VisitBritain has reappointed Christopher Rodrigues to serve a second four-year term as the chairman of Britain’s national tourism agency as the industry stands on the brink of its greatest opportunity for years.

Rodrigues will continue to provide the strategic leadership to the company, after being named as chairman in January 2007, as it takes on the task of using major events such as the Royal Wedding, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to showcase Britain and deliver a permanent increase in tourism to the UK.

Rodrigues’ reappointment comes after UK Prime Minister David Cameron backed the challenge of creating a unique public-private partnership to fund a global marketing campaign with British Airways, DFDS Seaways, lastminute.com, P&O and Radisson Edwardian being the first companies to have agreed to contribute to the campaign.

VisitBritain is believed to be well advanced towards the goal of building a £100 million ($162 million) marketing fund and Rodrigues stated: “I am absolutely delighted to be reappointed to this challenging role at such an opportune moment for British tourism.

“In a few months the eyes of the world will be on the Royal Wedding at Westminster Abbey and next summer they will be focused on the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Games.

“These and other iconic events present us with an unprecedented opportunity to boost Britain’s image abroad and promote our attractiveness as a destination.

“I am determined to do my utmost to ensure that tourism, already Britain’s fifth largest industry and third biggest earner of foreign exchange, makes a major contribution to the rebalancing and rebuilding of Britain’s economy.”

Tourism Minister John Penrose said: “The next few years offer a wealth of opportunities for the tourism industry from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, to the Diamond Jubilee and a certain Royal wedding.

“Christopher’s vast knowledge and experience will allow VisitBritain and the wider industry as a whole to reap the benefits, creating growth and raising the profile of the UK abroad, and I’m delighted he will be serving a second term as Chairman.”

A potential collective bargaining agreement (CBA) being reached between the National Football League (NFL) and Player’s Association (NFLPA) still seems very far away after the league filed an unfair practices complaint against its player’s union to the National Labour Relations Board.

The NFL claim that the NFLPA isn’t bargaining in good faith on a new contract, using delays to “run out the clock” on talks before disbanding the union and suing the league under antitrust law for colluding to restrict players’ pay.

With the current deal expiring in just over two weeks time on March 3, the union has stated it expects the league to lock out players after saying that the NFL’s claim had “absolutely no merit” .

In yesterday’s filing, the NFL said the union’s threat to decertify is “a ploy and an unlawful subversion of the collective bargaining process, there being no evidence whatsoever of any (let alone widespread) dissatisfaction with the union by its members.”

The ITF announced today that Invacare will continue its sponsorship of wheelchair tennis for a 17th successive year by becoming title sponsor of the ITF’s year-end Doubles Masters event in a two-year deal. The 2011 Invacare Doubles Masters will be held in Amsterdam on 2-6 November.

The Invacare Doubles Masters is the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis doubles event. First staged in 2000, ambulance the season-ending event currently features the world’s top eight men’s doubles pairs, and the top four women and quad doubles pairs. Women’s world No. 1 Esther Vergeer has been the most successful competitor, sharing the women’s title on eight occasions.

Invacare Corporation was previously title sponsor of the World Team Cup between 1996 and 2010. The European team of Invacare Corporation has overseen its wheelchair tennis sponsorship since 2008, since when the company has increased its on-site involvement and operational support behind the scenes.

During the 2011 Invacare Doubles Masters, the European team of Invacare Corporation will continue to host the successful international wheelchair tennis symposium that has been held during the World Team Cup for the past three years. The symposium is a public seminar that features a variety of guest speakers from wheelchair sport and various medical experts.

ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti said: “We are delighted that Invacare is continuing its sponsorship of wheelchair tennis. The company’s longstanding support of the World Team Cup helped it become the most prestigious event on the ITF’s wheelchair tennis calendar, and I am confident that its commitment and enthusiasm will have a similar effect on this important year-end event.”

Hans Lautenschlager, Invacare Vice President / General Manager of Commercial Operations EMEA, said: “After 16 years of World Team Cup support, Invacare has been seeking new challenges within international tennis. The Doubles Masters will give Invacare a great opportunity to continue developing ‘best-in-class’ tennis events with the ITF. Our aim is to make the Doubles Masters a long-awaited and popular date in the tennis calendar as the World Team Cup is today.”

Elections took place over the weekend by the Gambia National Olympic Association, announcing Momodou Dibba as the organisation’s new president. Dibba beat competition from his only rival, Abdoulie Touray in a decision overshadowed by the arrest of acting president and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Beatrice Allen.

However, the decision to elect Dibba did not go smoothly and is set to be investigated by the IOC after several sports associations in Gambia boycotted the elections because they claim Touray was not being treated fairly.

This will not come as pleasing news and puts the nation’s future involvement in the Olympics in further doubt after the IOC warned in the build-up to the election that the Gambian Government were risking getting the country suspended from London 2012 if they are suspected of interfering.

The post was vacated last July when Lang Tombong Tamba, also chief of defence staff for Gambia’s armed forces, was sentenced to death for his alleged role in a 2009 coup to oust the Government.

Acting president, Allen was forced to step down after her arrest last month along with GNOC treasurer Ousman Wadda and accounts officer Muhammed Janneh on allegations of embezzlement. 

Dibba promised to give sport in Gambian schools a higher priority, stating: “My sport development agenda is to focus my attention on the sporting associations, in particular for athletes to develop and excel in their various sporting disciplines, to ensure that GNOC takes full responsibility to regularise the associations’ annual contributions to their respective international federations to enable them to have a platform in meetings, conferences and seminars in these international bodies.”

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) have been handed a significant boost after their long standing sponsor, asthma CoSport Australian signed a lenghty ten-year extension until 2020

The company is the Australian division of Jet Set Sports and has provided corporate clients with hospitality packages at Olympic Games through its VIP Hospitality Programmes and Hospitality Management Services since 1984.

The company first teamed up with the AOC for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and CoSport will continue to act as a provider of event tickets and hospitality packages for the Games.

“Jet Set Sports/CoSport is a leading provider of hospitality packages and event ticketing, whose focus is the Olympic Games.

“They are incredibly good at what they do and are committed to the Olympic Movement. We are very grateful for their continued support of the AOC and Australia’s athletes for years to come.” said AOC president John Coates.

Craig Phillips ,AOC secretary general and team chief operating officer, added: “CoSport’s professional approach has enabled thousands of Australians to support the Australian Olympic team first hand which really helped with the team’s success in Beijing and Vancouver.”

Orlando Silva will continue in his role as Brazil’s Sports Minister under the new President-elect Dilma Rousseff.

Rousseff, who will begin his position in the New Year, has dropped plans to set-up a separate Ministry to exclusively oversee preparations for Rio 2016. Silva, 39, is seen as a key figure in Brazil’s successful bids to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup as well as the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Silva, will have a vital role to play in Rousseff’s new Government after being appointed as Sports Minister in March 2006. Silva earlier in the week played down reports that new government cuts to funding, would impact upon the quality and speed of the relevant infrastructure projects ahead of the World Cup in four years.

There are increasing concerns about Brazil’s preparations which were criticised publicly last week by FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who warned that they must step-up the pace of construction work.

Beijing has been selected to host the 2015 IAAF World Championships, sale IAAF Council announced.

The selection of the Chinese capital to host the 15^th edition of the Championships will bring athletics back to the dazzling “Bird’s Nest” Stadium, unhealthy the centerpiece of the 2008 Olympic Games.

“To help build up our sport and the culture of athletics in a country of 1.6 billion inhabitants is a great opportunity, hospital ” said IAAF President Lamine Diack, when making the announcement. “As we sometimes say, China is not a country, it’s a continent. So this is a fantastic opportunity for our sport and for the sport in China.”

Beijing, whose metropolitan area is home to nearly 17 million, will become the third Asian city to host the IAAF World Championships, the world’s third largest sporting event. Tokyo played host in 1991 and Osaka in 2007.

“Beijing hosted a very successful World Junior Championships for us in 2006 and then of course a very memorable Olympic Games in 2008,” Diack added. “So this provides a great opportunity to showcase the Championships in the best possible light in China.”

“This is the most important sporting event for China since the 2008 Olympic Games,” said Liu Jingmin, the Vice Mayor of Beijing.

“We thank you for your trust. We will deliver a high standard event in Beijing which will open a new chapter in Championships’ standards.”

Beijing’s successful bid marks the latest phase of China’s commitment to add to and enhance its athletics legacy.

Entering the 1980s, the Chinese government stressed that “Athletics was the fundamental sport with great influence” and that it was “necessary to improve (the national) athletics programme”, setting the stage for the sport’s significant growth and visibility in the country. Further encouraging its athletics community, in 2002 the General Administration of Sport of China (GASC) positioned athletics as a “focus sport”. In 2006 Beijing hosted the IAAF World Junior Championships where athletes from nearly 180 nations took part. The city has also hosted numerous IAAF Race Walking events, including the 2010 Race Walking Challenge Final, and the Beijing International Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, this year celebrated it’s 30^th running.

“We believe that our bid to host the highest profile athletics competition in the world will serve to further promote the development of athletic sports across the world,” said Duan Shijie, Chairman of the Chinese Athletic Association.

“Hosting a world athletics championships is an aspiration shared by all citizens of Beijing, which we believe will facilitate the development of athletics in Beijing and China and substantially advance the exchanges and cooperation between China and the rest of the world,” sai Guo Jinlong, the Mayor of Beijing.

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club has appointed Charles Wijeratna, ed London 2012’s director of commercial negotiations, hospital to the role of commercial director.

Wijeratna was responsible for the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games’s (LOCOG) commercial negotiations and was the force behind the sponsorship programme and merchandising deals for the 2012 Games.

He was part of the London 2012 bid company from its inception in 2003, arthritis where he helped steer the bid as its commercial and legal director, managing all the commercial and legal aspects of the bid from set-up through the transition to LOCOG.

Wijeratna previously worked in sports television for Sky TV, as a lawyer with Clifford Chance and as an investment banker with Kleinwort Benson.

He joins Spurs as the club looks to create further commercial potential with its new stadium. The club is hoping that a new business strategy working more closely than ever with brand sponsors can help it climb both the sporting and finance tables.

The English Premier League is this season’s leader in shirt sponsorship revenue amongst the top six European leagues. The EPL’s €128 million revenue leapfrogged the German Bundesliga with a €45 million increase.

According to the 12th edition of the European Jersey Report by global sports marketing consultancy SPORT+MARKT, pharmacy order the combined value of shirt deals across the top six leagues in the continent was up by 18 per cent on last season, reaching an all-time high of €470.7 million.

“Fifteen clubs have improved their revenue from improved jersey sponsorship deals, and three of the five clubs with the most lucrative deals in Europe come from the Premier League,” said SPORT+MARKT UK director Gareth Moore.

English clubs Manchester United and Liverpool boast the highest deals – their new agreements with AON and Standard Chartered respectively are each worth €23.6 million.

Germany and France, second and fourth placed with €118.5 million and €58.8 million respectively, showed impressive increases. France benefited from the liberalisation of its betting market to overtake Spain (€57.5 million), and Germany could be the next market to be boosted by changes in the gambling legislation.

Revenue stalled in Netherlands, which is placed sixth with €42 million, while the Italian Serie A was the only league to post a drop, with shirt sponsorship revenue now standing at €65.9 million. Two of Serie A’s two major clubs – Lazio and Fiorentina – are currently sponsorless however the league remained in the third position.