The FIFA Task Force Football 2014 convened for the first time in Zurich, allergy Switzerland yesterday, apoplectic | May 10, with former Zambian international striker Kalusha Bwalya heading the inaugural session as acting chairman.

FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter stressed that the time had come to re-introduce such a task force for the first time since the 1990 FIFA World Cup in order to review the game and discuss what the future of soccer could hold. The objective for this task force is to formulate and present concrete solutions at the 2012 FIFA Congress.

Blatter stated: “Unfortunately, Franz Beckenbauer (Chairman of the new task force) was not able to attend today for health reasons, but we prepared this task force meeting thoroughly together. I wish him a quick recovery. I am very proud of the commitment shown by all the members of this group. I am convinced that with this line-up we will endeavour to maintain and even raise the attractiveness of the game, in particular to meet the changing demands of fans, whilst continuing to protect its integrity and core values.”

Beckenbauer sent a message to his colleagues, saying: “I very much regret that I am not able to attend today’s meeting. The FIFA Task Force Football 2014 is a hugely important project and the establishment of this working group, tasked with setting the course for the future of football, is an excellent idea put forward by the FIFA President.”

“Working on this project means a great deal to me personally and I was very much looking forward to today’s meeting, and in particular to seeing my colleagues and experts from the world of football again. Over the last few weeks, we prepared everything in detail and it is now time to address a number of important matters. I am sure that my colleagues will represent me admirably today and that we will be able to lay the foundations together for our future work.”

The first three concrete proposals formulated by the new task force include: allowing a fourth substitution in extra time, particularly for youth competitions; clarifying the interpretation of “Law 11 – Offside” when it comes to interfering with an opponent, especially when it is not physical interference; only in the case of serious fouls as well as when denying the opposing team a goalscoring opportunity should a triple punishment be imposed with a penalty, a red card and a suspension. The group proposed reducing sanctions for simple fouls and holding a player in the penalty area to a penalty and a yellow card only.

World Triathlon Corporation’s (WTC) Ironman and Ironman 70.3 endurance triathlon races, has secured media rights agreements with broadcast partners around the world for a new series of 14×26 minute magazine programmes covering the events.

As a result, coverage from many of the most popular Ironman races will be available to fans on television in more than 100 countries and territories worldwide. The rights were distributed by Infront Sports & Media.

The new agreements in place cover key European, Asian and American territories for the Ironman series – including amongst others the UK (BskyB and Channel 4), Germany (Sport1), Austria (ORF), Scandinavia and Baltics (Viasat, Nelonen and TV2 Norway for selected territories), Czech Republic (Sport1), China (Guangdong TV), Brazil (ESPN Brazil) and the USA (Universal Sports). The sequence is produced by Host Broadcast Services, Infront’s wholly owned subsidiary. 

Following the season’s intro, the Ironman race in Regensburg, Germany was the first event covered by the series. The Ironman race in Zurich, Switzerland on 15 July will be the next in line. Each of the 14 shows – stretching throughout the season – has a length of 26 minutes, featuring race footage as well as location, training, results/ standings, athlete profiles and background information. 

Stefan Petschnig, Executive Manager Europe & South Africa of the World Triathlon Corporation, commented: “The new agreements prove that Infront has effectively detected the needs of broadcasters around the world – bringing the best of our sport into a convenient 26 minute format. On top of that, fans are benefitting not only from one-off broadcasts, but from ongoing coverage as the magazine series stretches out across the entire season.”

Stephan Herth, Executive Director Summer Sports of Infront Sports & Media, said: “The positive take-up shows that broadcasters consider Ironman sports as an appealing product that will be appreciated and followed by their audiences. They value the captivating format, which features the essence of the sport and is produced to the highest international standards. The new contracts mark just the start of a continued push to further extend Ironman and Ironman 70.3 coverage around the world.”

The core Ironman series takes place around the globe starting in April and leading up to the World Championship Finals in Kona, Hawaii each October. The magazine programming offered by the WTC and Infront features most of the European races, including amongst others the Ironman United Kingdom (Bolton, 22 July), the Ironman 70.3 European Championship (Wiesbaden, 12 August) and the Ironman Sweden (Kalmar, 18 August).

The governing body of European soccer, medstore UEFA, erectile has hired commercial agency Lambie-Nairn, who worked on the imagery at the 2006 World Cup and created branding for the successful Qatar 2022 campaign, to design its broadcasting identity for next year’s European Championship.

London-based Lambie-Nairn has been asked to design the opening and closing titles, advertising bumper sequences and on-screen match graphics for the television coverage of the UEFA Euro 2012 tournament, which will be played in Poland and Ukraine.

In addition, Lambie-Nairn will also be responsible for adapting the official Euro 2012 logo, which was originally designed by Portuguese company Brandia Capital in 2009.

Peter Willems, head of marketing activities at Uefa, told marketingmagazine.co.uk: “The Uefa European Football Championship is a global event, watched by millions of fans. We wanted a creative concept that illustrated the huge passion and rivalry, yet also the sense of unity that national-team competition football provides.”

The Olympic Games are two weeks away, and NBC is teaming up with Adobe for two apps that will provide easy access to game details as well as live streaming from London.

The free Adobe AIR-powered apps – NBC Olympics Live Extra and NBC Olympics – are now available for iOS and Android. The first will allow for live streaming of more than 3,500 hours of Olympic content, while the second provides more indepth details about the athlethes, the games, and more.

In a nod to the TV Everywhere model, access to the “vast majority” of streaming content will be limited to U.S. users with a pay TV subscription. In order to watch, users will be asked to sign in with their cable login, whether that is Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cablevision, or a smaller regional provider.

Ashley Still, director of product management for Video Solutions at Adobe, said that 97 percent of all households that pay for TV can access the live streaming content. If you’re at home and also get Internet access via your TV provider, the app will automatically recognize that you are allowed to watch the live streaming content.

The app will allow users to set reminders, set up DVR-esque recordings, or opt to pause, rewind, or watch later.

In addition, you can switch between camera views to catch a glimpse of your favorite athlete and share favorite moments on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

The NBC Olympics app, meanwhile, will include short-form highlights, event schedules, TV and online listings, results, athlete profiles, columns, and more

ESPN have announced they will broadcast USA Basketball’s warm-up matches leading to the London Olympics.

ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3 will combine to air five USA Basketball Men’s National Team exhibition games presented by Nike+ beginning with the first ourting against the Dominican Republic on Thursday, July 12, at 9 p.m. ET. All games will be available on WatchESPN and generally carried on ESPN Mobile TV.

Mark Jones will provide play-by-play for all ESPN and ESPN2 telecasts with International basketball expert and analyst Fran Fraschilla.

USA Basketball are sheduled to play Dominican Republic on July 12, Brazil – July 16, Great Britain – July 19, Argentina – July 23 and Spain July 24.

The English Premier League will pay out record sums in TV money to its clubs this season with the bottom club guaranteed to receive at least £37m (US$60.5m).

Lucrative new overseas television deals will see top-flight clubs earn an average of nearly £5m ($8.17m) more per year than last season, with the title-winner set to pocket more than £57m ($93.2m). Although the Premier League has never confirmed the overall value of the overseas TV rights sales, Press Association Sport has calculated that they have doubled from £625m ($1.02bn) during 2007-10 to around £1.2bn ($1.96bn) over the next three seasons.

That total is roughly 10 times the amount Germany’s Bundesliga receives for foreign TV rights, five times what Italy receives and three times the amount Spain’s La Liga earns.

The Premier League distributes broadcast rights income based partly on performance and the number of times a team’s matches are screened live on domestic television on top of a basic equal share. This season, each club will receive £13.8m ($22.5m) as the equal share of domestic TV rights and £17.7m ($28.95m) as the equal share of overseas TV rights revenues, while every place in the Premier League table is also worth £752,000 ($1.23m).

Football finance expert Simon Chadwick, professor of sports business at Coventry University, told the Press Association: “To have balanced competitions you have to have fair and equitable distribution of revenues. What the Premier League has done by allocating this extra £5m ($8.18m) from overseas TV is say, ‘we know we can’t increase the disparity between top and bottom’.”

Orange French multinational telecommunications corporation has obtained the mobile broadcasting rights to French Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 football matches until June 2016.

Live matches will be available on mobile and tablet devices, ed while near-live content will be available on the Dailymotion website.

Orange has held the mobile rights since 2004 but this is the first time that tablets have been included in the deal.

Axpo Super League Swiss soccer club Neuchâtel Xamax are set to be purchased for an undisclosed fee by Bulat Chagaev, order one of the main financial backers of Russian Premier League team Terek Grozny.

The sale from existing president Sylvio Bernasconi is expected to be ratified during the club’s general assembly on May 12 and Chagaev stated: “I’m very happy to lead Neuchâtel onto the path of national victory. With a motivated and well-prepared team, discount we will quickly accept the most incredible challenges in Europe, starting with the Champions League.”

In December 2010, Chagaev was named vice president of Chechen Republic-based Russian Premier League team Terek Grozny, whom he played for during the 1980s. Since then, he has invested more than US$4 million into the club and helped to attract the signature of renowned Dutch manager Ruud Gullit as head coach, who personally thanked Chagaev for helping him to secure the post.

Sports.ru quotes Chagaev, when commenting on the takeover, saying: “I have decided to buy Xamax because I love football. How much did I have to pay? You’d better ask those who sold the club – I don’t remember. I just wanted to buy Xamax and I bought it.”

All 2012 Herbalife World Football Challenge matches will be broadcast in the U.S. on ESPN, health FOX Soccer, buy Univision Deportes Network and Univision Radio, while TSN, Sportsnet and RDS will be the event’s broadcast partners in Canada, it was announced today by Major League Soccer (MLS) and CAA Sports.

In the U.S., ESPN networks, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN3, will televise five matches. ESPN2 will kick off the Herbalife World Football Challenge broadcasts on July 18 live from Seattle’s CenturyLink Field, when three-time defending U.S. Open Cup champion Seattle Sounders FC host UEFA Champions League winner Chelsea FC.

FOX Soccer will broadcast four Herbalife World Football Challenge games, including the August 5 match in Las Vegas between Spain and Mexico’s current league champions, Real Madrid and Santos Laguna, respectively.  For the July 22 match, the FOX Soccer broadcast will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a special pre-game show. Spanish language network FOX Deportes will air three matches. See below for broadcast times.

Univision Deportes Network, a national MLS broadcast partner, will broadcast one Herbalife World Football Challenge match, the first-ever soccer match at the new Yankee Stadium on July 22 featuring Chelsea FC and France’s Paris Saint-Germain.

In Canada, TSN and RDS, as well as Sportsnet, will be the official broadcast partners of the 2012 Herbalife World Football Challenge.  TSN and TSN2 will air four matches, including the ever-growing rivalry between the current MLS champion LA Galaxy and La Liga champions Real Madrid on August 2.  RDS2 will air the July 22 New York match.

Sportsnet East, Ontario, West and Pacific will air the July 21 event at Rogers Centre, when four-time defending Canadian championship winner Toronto FC hosts Liverpool FC of the English Premier League.  The complete broadcast schedule is below.

The 2012 Herbalife World Football Challenge currently features 11 teams playing nine matches at eight venues across North America July 18 through August 11. The clubs currently confirmed to participate in the competition include UEFA Champions League winners Chelsea FC, La Liga champion Real Madrid, Scottish Premier League title holder Celtic FC, Mexico’s Primera Division champion Santos Laguna and European powerhouses Liverpool FC, Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan, as well as Major League Soccer’s (MLS) current champion LA Galaxy, four-time MLS Cup champion D.C. United, three-time defending U.S. Open Cup champion Seattle Sounders FC, and four-time defending Canadian championship winner Toronto FC.

English nPower Championship soccer club Queen’s Park Rangers have gained promotion to the Premier League, winning the league title in the process, after it was revealed on Saturday that they would not face a points deduction this season or next after breaching transfer regulations.

The club were found guilty of two of the seven charges they faced regarding the transfer of Argentinian midfielder Alejandro Faurlin in 2009 and consequently fined £875,000 (US$1.43m).

The verdict unveiled at the weekend came just an hour before the kick-off of the final game of the season versus Leeds United, with QPR still fearing a points deduction of up to 10 points which would have seen them drop into the league play-offs, ending the possibility of Cardiff or Swansea moving into an automatic promotion place at QPR’s expense.

The decision not to dock the west Londoners points was made by an independent tribunal convened by the Football Association (FA) who imposed a fine of £800,000 ($1.31m) for a breach of FA Rule E3 – which relates to bringing the game into disrepute – and a fine of £75,000 ($122,740) for breaking Rule A1, which outlaws the use of unauthorised agents.

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Related Discussion – QPR and Alejandro Faurlin – can someone enlighten me?