Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan’s investment in the club has gone past the half billion pound mark after he injected an additional 80 million pounds into it.

Since buying City in 2009, he has invested over 573 million pounds, The Guardian reports.

According to documents released to Companies House last Monday, Mansour purchased 37,547,169 new shares in the Eastlands club on September 30, each costing him 2.12 million pounds.

It amounted to 79.6 million pounds of fresh investment.

The sum raises fresh questions about City”s capacity to meet new regulations coming in to force from next season.

UEFA”s financial fair-play rules require that no club should make an aggregate loss of more than Euro45m (about 39 million pounds) over the three seasons from 2011-12, or it will face being excluded from European competition.

Australian Rules tournament, South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and ABCTV are set to agree a deal this morning to continue to broadcast one SANFL game per weekend.

Fears were held for the future of SANFL broadcasts in South Australia after the ABC renegotiated deals around the country for the coverage of state-based leagues, with the Tasmanian league unable to meet increased production cost demands recently.

SANFL will sign a deal with ABCTV this morning to continue to broadcast the games.

Darren Chandler from SANFL said the league’s commitment was a sizable increase from last year’s $70,000 contribution, but was not willing to discuss the agreement publicly at this time.

The SANFL season commences 23 March 2012.

by Ismail Uddin

Paul the octopus, who shot to fame during this year’s FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa for his flawless record in predicting game outcomes, has died, his aquarium in Germany said today.

“Management and staff at the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre were devastated to discover that oracle octopus Paul, who achieved global renown during the recent World Cup, had passed away overnight,” the aquarium said in a sombre statement.

Paul beat the odds during the FIFA World Cup by correctly forecasting all eight games he was asked to predict, including Spain’s 1-0 win over the Netherlands in the final.

Paul’s body is now in cold storage while the aquarium decides “how best to mark his passing.”

“We may decide to give Paul his own small burial plot within our grounds and erect a modest permanent shrine,” said Sea Life manager Stefan Porwoll.

“While this may seem a curious thing to do for a sea creature, Paul achieved such popularity during his short life that it may be deemed the most appropriate course of action.”

Modern Times Group-owned pan regional broadcast group Viasat Broadcasting has extended its deal to air the National Football League (NFL) across Scandinavia.

The five year deal will include live broadcast rights on free television and pay television as well as live simulcast rights on mobile phones and online. ?In Sweden, viagra viewers will be able to watch live games from the regular season, the playoffs and the Super Bowl on free-to-air network TV10 and premium pay channel Viasat Fotboll HD.

In Norway, games will be show on Viasat 4, Viasat Sport and Viasat Sport HD. Finnish viewers can see games on the Nelonen Pro sports channel, while Danish fans can watch on free-to-air channel TV3 Plus and TV2 Sport 2 Denmark, its joint venture pay TV network.

“The NFL is a premium worldwide sports right and the Super Bowl is one of the most watched events of the sporting calendar. The sport has a loyal following in the Nordic region and we are delighted to have extended our successful five year partnership for another five years,” said Peter Nörrelund, head of sports for Viasat.

Julie Moeller, NFL director of international media and business development, added: “Viasat has supported the NFL and its fans in the Nordic region for many years, and we are pleased to be extending our partnership.”

by Ismail Uddin

English soccer club, Blackburn say a takeover by the Venky’s group, which would make Rovers the first Indian-owned Premier League club, is set to be completed in November.

Rovers chairman John Williams said: “A series of meetings, including discussions with the Premier League, have followed an extensive due diligence process.

“Both parties are hopeful that the transaction will be completed in November.”

Venkys chairperson Anuradha J Desai added:“We expect to be the first Indian company to acquire a Premier League team.

“And we are particularly delighted that the team is Blackburn Rovers, with whom we believe we have many shared values and ambitions.”

Speaking last week, Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce welcomed the prospect of the sale and new investment into the team.

He said: “The club has been for sale for some time and new investment would be most welcome.

“Investment is needed at every football club and investment here has dried up somewhat because of the club being up for sale.

“We have a strong base at Rovers, a very good club which is run and managed very professionally indeed.

“Blackburn Rovers have a strong history and it could have a bright future given the right sort of investment.”

Al Jazeera has continued its assault on football rights in France by acquiring the rights to air Europa League matches for the next three seasons.

Commercial broadcaster M6 obtained the right to air the best match from the competition on its W9 channel and to air the semi-final and final.

The rights are currently held by pay TV operator Canal Plus, arthritis which airs about 90 Europa League matches per season. Al Jazeera has already secured rights to some Ligue 1 games in France and the majority of Champions League games, medstore all previously held by Canal Plus.

UEFA said: “UEFA is pleased to announce the continued partnership with the M6 Group for the UEFA Europa League and to further develop its relationship with al-Jazeera in the French market.”

Also UEFA announced Global Media Group have attained the Georgian rights to the Europa League.

Pay television operator Global Media Group has been awarded all rights to the rest of the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League season. At least two live matches per kick-off slot will be broadcast on GMG Football and GMG Sport 1, with GMG Sport 2 showing a third match live during the quarter-finals.

by Ismail Uddin

On Wednesday 27 October at 12 midday (CET), asthma FIFA’s Director of Competitions Mustapha Fahmy will conduct the draw for the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2010 presented by Toyota at the Home of FIFA. The draw will be streamed live on Fifa.com.

The competition will be held in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates from 8-18 December 2010. The opening game will feature UAE League champions Al Wahda against OFC O-League champions Hekari United of Papua New Guinea.

The winners of that game will then proceed to the quarter finals where they could be drawn against either Pachuca CF (Mexico), ed the AFC Champions League winners (Korea Republic’s Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma or Zob Ahan of Iran) or the CAF Champions League winners (TP Mazembe Englebert from DR Congo or Tunisia’s Esperance).

Waiting in the semi finals will be Italy’s Internazionale Milano, winners of last season’s UEFA Champions League and S.C. Internacional of Brazil, the reigning Copa Libertadores champions representing CONMEBOL.

SNTV, the joint venture between The Associated Press (AP) and IMG Worldwide, announced it has secured sports digital rights for customers of its SNTV Digital service which launched at last October’s Sportel.

The world’s leading television sports video news agency now has the rights to provide Bundesliga, Brazilian League, French Ligue 1 football highlights, WTA and U.S. Open Tennis, as well as FIS World Cup Skiing and Ski Jumping, and other alpine events, to eligible clients of its SNTV Digital service, including broadcasters wishing to make these clips available on their websites. SNTV also confirmed it has cleared Euroleague basketball digital rights.

The new content is available in SNTV Digital’s football and ‘all sport’ products, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and available in a full range of technical formats and delivery options including online, mobile, tablet devices and connected TVs. It will be made available as ready-to-publish clips with voice-over also available. In addition, the content is available as ‘raw’ edits of 2-to-4 minutes, if clients wish to adapt the content themselves.

SNTV Managing Director Martin Kay said: “We made a commitment at the launch of SNTV Digital to invest in additional digital rights to extend our market-leading services. Today’s announcement, following discussions with our rights holder partners underscores that commitment.”

Kay continued: “We are also heavily invested in global newsgathering to serve both broadcast and digital clients, we are counting the days to Euro 2012 and the Summer Olympics where our ‘road to…’ coverage is already well underway. The volume and quality of our news content leading up to and during these key sporting events will be tremendous, cleared for digital use and available in high definition.”

SNTV is the world’s leading television sports video news agency whose mission is to deliver the most relevant sports news to its customers, in the most useful ways. SNTV is a partnership between IMG Media, the world’s largest independent producer and distributor of sports programming, with more than 40 offices worldwide, and The Associated Press, the backbone of the world’s information system.

by Ismail Uddin

Seven people have been killed in a stampede at a football stadium in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, officials say. reports BBC.

The crush happened as a crowd tried to enter Nyayo National Stadium to watch a match between two of Kenya’s most popular teams. Six people died at the stadium while another person died later in hospital, a Kenyan Red Cross official said. The Premier League match between Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards continued despite the deaths.

Jack Oguda, head of the Kenya Premier League, was reported as saying an inquiry would be launched to establish why fans could not access the stadium, which he said was not full.

The BBC’s Will Ross in Nairobi says that the game was stopped only for a few minutes after the stampede, and that most people inside the stadium were probably not aware of what was happening outside.

This same stadium was banned by world federation FIFA from hosting World Cup qualifying matches after a crowd stampede at a game against Morocco in June 2005 when a crowd forced down gates before the game, killing a 15-year-old supporter and injuring 15 other fans.

FIFA disciplinary committee ordered Kenya to play their next against Tunisia behind closed doors and imposed a fine of $19,000.

Grammy Sports has signed a three-year deal for exclusive Thai rights to broadcast live Carling Cup matches from September onwards.

The matches will be televised on GMM Sport One and GMM Football Plus.

Managing director Kobkiat Sangwanich said the Carling Cup was Grammy Sports’ latest big name acquisition offered to fans via the 1Sky settop box since the beginning of 2012.

“Grammy will not stop at with this, but continue to select the best content for Thai sports’ fans,” he said.

Paiboon Damrongchaitham, chairman of GMM Grammy, said the company is negotiating with Free TV to become a co-broadcaster and plans to connect with Thai football fans through its “GMM Sport, every one can watch”, campaign. The viewer ratings for the Carling Cup are close to those of Premier League matches,” said Paiboon, highlighting the quality of the competition.

Besides owning the broadcast rights for the Europa League, Grammy is now negotiating for the JLeague, Asian football’s top-flight league, in Japan.

by Ismail Uddin