Etisalat, prostate a middle-eastern pay tv operator has struck a deal with Al Jazeera Sport that will allow its customers to watch the Euro 2012 football championships.

The deal means that subscribers can access the Al Jazeera Sport channel by subscribing to its sports package. The package includes Al Jazeera +1 to +10, HD 1 and 2, Al Jazeera Sports News, Events and Global channels.

Rashed Majed Alabbar, vice-president, home product marketing, Etisalat, said: “Etisalat’s eLife TV has always worked towards providing a great entertainment experience. As is globally, people in the UAE have a special affinity for football, athletics and other sports. Therefore, from a brand that loves football, we are delighted to bring the excitement of the Euro 2012 to people in the UAE who love the sport too.”

The German Football League (DFL) have revealed that the nation’s elite league, the Bundesliga, has been rewarded for its clubs’ performances in Europe by snatching a UEFA Champions League place off Italy’s Serie A in 2012-13.

If the reports are true than the Bundesliga will have three automatic spots in the flagship event for European club soccer as well as one play-off spot, while Serie A will only have a maximum of three Champions League places, including one play-off spot.

The revelation comes despite Italian giants Inter Milan winning last season’s Champions League, beating German side Bayern Munich in the final, with German teams now moving ahead in the UEFA rankings.

German clubs have increased their total points tally in UEFA’s five-year coefficients to 68,103, opening up an 8,122-point lead over Italy’s Serie A (59,981).

The DFL released a statement, saying: “Italy is no longer able to take over third spot this season. The new ranking gives Bundesliga teams three starting spots in the group stage and a fourth in the play-off games of the competition.”

Top-ranking England and second-placed Spain are the other two countries that will be afforded a maximum of four Champions League places in 2012-13. Italy has joined France and Portugal with a maximum of three Champions League spots.

Sky Italia has secured the exclusive rights to broadcast FIA Formula 1 World Championship races live starting from March 2013, following an agreement with Formula One Management (FOM). 

Italy’s leading pay-TV channel will broadcast all the events of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship live and a national free TV channel, whose constituent parts are yet to be agreed upon by FOM and Sky will broadcast 9 Grands Prix on a live basis and the remaining 11 Grands Prix on a delayed basis. 

Sky Italia has assured that subscribers will be offered the possibility to customise their viewing experience with interactive functionality enabling them to watch races on tablets, PCs and smartphones via the Sky Go service. 

“We’ve worked with Sky Italy in the past and I have no doubts about its standards of production,” Bernie Ecclestone said. “In England we have a similar arrangement that is working very well, increasing the quality and breadth of coverage.” 

Andrea Zappia, Sky Italia CEO, commented: “We are proud to bring the spectacle of Formula 1 back to the Sky Italia platform, with 11 of the GP races broadcast live on an exclusive basis. This agreement with FOM adds to Sky’s already outstanding Sports offer, which was further enriched by the recent purchase of the MotoGP TV rights. These investments show how our company is determined to confirm its leading position in the Italian TV market.”

English Premier League soccer giants Manchester United’s owners, viagra The Glazer family, cheap used the release of the club’s quarterly financial results to insist that no talks have taken place over a possible takeover.

The Glazers have reiterated that the club is “not for sale” after repeated reports of a bid from Qatar Holdings to buy-out the club, as United revealed increased earnings in the first half of the financial year through to the end of December.

In a statement to accompany the quarterly results, the club again refuted the continuing takeover rumours by saying: “The owners remain fully committed to their long-term ownership of the club. No discussions have taken place, Manchester United is not for sale and the owners will not entertain any offers.”

United’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) increased by 3.2 per cent to £60.6m (US$98.4m) in the six months to the end of December.

Although domestic match day income for the three months through to the end of 2010 dropped slightly from £33.1m ($53.7m) to £32.8m ($53.25m), commercial turnover including overseas merchandising climbed from £19.2m ($31.2m) to £25.5m ($41.4m).

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said, sale on Wednesday, anesthetist | that it will provide live coverage of the London Olympics to 64 countries in Asia and Africa, drugs on YouTube.

The coverage is aimed at countries where digital broadcast rights have not been sold by the IOC.

The IOC says it will live stream 2,200 hours of coverage on its YouTube channel. The free coverage will include live sports events and highlights and can be accessed online or on smartphones and devices.

The countries include Afghanistan, Pakistan, Thailand and Singapore in Asia, and Angola, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia and Zambia in Africa.

The live stream will consist of English language commentary. It will include 10 live feeds from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. London time and a 24-hour broadcast of the Olympic News Channel.

A number of major European soccer clubs were unhappy with the schedule of dates released for next year’s African Cup of Nations by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

The event will be co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea will be played between 21 January and 12 February, with reigning Champions Egypt hoping to retain their crown.

The tournament will begin over a week later than 2010 edition with the opening match played in Bata in Equatorial Guinea, while the final will take place in Libreville.

The one-week delay is not favourable by those European sides who play in leagues which take a winter break. This is because an earlier start to the tournament would have meant that many Europe-based players could compete at the finals without missing domestic matches.

The CAF is yet to fix a date and venue for the draw for the 2012 Nations Cup but FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, laws state that clubs must release their players for the Nations Cup up for 14 days before their opening match.

Los Angeles Kings have agreed a long-term deal with Fox Sports West.

Financial details were not disclosed but a source told the Los Angeles Times it was worth about $250 million and runs through 2024.

The Kings are currently competing in the Stanley Cup Finals against the New Jersey Devils. 

Under the terms of the new contract, Fox Sports West will televise about 75 regular-season Kings games, depending on what games are selected to be shown nationally, and a number of early-round playoff and preseason games, the network said.

“We’re pleased that the Kings will be a part of the Fox Sports family for a long time to come,” Fox Sports Networks Executive Vice President Jeff Krolik said in a statement. “Their amazing playoff run has energized this town and we couldn’t be more proud to be partners with them.”

Fox Sports West and its sister channel, Prime Ticket, have been struggling to keep as much of its team inventory in place as it can in the wake of two new regional sports networks that will be launched Oct. 1 by Time Warner Cable. The Lakers, Galaxy and Sparks have already jumped from Fox to the new networks (one of which will broadcast in Spanish), and the Dodgers’ contract with Prime Ticket expires after the 2013 season.

The Angels used the leverage of that situation to negotiate a new contract with Fox late last year, said to be worth $3 billion over 20 years and said to involve an ownership stake in Fox Sports West. The Kings’ new deal reportedly does not.

Fox Sports West has carried the Kings since 1985. Play-by-play announcer Bob Miller has called Kings games for 39 seasons. Analyst Jim Fox has been his partner for 23 seasons.

“The L.A. Kings are very excited and proud to continue what has been an extremely rewarding partnership with our friends at Fox Sports West,” Kings President Luc Robitaille said.

Tokyo-based co-director Yasuaki Kagami of English League One soccer club Plymouth Argyle is believed to have made an injection of funds to help the cash-strapped club.

The club, which is believed to have debts of around £10m (US$16.2m), were docked 10 points last week after issuing a notice of intention to appoint an administrator.

American director at Argyle George Synan described the funds as “survival money” and added that he was determined “to get the mess sorted”.

In an interview with BBC Spotlight, Synan stated: “It is not the full amount but it is the first piece of the money that we have said we will invest.

“We are working with the directors on how the cash situation can be resolved.”

Mr Synan, who has not been seen in Plymouth since November, added: “I am trying to arrange a schedule and I hope to be in Plymouth on Wednesday or Thursday.

“This is from Mr Kagami’s personal funds. We are in real estate and we have to let go of assets.”

The co-owner stated that he and Mr Kagami were still keen to play their part in the League One club, adding: “We have a pretty substantial sum invested and we want to get the mess sorted.”

The English Cricket Board (ECB) has announced a new seven-year deal with ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) for the exclusive multi-platform rights to broadcast ECB’s domestic and home international programme across all the broadcaster’s territories in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

ESS are the ECB’s current broadcast partner in the region, having held the contract for the past five years.

The new agreement, which runs from 2013 to 2019, will encompass more than 300 days of live international cricket, including India’s next two tours to England in 2014 and 2018 and three home Ashes series scheduled for 2013, 2015 and 2019.

As well as covering all England’s home Investec Tests, NatWest Series and NatWest International T20 fixtures, the deal will also give ESS the right to transmit 60 days’ coverage every season from all ECB’s key domestic competitions: the LV=County Championship, Clydesdale Bank 40 and Friends Life t20 competitions plus selected England Lions, England Under-19s and England women’s matches.

ECB Chief Executive David Collier said: “This new agreement demonstrates the enormous appetite for cricket worldwide and the global pulling power of a successful England team and a vibrant county game.

“In a challenging economic climate with all sports facing tough competition for funding streams, it will also provide an important source of additional revenue for funding the development of our game at all levels.

“TV audiences for cricket are expanding rapidly in Asia and the Middle East and we look forward to working closely with ESS to give both our international and county teams the widest possible TV exposure over the next seven years.”

Manu Sawhney, Managing Director, ESPN STAR Sports, added: “We are delighted to further extend our partnership with ECB with whom we have shared a very strong relationship over the past two decades.

“Over the years, we have continued to showcase the best cricket action from around the world to fans from the India sub-continent and this acquisition further re-affirms our position as the leader in cricket broadcasting.”

Neil Doncaster, chief executive of the Scottish Premier League (SPL) has revealed that he remains hopeful that a merger with the Scottish Football League (SFL) will happen “sooner rather than later”.

Speaking after meeting managers to explain SPL plans to move to a top tier of 10 and second tier of 12, Doncaster stated: “I think moving to a different league structure will take more time and that certainly won’t be for this summer. But my hope is that we can move forward as one league structure sooner rather than later.”

The SPL’s present 12 clubs met on Monday, after which Doncaster’s working party has been assigned the task of revise the plan so that it can be put to a vote. As of yet it is unknown as to whether the few clubs whom previously opposed the 10-team top flight have now been persuaded to fall into line.

Doncasted spoke of the successful talks early this week, adding: “I was impressed with the quality of the discussion that we had. Ultimately, this whole plan is about people putting aside vested interests and trying to achieve something for the common good.

“And I re-emphasise the point that the model being put on the table is the only model that looks after all 42 clubs.

“While there was good debate and people had different points of view on the detail, I think the thrust of it was that people appreciated that we are trying to something on a bigger scale for the whole of Scottish football.

“On some issues some people have strong issues and on other small issues some people have views against and ultimately it is about taking a package and not dealing with things piecemeal.”

SFL chairmen last week voiced their opposition to proposals for a regionalisation of Divisions Two and Three – and Doncaster did not wish to speculate on how the SPL’s vote would go.