WBA World Heavyweight Champion David Haye’s trainer, Adam Booth says the ball is firmly in Wladimir Klitschko’s court after Haye agreed to a 50-50 split of revenues. 

In a bid to unify his titles, Haye has offered the deal Klitshcko a ‘has wanted from day one’ according to Booth. Klitschko set a deadline of January 4 to agree terms for the unification clash, and Booth claims all previous stumbling blocks have been removed. 

“We are now perfectly positioned to get together and make this fight with Wladimir Klitschko,” said Booth. 

“We have sorted out all the old problems and disagreements and are ready to sign the deal both (Klitschko’s manager) Bernd Boente and I discussed on Sky Sports’ Ringside show in November. 

“Despite the fact we know we bring more UK television money to the table, David and I are happy to split the entire pot 50:50 and grant Wladimir the deal he has wanted since day one. 

“We have offered them 50:50 on everything – just as they requested – and now see no reason why this tremendous fight can’t happen. The path is clear.” 

Haye added that he sees no reason why Klitschko should not agree to a unification fight in 2011. 

“We have now ticked every box they have asked us to tick and I just hope Wladimir is as eager to fight as he tells everyone he is,” said Haye. 

“We have removed every possible excuse and have shown we are serious about making this fight become a reality. I’ll smoke him out if I have to. 

“I only pray Wladimir is as serious as we are, because this fight needs to happen for the good of the sport.”

A deal has now been completed which has seen the New Orleans Hornets become the first ever National Basketball Association (NBA) side to be owned by the league itself. The NBA’s acquisition of the team has long been suspected but is now finalised after previous owner George Shinn was forced to sell the franchise due to financial troubles.

The NBA will run the side until a new owner can be found after New Orleans native, Jac Sperling was placed in charge of finding the right buyer. It is believed that as a local man himself, Sperling is focusing his attentions on keeping the side in New Orleans which is also the incentive for an amalgamation of local business owners calling themselves the Hornets’ Business Council.

The group have been attempting to boost home ticket sales to prevent the side from relocating, though the Hornets still have the third lowest attendance in the league. Shinn founded the Hornets himself in 1988 in Charlotte, North Carolina. He then relocated the club to New Orleans in 2002 where they play at the New Orleans Arena.

A new report released by the National Bank of Kuwait on Sunday 19 December stated that the World Cup 2022 in Qatar will provide a significant economic boost to the national and its neighbouring countries.

The study revealed that Qatar’s significant construction programme ahead of the event will have a knock-on impact on other countries in the Middle East. According to the report: ‘Hosting the World Cup will set tight deadlines, create extra spending, bring in new expertise and present additional motivation and incentives’.

Among the infrastructure projects planned include a $25 billion metro and rail network, a $7 billion deep water port, a $10 billion international airport at Doha and a $4 billion causeway linking Qatar and Bahrain. $20 billion is also set to be spent on building and expanding Qatar’s road network.

A further $4 billion will be spent on 12 state-of-the-art stadia with air conditioning. The study added that Qatari officials have pledged to add 90,000 new hotel rooms before 2022, surpassing the 65,000 demanded by FIFA.

Richard Davies will resign from his post as ATP properties CEO at the end of 2010, announced the ATP.

The position has been held by Davies since 2004 which saw him responsible for the company’s sponsorship sales. Amongst his achievements in the role includes and instrumental effort in securing Corona Extra as the Tour’s global premier partner.

ATP executive chairman and president, Adam Helfant spoke of Davies decision: “We thank Richard for his many contributions to the ATP over the past six and a half years. Richard will be missed and we wish him the very best.”

Recent developments at the have seen the organisation heed to the cry of an increased rest period by many of the games professionals. ATP announced that the men’s tennis calendar will be shortened by two weeks from 2012 to allow the players a seven-week off-season.

Visa, an official sponsor of the International Olympics Committee (IOC) is looking to enhance the profile of Britain’s Olympic athletes during its marketing activity ahead of the 2012 Games. Up until the event, Visa will be the official presenting partner of the British team and will look to boost the profile to encourage interest in the athletes progression.

Head of Partnership Marketing at Visa Europe, Colin Grannell stated: “The goal is to make the team famous, to make some of the individuals much higher-profile.”

In their attempts to achieve this goal, Visa will also create competitions that offer the chance to meet and train with athletes in the run-up to the Games. The campaign will be undertaken through digital and social media as well as point-of-sale activity.

The Football Federation of Belarus (BFF) have announced a new five-year partnership with Sportradar as the data company will become the official sports data partner of the organisation. 

Sportradar struck the deal with Sport Tube, adiposity which has been granted the rights and authorisations to market the commercial rights to all competitions governed by the BFF as well as the Belarus national team.

Under the agreement, buy Sportradar has acquired the worldwide and exclusive rights to collect, archive and distribute sports data for all matches organised by the BFF for the betting industry.

As part of the deal, Sportradar will co-operate with Sport Tube to build up a professional live scout network in Belarus.

“Together we will enable all fans of Belarusian football to be able to utilise the full breadth and depth of the content offered,” Sport Tube’s chief executive officer Alexej Vakulshik said.

Carsten Koerl, group chief executive officer of Sportradar, added: “Our market leading betting and sports data services will engage fans throughout Europe in new ways and across all platforms.”

A special riot force has been launched to help Brazilian police control demonstrations expected during the World Cup later this year.

The head of the elite National Security Force, Colonel Alexandre Augusto Aragon, was quoted in local news on Friday as saying that 10,000 riot troops selected from state police forces throughout Brazil will be deployed in the 12 cities hosting World Cup games June 12-July 13.

“We’ve have been concerned with this (security during the World Cup) before the protests that took place earlier this year, because we don’t wait around for things to happen,” he told the G1 internet portal. “The violence of recent protests is what scared us.”

At the peak of the protests, a million people took to the streets across Brazil in a single day, complaining initially of higher bus fares, corruption and poor public services, and then extending to the billions of dollars being spent on the World Cup and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

“There will be no World Cup,” became one of the mass movement’s most popular chants. “FIFA go home.” was another.

The demonstrations coincided with the Confederations Cup soccer tournament, a warm-up tournament for the World Cup.

Jerome Valcke, the top FIFA official in charge of the World Cup, said recently that the tournament would have “the highest level of security you can imagine” to contain any violence.

Valcke said he was satisfied with the police response during the protests that affected the six Confederations Cup host cities.

The UK government has scheduled a summit meeting with senior sports officials following the arrests of footballers over allegations of spot-fixing.

Maria Miller, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, will host the meeting in London today with representatives from football, tennis, cricket, rugby union and rugby league.

Blackburn striker DJ Campbell is the most high-profile player to be arrested, while Sam and Akpo Sodje, along with their businessman brother Steven, are also under investigation.

Oldham midfielder Cristian Montano was also arrested, along with Tranmere defender Ian Goodison, with all six bailed until April.

Campbell incurred a yellow card in the Championship clash against Ipswich last week – an incident which is believed to be at the centre of police enquiries.

Montano was filmed claiming that he agreed to get himself booked in return for cash, although he failed to incur a yellow card in the fixture against Wolves in October.

A Blackburn statement read: “Following reports in the national media, Blackburn Rovers can confirm that striker DJ Campbell has been arrested. The club will be making no further comment on what is now an ongoing legal matter.”

Speaking at a press conference, Oldham boss Lee Johnson confirmed Montano was being questioned and had been suspended without pay.

Lee also revealed he had rewritten his match programme notes for Tuesday’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tie against Chesterfield to reflect the mood at the club.

He said: “There’s no place for any kind of match fixing. It’s too beautiful a game for that.

“We’ve got to stamp it out. We have to remove people from the game that could ruin it.”

The Professional Footballers’ Association said: “These allegations, if proven, unfortunately demonstrate the real issue football faces in terms of corruption and highlights the necessity of the work carried out by the PFA and other stakeholders in the game in educating players of these risks.

“We take the issue of integrity very seriously and will continue in our efforts to eradicate this evil from our game.”

Portsmouth have confirmed a meeting will be held with their players on Tuesday in the wake of the allegations towards Sam Sodje.

Chief executive Mark Catlin said: “All you can do is check the people around you, notice anything suspicious and inform the players how serious an issue this is.

“We will be doing that tomorrow (Tuesday) as a club, speaking to the players and saying we have to be self-policing. If anyone sees or hears anything suspicious it’s not a case of dropping a friend in it, it’s about upholding the integrity of the sport.

“Things like this need to be dealt with internally. The people who will root this out are the players, the managers and the people within football.”

EHF Marketing GmbH, the marketing arm of the European Handball Federation, has announced a new agreement that will see the promotion of the 2015 World Handball Championship to fans across Europe.

Beginning with the 2013 VELUX EHF FINAL4 to be played in Cologne on 1/2 June 2013, the co-operation will see the advertising and promotion of the event through LCD perimeter advertising in the VELUX EHF Champions League.

The deal also includes promotional events for fans at the next two VELUX EHF FINAL4 events and at selected matches in the VELUX EHF Champions League over the next two seasons.

Commenting on the new agreement, Peter Vargo, Managing Director of EHF Marketing GmbH, said: “We are delighted to be able to welcome our new partners. We are looking forward to working with them to ensure a greater exposure of the tournament. With plethora of stars from the VELUX EHF Champions League the 2015 World Championship is also bound to be a show window of our premier competition and our new partnership underlines how our brand expands beyond the European borders.”

The 2015 World Championship will be played in Doha, Qatar from 11 to 27 January 2015, the first time that the event will be hosted in the Middle East. In a new innovation, the 24-team event will be staged in venues across one city, offering superb conditions for teams, media and spectators who will be able focus completely on the sport rather than travelling between venues. Thanks to the Qatari climate, fans travelling to the event will also be able to enjoy the sun with average temperatures of 20 degrees in January.

HE Skk Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani, Chairman of the 2015 World Championship, said: “The Qatar Organising Committee’s vision is to promoting the handball community. Without any doubt staging the championship in one single city enables an unbeatable feeling of togetherness to the handball family.”

Over the ten years, Qatar will be hosting several of the world’s most important sport events, including the FINA 2014 Swimming World Championship, the 2015 Men’s World Handball Championship, UCI 2016 Open Road World Championship and the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Sport ist ein erheblicher Wirtschaftsfaktor. Das zeigen die Ergebnisse der Studien “Bedeutung des Spitzen- und Breitensports im Bereich Werbung, ambulance Sponsoring und Medienrechte” und “Wirtschaftliche Bedeutung des Sportkonsums in Deutschland”, die im Rahmen eines Workshops im Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie vorgestellt wurden.

Der Parlamentarische Staatssekretär beim Bundesminister für Wirtschaft und Technologie und Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Mittelstand und Tourismus, Ernst Burgbacher: „Sport und Sportvereine sind eine tragende Säule des Gemeinwohls und leisten einen unverzichtbaren Beitrag zum gesellschaftlichen Leben in Deutschland. Gleichzeitig kommt dem Sport mit fast 100 Mrd. Euro Umsatz im Jahr eine besondere volkswirtschaftliche Bedeutung zu.”

Nach den Ergebnissen der Studie spielen Spitzen- und Breitensport in den Bereichen privater Konsum, Werbung, Sponsoring und Medienrechte in der deutschen Volkswirtschaft eine herausragende Rolle. Der durch Sport in Deutschland ausgelöste Konsum liegt bei fast 90 Mrd. Euro pro Jahr. Für Werbung, Sponsoring und Medienrechte werden fast 6 Mrd. Euro pro Jahr ausgegeben.

Burgbacher hob das Engagement des Mittelstands hervor und wies darauf hin, dass es gerade die kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen seien, die 75 Prozent des Sponsorings tragen. Ebenso sei der Sport für den Tourismus wirtschaftlich sehr bedeutsam, ob als Freizeitbeschäftigung oder bei sportlichen Großveranstaltungen.

Die Rolle des Sports für die Integration und Chancengleichheit sowie die Vermittlung von Werten ist unbestritten. Zugleich dient Sport der Erhaltung der Gesundheit, was angesichts der demographischen Entwicklung und Zunahme chronischer Erkrankungen immer größere Bedeutung gewinnt.