The two games between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in London this weekend bring Major League Baseball’s ‘regular season’ to the UK (and Europe) for the first time.

The games sold out very rapidly and the appetite to tickets on the secondary market has been the strongest of any MLB game this season (despite higher prices)  with fans from over 40 American states and 27 different countries buying seats.

London Stadium (the former Olympic Park) has been converted into a 65,000-capacity baseball venue in just 23 days with 150 staff needed to make the change.

You can watch the transformation in this video.

The home run distance in straightaway centre is only 385 feet away, which is shorter than at any current MLB stadium, so there are likely to be several balls hit out – which will probably please the crowd.

There will be 700 volunteers on hand at the stadium to help foster an exciting atmosphere.

Another series of UK games, with rivals St. Luis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs, is planned for next year.

MLB has visited Japan and Mexico for games this season. In 2014, there were MB games at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Australia.

Charlie Hill, MLB’s Managing Director EMEA, told BBC: “We want more people aware, playing and watching our sport.”

“How you choose to engage with baseball is up to you, whether it’s wearing a baseball cap with a team name on, picking up a bat, or watching the London Series on the television.”

The games will be streamed live on the BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.

“Most sports have conversations about internationalising. Like soccer playing friendly games in Asia and the USA – they want to grow their footprint. When it comes to the UK and you look at what other US sports have done, inevitably you look at the NFL. But these are long-term projects. You don’t transform a marketplace overnight.”

Yankees pitcher Zack Britton commented: “It’s going to be tough to replace soccer, right? The history of soccer is there. Rugby. Cricket. Stuff like that. But hopefully the games are exciting. That’s how you draw fans in. You see something new, somebody that’s never seen baseball, and if they see some action, and they see some excitement, some good games, that’s the best way to draw some fans in, get them interested in baseball.”

Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda officially stepped down from his post Thursday and Japanese judo chief and Olympic judo gold medallist Yasuhiro Yamashita was named his immediate successor.

The power transfer took place at an extraordinary meeting of the JOC’s Board of Directors in Tokyo as the Japanese capital readies to host the 2020 Summer Games in a little over a year’s time.

Kyodo News reports:

Takeda — the JOC’s longest-serving president — was expected to be re-elected when his 10th term ended this month, but an ongoing bribery investigation in France and its blowback at home led to the 71-year-old’s resignation.

“I am very happy that I was able to work and share the importance of the Olympic movement with so many people,” Takeda said. “(Retiring) was my own idea, so I don’t have any regrets. (In the future) if there’s anything I can do I want to cooperate.”

French prosecutors allege a consultancy fee paid in 2013 by Tokyo’s bid committee, of which Takeda was president at the time, was used as a bribe to win the 2020 Games.

The JOC is hoping to rebuild its tarnished reputation and limit any pre-games fallout related to the investigation. It is hoped Yamashita’s stature and popularity throughout the country due to his time as an elite judoka and national team coach will aid the effort.

“I fully realize the weight of the responsibilities taking the post of president involves with just over a year until our country hosts the Olympics and Paralympics,” Yamashita said. “I have to lead us in a united effort for the tournament to be a success.”

The 61-year-oldYamshita has been the president of the All Japan Judo Federation since 2017.

During his competition career, he won nine straight national championships from 1977 to 1985 and claimed four world titles between 1979 and 1983. He became a national hero on bringing home the open-weight category gold medal from the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The International Olympic Committee on Wednesday officially took over the boxing qualification and competition for next year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympics and suspended international boxing federation AIBA following a vote at its session.

Reuters reports:

The IOC voted unanimously to implement a recommendation of its Executive Board to oust troubled AIBA from the Tokyo 2020 Games over issues surrounding its finances and governance and suspend the body until the issues are resolved.

AIBA has been in turmoil over its finances and governance for years with the federation $16 million in debt and an ongoing bitter battle over the presidency that has split the body internally.

Serbian IOC member Nenad Lalovic, who heads an IOC task force to look into the ties with AIBA, earlier on Wednesday delivered a damning report to the IOC session, saying the association could reach a debt of as much as $29 million.

He also said AIBA had failed to reform at the top of the organization.

AIBA President Gafur Rahimov suspended himself from the post in March because of his presence on an U.S. Treasury Department sanctions list “for providing material support” to a criminal organization. The Uzbek strongly denies the allegations.

Rahimov’s presence on that sanctions list was extremely damaging to the IOC though he has been replaced on an interim basis by Mohamed Moustahsane.

“It exposes the IOC and its commercial partners to unacceptable reputational, legal and financial risks,” Lalovic said.

He said AIBA’s debt meant money would not go to sports and the athletes in the future and the organization still faced problems with refereeing.

Among those voting in favour of the exclusion was former AIBA President CK Wu, who was Rahimov’s predecessor before stepping down in 2017 after a bitter dispute with his own executive committee.

“I think that today… all members of the AIBA Executive Committee will understand that we need to unite and say goodbye to the old,” AIBA Executive Committee member Umar Kremlev said in a statement.

“Everyone guilty of what brought AIBA to this, must confess, apologize to the boxing community and leave. Our task, as members of the AIBA executive committee, is to unite, to accept early reforms and to start everything from scratch together to bring boxing back to a high level.”

AIBA largely depends on Olympic Games revenues to survive between Games and has started letting people go as a result of its Olympic exclusion. The sport’s governing body will discuss the IOC decision at its executive committee meeting on Thursday.

Japanese IOC member Morinari Watanabe, president of the International Gymnastics Federation, heads the task force to organize qualifiers and the Tokyo Games competition.

The IOC will almost treble the number of women boxers in Tokyo to 100, up from 36 at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. Men’s numbers will be reduced from 250 to 186 with the total of 286 boxers remaining identical from Rio.

There will be four regional qualifiers — Africa, Europe, Asia/Oceania and Americas — between January and April 2020 while hosts Japan can directly qualify four men and two women.

A final Olympic qualifying event will probably be held in May next year to allow athletes a second chance to qualify, the IOC has said.

The International Olympic Committee on Wednesday officially took over the boxing qualification and competition for next year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympics and suspended international boxing federation AIBA following a vote at its session.

The IOC voted unanimously to implement a recommendation of its Executive Board to oust troubled AIBA from the Tokyo 2020 Games over issues surrounding its finances and governance and suspend the body until the issues are resolved.

AIBA has been in turmoil over its finances and governance for years with the federation $16 million in debt and an ongoing bitter battle over the presidency that has split the body internally.

Serbian IOC member Nenad Lalovic, who heads an IOC task force to look into the ties with AIBA, earlier on Wednesday delivered a damning report to the IOC session, saying the association could reach a debt of as much as $29 million.

He also said AIBA had failed to reform at the top of the organization.

AIBA President Gafur Rahimov suspended himself from the post in March because of his presence on an U.S. Treasury Department sanctions list “for providing material support” to a criminal organization. The Uzbek strongly denies the allegations.

Rahimov’s presence on that sanctions list was extremely damaging to the IOC though he has been replaced on an interim basis by Mohamed Moustahsane.

“It exposes the IOC and its commercial partners to unacceptable reputational, legal and financial risks,” Lalovic said.

He said AIBA’s debt meant money would not go to sports and the athletes in the future and the organization still faced problems with refereeing.

Among those voting in favour of the exclusion was former AIBA President CK Wu, who was Rahimov’s predecessor before stepping down in 2017 after a bitter dispute with his own executive committee.

“I think that today… all members of the AIBA Executive Committee will understand that we need to unite and say goodbye to the old,” AIBA Executive Committee member Umar Kremlev said in a statement.

“Everyone guilty of what brought AIBA to this, must confess, apologize to the boxing community and leave. Our task, as members of the AIBA executive committee, is to unite, to accept early reforms and to start everything from scratch together to bring boxing back to a high level.”

AIBA largely depends on Olympic Games revenues to survive between Games and has started letting people go as a result of its Olympic exclusion. The sport’s governing body will discuss the IOC decision at its executive committee meeting on Thursday.

Japanese IOC member Morinari Watanabe, president of the International Gymnastics Federation, heads the task force to organize qualifiers and the Tokyo Games competition.

The IOC will almost treble the number of women boxers in Tokyo to 100, up from 36 at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. Men’s numbers will be reduced from 250 to 186 with the total of 286 boxers remaining identical from Rio.

There will be four regional qualifiers — Africa, Europe, Asia/Oceania and Americas — between January and April 2020 while hosts Japan can directly qualify four men and two women.

A final Olympic qualifying event will probably be held in May next year to allow athletes a second chance to qualify, the IOC has said.

 

Australia has held discussions with Indonesia about making a joint bid for the 2034 FIFA World Cup, Football Federation Australia (FFA) said on Thursday.

The FFA confirmed that it had met Indonesian Soccer Federation (PSSI) officials at an ASEAN meeting last week.

Reuters reports;

“Football Federation Australia confirms it has held discussions with the Indonesia Football Association (PSSI) about the possibility to jointly bid for the 2034 FIFA World Cup,” the FFA said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

“An Indonesia-Australia joint bid was also discussed at last week’s ASEAN Football Federation Council Meeting in Laos.”

The revelation comes days after Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said 10 countries from the ASEAN bloc, including Indonesia, would bid for the tournament at a news conference in Bangkok on Sunday.

The FFA said it noted the joint South East Asian bid was endorsed at the ASEAN summit.

“FFA welcomes the opportunity to further discuss a ASEAN bid for the 2034 FIFA World Cup with fellow Member Associations in the region,” the statement added.

The FFA declined to elaborate as to whether the talks between Australia and Indonesia were ongoing or had been shelved after the ASEAN announcement.

Australia was a candidate in the controversial bidding process for the 2022 World Cup awarded to Qatar but managed to win only one vote from FIFA’s executive council members in 2010.

The bid failure, funded by over A$40 million ($27.96 million) of government money, triggered criticism of the FFA and its methods after it emerged that the federation had funneled money into development projects with ties to FIFA exco members.

Indonesian media, citing PSSI secretary general Ratu Tisha, reported on Wednesday that Indonesia had decided to partner with Australia after Thailand had pulled out of the 2034 bid because it was “not ready”.

The 2026 World Cup is being jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Multiple countries have expressed interest in making joint bids for the 2030 finals, including South American and eastern European nations.

Women’s sport is currently enjoying a high profile but in many participation sports events the number of women participating is still well behind the men. To help narrow the gap, Limelight Sports, which manages the London Triathlon (July 27-28 this year), has teamed up with Her Spirit, a personalised coaching app for your mind, body and fuel aimed specifically at women.

They recruited 30 women new to the sport to understand why fewer women take part and what can be done to change this.

According to the Triathlon Industry Association, despite some recent increases, 68% of triathlon competitors are male. The balance in cycling events is even worse, and although running events are more equal Marastats shows that 62% of marathon runners and 54% of half marathon runners are male. Participation in these sports more broadly is still very male skewed according to Sport England’s Active Lives – 63% of cyclists and 55% of runners are male.

Her Spirit targets women looking to take part in participation events for the first time and make the experience as easy, supportive and as enjoyable as possible.Expert coaching and peer to peer support from like-minded women helps to guide women through all the elements involved in taking part.

The 30 women (the initial programme which was six times over-subscribed) have received a number of benefits including free entry to the London Triathlon, use of a wetsuit for trainingand competing, an 8 week training programme including one-to-one online coaching sessions, their own online community and group coaching sessions.

https://vimeo.com/344742380

Craig Dews, CEO Limelight Sports, said, “In 1990 when Limelight first started organising major participation events, they were generally very male dominated.  Over the last 15 years, there has been an increase in the percentage of female participants but much more work needs to be done. At Limelight, we are looking to get a better understanding of the barriers to women taking part in participation sport and then use the learnings to improve the way we market and deliver events to substantially increase the number of women taking part.”a

Melanie Berry, Co-founder of Her Spirit, said, “Participation sports such as running, cycling and triathlon provide the perfect platform for women to experience the achievement and thrill of taking part in professionally organised participation events. Women need to feel more confident about looking for greater challenges such as the London Triathlon and Her Spirit aims to help them as much as possible to take the first steps and go on to complete the journey.”

Ten new members have been elected to the International Olympic Committee, which now totals 105 people.

Greece regained IOC representation after four years with the election of Spyros Capralos as one of the new members to the global organisation.

Another new member is banker Tidjane Thiam, CEO of Credit Suisse, a French and Ivorian citizen (photo below).

Reuters reports:

Two of the biggest international federations were again left out in the cold. Neither FIFA President Gianni Infantino nor IAAF President Sebastian Coe was on the list for a fourth straight year.

The IOC also elected HRH Prince Feisal (Jordan) and Nawal Al Moutawakel (Morocco) to the IOC Executive Board.

Capralos had been reprimanded back in 2012 as head of his country’s Olympic Committee after his involvement in a London 2012 Games ticket resale scandal that also included several other national Olympic Committees.

Greece will host the 2021 IOC session in Athens that will also decide on the re-election of IOC President Thomas Bach.

Other new members are:

• Former Costa Rica president Laura Chinchill
• Cameroon sports administrator Odette Assembe Engoulou
• Matlohang Moiloa-Ramoqopo who heads the Lesotho National Olympic Committee
• Indonesian businessman Erick Thohir
• President of the Cape Verde Olympic Committee Filomena Fortes
• Narinder Dhruv Batra, President of the Indian Olympic Association
• Mustapha Berraf who heads the African Olympic Committees Association
• Lee Kee-heung Lee, South Korean Olympic Committee chief

As Sportaccord looks head to its 2020 edition in Beijing, new President Raffaele Chiulli of SportAccord and GAISF hailed the successful Gold Coast edition of SportAccord and the many accomplishments achieved during an action-packed week of the 17th edition of SportAccord.

The SportAccord Review magazine looks back at some of the many highlights across the event.

President Chiulli said: “The success of SportAccord 2019 proves the importance and commitment of our organisation to our stakeholders and members, delegates, exhibitors and partners involved in the sport landscape. SportAccord will continue to adapt to the needs of our delegates and provide a platform that allows us to gather and move forward on the activities and collaborations crucial to the development of our sports, athletes and fans, ensuring a voice for everyone.”

Held in the Oceania region for the first time, SportAccord 2019 followed hot on the heels of the XXI Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast – billed as the Games of Firsts.

Ban Ki-moon, 8th Secretary General of the United Nations, Chairman of the IOC Ethics Commission and Honorary President of 2019 Chungju World Martial Arts Masterships, delivered the Welcome Address at the SportAccord Summit conference, and highlighted the “transformative power of sport.”

He told the event Daily: “SportAccord can play an important role in solving the problems and developing and promoting a sporting community through Conferences, Summits, Sports Festivals and other events, helping to disseminate the values of sport and a healthy community to people worldwide.”

Looking forwards to future events, in an exclusive interview with iSportconnect TV, President Chiulli shared his vision for the expansion of SportAccord into regional saying “relevance is the aim.”

Regional SportAccord Pan America will take place for the first time, from 10-12 December, 2019 ,in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

The Pan American sports business event will bring together around 500 delegates from 400 organisations, representing over 30 cities and regions, over 15 industry sectors and more than 40 international and regional sports federations. Event accreditation is priced at USD $1,500 and organisations who would like to take part can register here for Regional SportAccord Pan America 2019.

The 18^th edition of SportAccord will return to Beijing, China from 19- 24 April, 2020. The key decision makers in sport will gather at the China National Convention Center for a week of networking and meetings. Organisations can register and take advantage of the myriad opportunities, high-profile events and social occasions being organised for SportAccord Beijing.

To take part in either event, organisations can register online or contact the sales team to become an exhibitor or partner.

Follow developments and updates via Twitter @sportaccord, or keep up-to-date via LinkedIn and Facebook.