The Formula One Grand Prix in Bahrain is still set to go-ahead amid fears that violent human rights protests will target the opening race of the F1 season to attract attention to their cause.

The race is scheduled to take place next month on March 13 at the Sakhir circuit, with the 12 teams set to travel for final pre-season tests on March 3. The civil unrest in the nation has seen two people lose their lives to date.

A spokesman for motor sport’s governing body, the FIA, stated: “We are monitoring the situation with the promoters and the authorities. The plan is for the grand prix to go ahead but our main concern will always be the safety of the teams and the spectators.”

Nabeel Rajab, the vice‑president of the campaign group – Bahrain Center for Human Rights, told the Arabian Business publication: “For sure F1 is not going to be peaceful this time. There’ll be lots of journalists, a lot of people looking and [the government] will react in a stupid manner as they did today and yesterday. And that will be bloody but will be more publicised. This will not stop, especially now when people [have] died. I don’t think it’s going to stop easily.”

Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One rights holder, has expressed his concern, saying in an Interview with the Daily Telegraph: “The danger is obvious, isn’t it? If these people wanted to make a fuss and get worldwide recognition, it would be bloody easy, wouldn’t it? You start making a problem on the start grid in Bahrain and it would get worldwide coverage. We’re watching events closely. We’ll rely on what they think the right thing to do is.”

The FIA added: “The FIA and Sheikh Abdulla Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, president of the Bahrain Motor Federation, are actively monitoring the situation in the lead-up to the grand prix in March. The primary concern is the safety of Bahraini citizens, spectators, teams, drivers and all those involved in the F1 race. Sheikh Abdulla is confident everyone is working hard to ensure the situation will be amicably resolved.”

Soccerex, viagra the global leader for the business of football, is once again leading the way in opening up new frontiers with the announcement that they are to hold a new event, the Soccerex Russian Summit on 23^rd -24^th June 2011, in Moscow.

The event will be held in association with leading international communications company, Eventica, at the magnificent Ritz Carlton Hotel, overlooking Red Square and the Kremlin.

With a limited capacity of 400 at the venue, the Summit will provide a highly exclusive networking environment and offer the worldwide football industry a first look at the burgeoning Russian market and the varied business opportunities in this prosperous territory, ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

CBS CEO Leslie Moonves has revealed that CBS Sport has appointed Sean McManus as the chairman of the broadcast division after overseeing both CBS News and CBS Sports since 2005.

The news comes as part of a reshuffle at the company with McManus leaving the News division altogether. “60 Minutes” Executive Producer Jeff Fager is now Chairman of CBS News. He’ll be working with the newly-hired David Rhodes, who was most recently head of U.S. Television for Bloomberg. Rhodes takes the title of President of CBS News.

Moonves tells the staff “these are three terrific executives, and our whole organization will benefit from their tremendous talent, dedication and experience.” The changes take place as of February 22. In radio, the CBS News Radio product is distributed by longtime partner Westwood One.

Annecy, the underdog in the bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, received a US$3.2m boost yesterday, February 2, on the eve of a crucial visit from inspectors.

The funding increase comes as the government look to play down suggestions that they have not shown enough financial backing to the bid after former chief executive of the Annecy bid, Edgar Grospiron quit in December claiming underfunding issues.

Charles Beigbeder has since replaced the outgoing Grospiron and is more optimistic, hoping to announcing a bigger cash injection into the bid following negotiations with several major firms. 

Beigbeder stated in an interview with the Associated Press: “I have several other projects with private companies which need to be finalised. The money doesn’t make everything but it’s important to promote the bid.”

When speaking of the impending visit from IOC officials the bid chief added: “We can’t win the Games during this visit but we can lose them. They are coming to check that we can actually host the Games. We will be auditioned 16 times over four days and we need to be super-professional.”

In an effort to boost their bid, Annecy have also appointed Britain’s Andrew Craig as a consultant. Craig previously worked on winning bids for Vancovuer 2010, London 2012 and Sochi 2014. 

“Of course we can’t bet all our money on him, but it’s certainly an extra something for us. Promotion is really important and we need to use the best people,” Beigbeder said.

Eurosport have announced a two-year, pan-European partnership with Nintendo to provide 3D sports content for the company’s new 3D console. The agreement represents the latest move by Eurosport into 3D, after becoming one of the most prominent supporters of 3D development over the past 18 months.

Nintendo 3DS will now receive exclusive and extensive exposure via Eurosport across their multi-media communication platforms including TV, Internet and mobile broadcasts.

Eurosport Group chairman and CEO Laurent-Eric Le Lay stated: “We are pleased to partner with Nintendo to provide compelling sports video content for the newest game console, 3DS.”

He added: “Eurosport has always been at the forefront of new technology and this partnership is another demonstration of our commitment to innovation and our ability to reach new audiences by making Eurosport content available on as many platforms as possible.”

Dorna Sports have extended their long-standing partnership with Swiss watchmaker Tissot as the Official Timekeeper and Official Watch of MotoGP. The partnership began over 10 years ago with the renewal seeing Tissot continue as the official timing partner of the FIM’s flagship motorcycle racing championship.

Today, view alongside its partnership with MotoGP Tissot has a wide sporting sponsorship portfolio. The company is also the Official Timekeeper of the World Championships of Basketball (FIBA), pharmacy sale Cycling (UCI), medicine Ice Hockey (IIHF) and Fencing (FIE).

Rugby Super League’s Castleford Tigers have been given a huge Christmas present by the Wakefield Council who announced that they would contribute US$3.1m in funding to the clubs new stadium plans. A detailed planning application is now being drawn up to be submitted before Christmas.

Castleford Tigers chief executive officer, Richard Wright, said, “The club welcomes the news as the US$3.1 million contribution from Wakefield MDC is a key part of our funding packages. We are extremely grateful.

“Despite the difficulties they face with the cutbacks to public spending, by this announcement Wakefield MDC has shown their continued support of the club. We can now commit the substantial investment needed to submit our detailed planning application with increased confidence now the council has reiterated its support for the project.”

The International Golf Federation (IGF) have appointed their first president, the governing body announced on Wednesday 15 December, as Royal and Ancient chief executive Peter Dawson.

Dawson, who has been joint secretary of the IGF since 1999, will serve a two-year term from January 1 alongside Ty Votaw, who has been appointed executive vice-president of the federation.

Votaw, a PGA Tour executive vice-president, co-ordinated golf’s bid to be included on the 2016 Olympic Games programme. Just over a year ago, golf and rugby sevens were confirmed as new Olympic sports.

Anthony Scanlon was introduced to IGF last month as the federation’s new executive director and the two new appointments represent a significant re-shuffle at the head of the IGF.

“These announcements, coupled with Antony Scanlon’s appointment as IGF executive director and our relocation to Lausanne, demonstrates golf’s determination to play an active part in the Olympic movement,” said Dawson.

Votaw added: “As we look ahead, the work has just begun in regard to the Olympic Games and the co-ordination efforts that are required in order to ensure success in Rio, but we very much look forward to the challenge.”

The regional governing body of softball, The European Softball Federation (ESF) is creating a commission to establish the sports chances of reinstatement in future Olympic Games.

The Olympic Softball Evaluation Committee are aiming to reinstate the sport which ran as a women’s event  from the 1996 Atlanta Games up until the Beijing Olympics in 2008. A decision was made by International Olympic Committee (IOC) members to drop softball from the programme for the London 2012 Olympics after a tied vote.

Softball was again overlooked for the schedule of the Rio Olympics in 2016 in favour of Rugby Sevens and Golf by the IOC. This decision made in 2009 dismissed four years of campaigning by the International Softball Federation (ISF) under the name of BackSoftball as they tried to emphasise the sports global support.

ESF President Andre van Overbeek said: “The launching of this evaluating commission is a big step forward in understanding the reasons why the IOC dropped softball from the Olympic programme and why our Backsoftball campaign didn’t gave us the results we hoped for,

“This commission will also make recommendations how to continue with our future efforts for reinstatement and keep the Olympic dream alive for all players around the world.”

The newly proposed commission will comprise of five members who will represent the national softball federations of Europe. The decisions on who will make up the board are set to be made within the next fortnight. A report will be completed and submitted to the ISF culminating the commissions work in the summer of next year.

The Women’s European Handball Championships (EHF EURO) 2010 will begin in Norway/Denmark on December 7. The event hosts a strong sponsor line-up and extensive coverage.

The Women’s EHF EURO sponsors will benefit from TV-visible perimeter and board advertising as well as on-floor signage, media backdrops, onsite presentation and promotions with added VIP hospitality. Among the companies involved in the sponsorship of the event are AJ (Home and office furniture), Bring (postal services and cargo), GF (insurance), Gjensidige (insurance), Grundfos (Pump solutions), HMN Naturgas (energy) and Nets (payment services).

Infront has concluded agreements for 63 countries and territories worldwide in regards to media rights. The event will be transmitted by 62 television and radio stations. Most of the broadcasters will provide live or near-live transmissions, depending on the time zones and broadcaster schedules.

This year the official website will once again be jointly produced by the EHF and Infront. The platform offers fans extensive information about the event, participating nations,
players and live game statistics. For 2010 a dedicated online broadcast service will feature online video coverage of all 47 Women’s EHF EURO matches.