The International Olympic Committee (IOC) have launched the tender process for the sale of the broadcast and exhibition rights for the territory of the United Kingdom for the Olympic Winter Games (2014) in Sochi, clinic Russia, prescription and the Olympic Games (2016) in Rio de Janeiro, doctor Brazil.

The tender also provides the opportunity to make a bid for the Olympic Winter Games(2018) in PyeongChang, South Korea, and the Games of the XXXII Olympiad (2020) in a city to be selected by the IOC. 

The tender issued by the IOC provides organisations interested in acquiring the rights with specific guidelines relating to bid submissions. The IOC has asked for bids to be submitted by 5 p.m. (CET) on Friday 29 June 2012. 

The IOC will assess bids on their ability to meet the highest standards in broadcast quality, their capacity to reach the broadest possible audience, their commitment to promoting the Olympic Games and the values of the Olympic Movement, as well as on the financial offer.

According to a spokesman for English Premier League soccer giants Manchester United, prostate the club has confirmed to the Premier League that the Glazer family still owns 100 per cent of the club.

There had been speculation over recent months that the American owners may have sold a stake to pay off their controversial £220m (US$357m) PIK (payment-in-kind) loans, and the Glazers recently set up a new parent company registered in Delaware, where there is no requirement to reveal ownership details.

However, in an interview with BCC Sport, a club spokesman stated: “There has been no change of ownership.”

The Glazers acquired the club in 2005, against the wishes of many of United’s supporters and have continued to be disliked by large sections of the sides fanbase.

Despite denials from both parties, Qatar Holdings LLC has been repeatedly linked with a takeover of the Barclays Premier League club.

GolTV, capsule the exclusive 24/7 bilingual TV network and online community, will broadcast the highly anticipated Argentina vs. Brazil match live on Saturday, June 9 2012 at 2:30 p.m. ET from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The South American rivals will play in front of a sellout crowd of 82,000 fans.

The last time the Argentinean national team played on GolTV (Feb. 26 vs. Switzerland), the game received the highest rating for an international FIFA match in network history, a feat surely to be exceeded Saturday.

“International soccer’s popularity is growing at an incredible rate, and the ability to showcase two of the world’s most accomplished teams leading up to the 2014 World Cup provides GolTV’s passionate viewers the fast-paced and exciting soccer they demand,” said Rodrigo Lombello, COO, GolTV.

In addition to offering national team matches, GolTV delivers exclusive league action from each country. Brazilian play includes games from the emerging Brasileirão championship league and Campeonato Paulista, while Argentinean matches include the weekly “Clasico” from the Argentine Football Association. The network also airs a weekly highlights show for league play from each country, Foot Brazil and Fútbol Argentino.

English nPower League One soccer club Plymouth Argyle have been deducted 10 points with immediate effect after they issued a notice of intention to appoint an administrator.

In a decision which breaks Football League sanctions and commands, a 10-point deduction was inevitable with the notice classed as an ‘insolvency event’.

The League One strugglers now find themselves bottom of the league and 10 points from safety after relegation from the Championship last year, having been the subject of three winding-up petitions from HM Revenue & Customs this season.

A statement on the club website said: “The directors of Plymouth Argyle Football Club have today issued a Notice of Intention to appoint Brendan Guilfoyle, Christopher White and John Russell of The P&A Partnership as administrators.

“This action gives the club protection from insolvency action from creditors.

“This does not mean that the club is in administration today nor does it assume that it will necessarily enter into administration at a future date.”

With his side now facing the stark reality of dropping into English soccer’s fourth-tier next season, Argyle manager Peter Reid told BBC Spotlight: “From a football point of view it’s a massive blow to the club.

“You’ve just got to get on with it. It’s going to make it really difficult but we’ve just got try and start the fight back against Brighton.

“Hopefully the board of directors can sort out the financial problems and hopefully this is the lowest ebb and we can start rising from this situation.”

UK broadcaster, viagra Absolute Radio, has obtained the commentary rights to 10 games from the UEFA Euro 2012 championships including all of England and the Republic of Ireland’s group matches.

The broadcaster has secured non-exclusive commentary rights to the home nation’s group games, followed by two quarter finals, one semi-final and the final.

Absolute will distribute its coverage via FM for the first time in London and the south east, along with its usual digital radio, multiplatform and nationwide AM network.

Ian Wright, former England footballer and Absolute’s Saturday morning presenter, will also host a daily edition of his show from 5pm for the duration of the tournament along with co-host Ian Stone. Ian Wright’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Football shows will be co-produced by USP Content.

Absolute Radio’s head of presentation Paul Sylvester said: “Wrighty’s been there, he’s done it and he knows what the players will be going through. He’ll have an amazing insight and will give his views in his brilliantly unique way.”

Radio 5 Live and TalkSport will also both air coverage of the tournament.

Scottish Premier League (SPL) club Aberdeen’s chairman, Stewart Milne stated that talks continued “to move in the right direction” with regards to a league it is expected that the SPL will shortly announce a date on which a vote will be taken over the potential reconstruction, after the 12 member clubs met at Hampden Park on Monday, February 21, for another round of talks.

Speaking of the most recent proposal for a top league of 10 and second tier of 12, Milne stated: “I’d be very disappointed if it did not go through.

Last month, SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster, who along with other officials other officials immediately entered a board meeting that could decide on a date for the vote, said consensus was being sought for a top league of 10 and a second tier of 12.

But some clubs still required convincing over the wisdom of a smaller SPL and the viability of plans to increase financial help for those suffering relegation, with the SPL was expected to present refined proposals to the clubs on Monday.

Milne spoke of the yesterday’s talks, adding: “I think they continue to move in the right direction.

“There is a bit more work to be done to get everyone totally behind it, but there is no other option on the table – we are still looking at the 10 and the 12.

“There will be a date hopefully lined up within the next two or three days and there’s further work to done on the document to bring all the elements together.

“And I would hope that, within the next four or five weeks, we would be able to get the clubs back together and take a vote on it.

“Not everyone plays their hand totally openly. There’s negotiations involved in these things and it’s finding that balance between self-interest and the interest of Scottish football and that’s where there is further work to be done.”

From today, herbal British EUROSPORT will be available on Sky Go to complete the sports line-up across all Sky Go supported mobile devices.

 

Coming ahead of a huge summer of sports on Sky, sale the addition of British EUROSPORT to Sky Go gives fans another great option for watching their favourite sports whenever and wherever they want.

 

This summer, sale British Eurosport will carry live coverage of major sporting events including the French Open, the Tour De France and Le Mans, all available on the move to Sky customers through Sky Go.

 

British EUROSPORT, the UK arm of the pan-European sports network will join the current lineup of live sports channels, Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, and 4, Sky Sports F1, Sky Sports News and ESPN. The channel is available to Sky customers with a Sky Entertainment Extra pack and appears in the Sports section of Sky Go, in line with subscriptions.

 

Offering Sky customers added flexibility and convenience, the award-winning Sky Go service continues to increase in popularity. Recent highlights include the Manchester City vs. Manchester United derby last month, with over a quarter of a million Sky customers watching the game through the app. Sky offers a number of other popular mobile apps that deliver sports content to smartphones and tablets, including Sky Sports, Sky Sports News and Football Score Centre.

The group stages of the 2012 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup will be co-hosted by Malaysia and Thailand for the next edition of the biennial competition.

AFF made their decision and announcement yesterday, anesthetist February 21, ed though the exact dates of the tournament have yet to be released for the event whihc usually takes place in December.

A 4-2 aggregate victory over Indonesia in the two-legged final gave Malaysia their first ever AFF SUzuki Cup title at the end of last year and last staged the AFF’s showpiece tournament alongside Vietnam in 2004. Thailand co-hosted the 2008 event with Indonesia.

Football Association of Thailand president Worawi Makudi told the Bangkok Post: “We have been the host many times and the preparations for the tournament will not be any concern. However, the most important thing is that we prepare the Thai team so they can win the trophy again.”

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has extended its deal to broadcast Premier League highlights throught their Match of the Day programme until the end of the 2015-16 season. 

The current deal had been scheduled to expire at the end of next season but a three-year extension has been agreed.

 

The rights cover the Saturday evening Match of the Day programme, the Sunday morning repeat, MOTD2 on Sunday evenings and other evenings when Premier League fixtures justify a show.

 

The programmes will be available on the BBC’s iPlayer from midnight on Mondays.

Premier League chief executive, Richard Scudamore, said: “The free-to-air highlights are extremely important to the broadcast reach of the Premier League; allowing the competition and our clubs to be seen by the maximum possible number of fans across the country.

 

“The BBC has done a fantastic job for fans of Premier League clubs by providing quality coverage and analysis across their programmes.”

 

BBC director of sport Barbara Slater added: “We’ve seen audiences for MOTD grow in recent years and the programme remains one of the BBC’s best loved and most iconic brands.

 

“The new contract will see MOTD celebrate its 50th birthday.”

The BBC retained the rights with a bid of £179.7m.

 

The first ever Match of the Day was broadcast on 22 August 1964 and top-flight rights have switched between BBC and ITV since then.

 

Premier League highlights returned to Match of the Day in 2004-05.

 

The show is hosted by former England striker Gary Lineker, with Alan Hansen, Mark Lawrenson and Alan Shearer among the regular pundits.

Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium is set for a sell-out attendance for the first time in five-and-a-half years in national soccer team manager, Gary Speed’s first home game in charge against England on Saturday, March 26.

The Euro 2012 qualifier is on track to sell the 69,000 tickets available for the event after the Football Association of Wales (FAW) announced that the game was already close to capacity.

The FAW released a statement, reading: “Due to overwhelming demand we are now in a position to suspend ticket sales for the time being.”

Jonathan Ford, FAW chief executive, confirmed the majority of tickets had gone to Welsh fans, adding: “I’m really delighted to say: six weeks to go and we have sold out the Millennium Stadium.”

In the interview with BBC Wales, Ford continued: “We have an allocation to the English – 10% [of the tickets] go to the FA, but the rest we had to sell to local people. We weren’t able to go out on a local sale so we had to go direct to the [Welsh] clubs.”

That ticket initiative ensured Welsh clubs could effectively keep 25% from the ticket sales. It also ensured tickets would not fall go to England beyond the allocation to the FA.

Wales’ last Millennium Stadium full house was a 0-1 defeat to England in September 2005 when Joe Cole scored the winner in a 2006 World Cup qualifier in front of 70,715 fans in Europe’s 12th-biggest sporting arena.