Mit Blick auf die derzeitige Diskussion über die vorgeschlagenen Maßnahmen zur Verbesserung der Sicherheit bei Fußballspielen ist es dem Ligaverband ein Anliegen, ambulance noch einmal (wie schon in der Pressemitteilung vom 15.11.2012 zur Vorstellung des weiterentwickelten Maßnahmen-Katalogs) ausdrücklich zu betonen:

• Es wird keine statuarischen Vorgaben bezüglich “Vollkontrollen” oder “Ganzkörperkontrollen” geben.
• Ein Automatismus, wonach Fan-Gruppierungen in ihrer Gesamtheit bei Fehlverhalten einzelner bestraft werden, war und ist nicht vorgesehen.
• Der Ligaverband tritt weiter konsequent für den Erhalt der Stehplätze als wichtigen Bestandteil der Fußball-Kultur ein. Im Sinne des Erhalts der  Fußball-Kultur muss es das Ziel aller Beteiligten sein, gemeinsam nicht tolerierbaren Auswüchsen entgegen zu treten. Gleichzeitig distanziert sich der Ligaverband von populistischen Forderungen wie beispielsweise nach der Einführung von “Fußfesseln”.
• Der Ligaverband tritt weiterhin für eine Versachlichung der Diskussion ein, die auf Basis der Fakten stattfindet und nicht ideologisch geführt wird. Dieser Wunsch richtet sich ausdrücklich an alle Beteiligten – Politik, Polizei, aber auch die Vertreter der organisierten Fans.

Darüber hinaus bedankt sich der Ligaverband bei allen Clubs, die zwischenzeitlich ihre Stellungnahme mit Blick auf den weiterentwickelten Maßnahmen-Katalog abgegeben haben. Zur Mitgliederversammlung des Ligaverbandes am 12. Dezember 2012 werden nun konkrete Anträge unter Einbeziehung der Rückmeldungen der Clubs sowie Vertretern der organisierten Fans erarbeitet. Nach Versand des weiterentwickelten Maßnahmen-Katalogs hatte es weitere Gespräche gegeben mit den Fan- und Sicherheitsbeauftragten sowie in der AG Fanbelange, in der u.a. zwei Sprecher der Fanbeauftragten, die Koordinationsstelle Fanprojekte (KOS), die Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Fan-Projekte sowie Initiativen wie “Unsere Kurve” und “Pro Fans” und andere vertreten sind.

Malaysia plans to spend US$61.24 million in 2013 to boost the country’s sporting performance.

“The challenge for us here is simply that that we don’t just spend money, but to make sure that the money will generate sporting success,” youth and sports minister, Ahmad Shabery Cheek, said.

The figure is higher than spending in previous years and US$2.7million of the budget has been set aside for the biennial Malaysia Games, for under-21 athletes, to be held in Kuala Lumpur next June.

Malaysia won its first medal outside of badminton at the London Olympics this year, as Pandelela Rinong finished third in the women’s 10 metre diving event.

“Although we didn’t win gold this time, it was by far our best performance to date. And we know we can excel in different sports,” Ahmad Shabery said.{jcomments on}

 

William Hill, Britain’s largest bookmaker, have upped their bid for Sportingbet, with the online gaming group likely to agree to a £530 million($851 million) takeover.

If a deal goes through, William Hill, best known for its 2,300 British high street betting shops and which has been expanding overseas, would acquire Sportingbet’s operations in Australia and Spain where gambling is regulated.

GVC Holdings , a junior partner in the deal, will take Sportingbet’s businesses in other parts of the world where regulatory rules are less clearly defined and risks are higher.

The two gambling entities saw their first proposal to take over Sportingbet overwhelmingly rejected by stakeholders, who felt that the £350 million offered significantly undervalued the group.

William Hill, which bought three businesses in the U.S. state of Nevada earlier this year, and GVC have until November 13 to make a formal offer.

The proposal that Sportingbet said on Tuesday it would agree to is a mix of cash and stock that would value its shares at 61.1 pence, up from a 52.5 pence offer rejected two weeks ago.

Australia is the mainstay of Sportingbet’s business. The company is a market leader in Australian telephone and online gaming and the unit accounted for almost 70 of company revenues and almost all of its profit in its last financial year.

Embratel president Jose Formoso stated: “This is the pinnacle of a project that began in 2008 with the bid of Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics. The partnership will be a golden opportunity to show the quality of the Embratel-Claro consortium services.”

Claro president Carlos Zenteno added: “This opens up new opportunities for Claro to develop creative and innovative projects to offer ever more sophisticated services to the Rio Games.”

Rio 2016 organising committee president Carlos Nuzman also commented: “We’ve reached another historic milestone for the Rio 2016 Games. To be able to count on a consortium composed of companies of the calibre of Claro and Embratel is an honour and means we can confidently face the challenges of Rio 2016 in the telecommunications sector.”

Any deal that may see television rights for some England national soccer team games sold collectively by UEFA would be forbidden by the Football Association (FA) if it meant that broadcast revenue would be slashed.

The FA is currently in negotiations with European soccer’s governing body, which wants to centralise the awarding of such rights for European Championship – and possibly World Cup – qualifiers.

As a result, that could significantly reduce cash-flow for the FA, which is insisting upon being compensated for any shortfall, according to the Daily Mail.

A spokesman for the governing body stated: “The FA will not sign or agree to any deal that results in a reduction in broadcast revenue.”

The TV rights to England games are currently bundled in with those for the FA Cup and were worth US$687m domestically, and a further $242.5m in overseas contracts, when the FA signed a four-year deal with ITV and Setanta in 2007.

The collapse of Setanta meant that the FA had to seek a new deal and agreed a different contract with ESPN, which is now out of step with the ITV contract.

The soccer associations of Italy, Spain, Germany, France and Holland are also said to be seeking assurances about compensation for any shortfall they might suffer, with UEFA wanting all 53 member federations to sign over their broadcast rights in time for the annual congress in Paris next month.

Any such deal would mirror the way in which TV rights are awarded for Champions League and Europa League matches.

Peform, denture a major digital media specialist, cialis has completed a 100 per cent buyout of leading soccer website Goal.com from a consortium of investors including Bessemer Venture Partners.

The deal represents a major step by Perform which, according to Comscore, streams sports videos to 21 times more unique users than any other sports video operator in the UK. Over the past three years, Goal.com has expanded its reach into 15 languages, and the January viewing figures for the website reached nearly 20 million unique users.

In announcing the takeover, Perform stated that it would integrate its live sports data (GSM), video news (Omnisport), video highlights (ePlayer) and live streaming (Livesport.tv) from its catalogue of more than 40 different football leagues and competitions. The acquisition will also see Perform add its mobile expertise to the existing Goal.com services, which are already available on iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

Perform joint-CEO Simon Denyer stated: “Goal.com is the iconic global football portal and a clear market leader. This acquisition gives Perform a major brand and major worldwide coverage. We now reach over 95 million sports fans every month – a large and ever-increasing number of potential customers. This means Perform, our advertisers and rights-holder partners are now able to market to and transact with a very significant fan base.”

Goal.com CEO Ron Elwell added: “Over the past five years, Goal.com has grown from nothing to the largest football site in the world, reaching tens of millions of passionate fans thanks to the vision of our founder, Gian Luigi Longinotti-Buitoni. The acquisition by Perform provides a great platform for the continued growth of the site with the addition of world-class video content and I’m sure it will continue to be a fantastic business.”

As part of the takeover, Perform will retain three key members of Goal.com’s management team including Michael Simpson, one of the website’s original founders, who assumes the role of senior vice-president for product and content. Jonathan Gamble becomes senior vice-president for commercial and sales, and Scott Rothrock is staying on as chief technology officer.

The first London 2012 venue at the Olympic Park has been opened, with the Olympic Velodrome ready for riders ahead of next year’s event and Sir Chris Hoy declared he “can’t wait” for the Olympics after riding on the finished London 2012 cycle track for the first time.

Scotsman and four-time Olympic champion Hoy, was joined by fellow Beijing winners Victoria Pendleton and Jason Kenny plus a team of British sprint stars who are all aiming for London 2012 success. The cycling icon provided a much-needed cyclist’s viewpoint to the designers and architects about what is needed for the venue in Stratford, east London.

He stated: “Having been involved in a very small way in the design process in the early stages, it’s amazing to see the velodrome finally completed, and to be able to have ridden on it gives me a feel for what it’s going to be like in a year and a half’s time. I can’t wait!”

The VeloPark is expected to come in on budget at around £93m (US$150.3m). The facility is a 6,000-seat velodrome, complete with its sweeping roof designed to reflect the curve of the cycling track.

Building work began on in March 2009 and the development has now been handed over from the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to the London 2012 organisers with tasks now ahead to install the temporary facilities, such as lighting and scoring, needed to turn it into a world class Olympic and Paralympic venue.

London 2012 chairman Lord Coe described it as “a stunning venue built for champions”.

The construction took a team of 26 carpenters eight weeks to install the track and more than 350,000 nails were used to on its 56km of timber surface with organisers billing it as the world’s fastest cycling track, thanks to a range of tailored features including the track geometry plus the temperature and environmental conditions.

ODA chairman John Armitt added: “In delivering the velodrome on time and to budget we have completed our first Olympic Park venue and our biggest milestone to date.

“The striking architecture of the velodrome and the medal prospects of our world-leading cyclists mean the venue will become one of the defining images from the Games, and a landmark new building for future generations to enjoy.”

After the Games, the velodrome will be used by elite athletes and the local community and will include a cafe, bike hire and cycle workshop facilities.

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.”