premier League soccer club Tottenham Hotspur has returned to profit, thanks in no small part to its success in reaching the UEFA Champions League this season, a tournament in which they have reached the quarter finals, facing Spanish giant Real Madrid next week.

During the last six months of 2010 the club made pre-tax profits of £4.2m (US$6.74m), up from a loss of £8.3m ($13.3m) over the same period the previous year while turnover increased 49 per cent to £79m ($126.75m).

Tottenham’s operating expenses rose to £61.5m ($98.7m), up from £48.6m ($78m), due primarily to the costs associated with having a larger squad.

The club’s half-yearly report said this increase had been off-set by the ‘significant increase in revenue’ the club brought in from its campaign in Europe this season.

The report revealed that merchandise sales increased by 22 per cent and sponsorship and corporate hospitality revenue grew from £12.7m ($20.38m) to £16m ($25.7m).

Spurs returned to Europe’s elite competition after 48 years out of the reckoning in the 2010-11 season..

All 12 games of the 2012 International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Under-19 World Championship will be streamed live online from Burger Stadium in Austin when the tournament kicks off this weekend.

USA Football’s YouTube channel will air a live webcast of the games, which will also be archived for future viewing at www.YouTube.com/usafootballeducation.

The live webcast will cover the opening games on Saturday, June 30, which begin at 9am CT the second round of games on July 3 and 4 and the July 6 placement games and the July 7 medal games.

Select games also will be telecast in Central Texas on KBVO TV. KBVO will air all three U.S. Under-19 National Games. Additional KBVO game telecasts will be announced during World Championship play.

“We are pleased that American football fans around the world who are eager to see the next generation of top international players compete in Texas will be able to follow the entire tournament online,” said IFAF president Tommy Wiking. “We have four games for them to enjoy on Saturday and no doubt some intriguing and exciting games in midweek when places in the medal rounds are at stake.”

The action kicks off this Saturday, June 30, at www.YouTube.com/usafootballeducation when two newcomers to the world Under-19 stage meet as reigning European junior champion Austria takes on Panama at 9am CT, enabling American football fans in Panama to tune in at 9am local time and in Austria at 4pm Central European Time.

2009 Bronze Medal winner Japan meets France at 11.30am CT (6.30pm in France / 1.30am Sunday in Japan), followed by a clash between 2009 Silver medalist Canada and Sweden at 5pm CT (6pm ET / midnight in Sweden).

When the reigning champion United States faces American Samoa, playing in its first-ever IFAF tournament, at 8pm local time on Saturday, American Samoan fans will be watching at 2pm that afternoon in the South Pacific.

The second round, placement and medal games will all kick off at 5pm and 8pm local time on July 3, 4, 6 and 7, which translate as 11am and 2pm in American Samoa, 6pm and 9pm U.S. Eastern time, midnight and 3am the following day Central European Time, and 7am and 10am the following day in Japan.

Speaking at the Soccerex European Forum, Gavin Laws, the group head of corporate affairs at Standard Chartered, has claimed that their sponsorship with English Premier League soccer club Liverpool was not affected by the team’s failure to reach the UEFA Champions League, stating it was “not that important” to the club’s shirt sponsor.

Having missed out on a top-four finish in the league last season, Liverpool had to settle for the Europa League, and with the team sitting eight points adrift of the final qualifying place with only eight games remaining in the current domestic campaign, the club’s participation in Europe’s top club competition next season is unlikely.

However, speaking alongside Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre, Laws insisted that the Champions League was not an integral part of the partnership, which was sealed with the aim of taking the financial institution’s brand into Asia, a key market for the Premier League.

Laws stated: “They are a top four club in people’s minds and although the on-field performances are nice to have, the Champions League is not that important to us as the games happen when people in Asia are asleep. I don’t think English football has fully realised the potential of the Premier League abroad – it is getting bigger and bigger.”

He added: “The real power for what Liverpool could do for us, and I think for the English Premier League, is if there was a way they could nurture foreign players from Asia … a great Asian player — you see what Park Ji-sung does for Manchester United.

“The markets in Asia and the Middle East are so nationalistic, they are very proud about their countries. (Matches) become huge events. One appearance from a player, say from Dubai in the Premier League, and you’d have the whole of Dubai watching it.”