Charlotte Knobloch wird für ihren Einsatz für den Sport sowie ihre Verdienste um die Versöhnung zwischen Juden und Deutschen mit der Ehrenmedaille des DOSB ausgezeichnet. Die Präsidentin der Israelitischen Kultusgemeinde München und Oberbayern und Vorsitzende des Zentralrates der Juden a. D. erhält die vom Künstler Markus Lüpertz gestaltet Ehrenmedaille am Freitagabend aus den Händen von DOSB-Präsident Thomas Bach. “Wir sind Frau Knobloch dankbar, pill dass Sie in ihrem menschlichen und politischen Wirken immer auch die Werte und positiven Funktionen des Sports heraushebt”, sagt Bach.

Die Auszeichnung erfolgt beim Empfang für die Delegierten der 8. DOSB-Mitgliederversammlung im Neuen Schloss in Stuttgart. Der DOSB ist das Dach des deutschen Sports und vereint 98 Mitgliedsorganisationen mit 91.000 Vereinen sowie rund 27,8 Millionen Mitgliedschaften. Damit ist der organisierte Sport die größte Bürgerbewegung des Landes.

Der Einsatz von Frau Knobloch für die Versöhnung durch Sport ist vielfältig. So besuchte Frau Knobloch, die in der Nazi-Zeit ihre geliebte Großmutter und weitere Mitglieder ihrer Familie verlor, vor wenigen Wochen mehrere Eliteschulen des Sports. “Seien Sie ruhig stolz auf sich und Ihre Heimat! Singen Sie von Herzen die Nationalhymne mit! Nehmen Sie sich das Selbstbewusstsein, um Großes zu leisten! Aber bitte engagieren Sie sich auch für Ihr Land”, sagte Frau Knobloch bei dieser Gelegenheit. “Die menschliche Größe, die hinter dieser Botschaft steckt, verleiht ihr eine unvergleichliche Wucht”, erklärt Thomas Bach.

Frau Knobloch hatte sich auch für die Olympiabewerbung München 2018 eingesetzt – trotz des Attentats auf die israelischen Sportler bei den Spielen 1972, bei dem elf Athleten und ein deutscher Polizist getötet worden waren. Frau Knobloch habe stets die Möglichkeiten des Sports, für Integration, Verantwortung und Fairness zu wirken, betont, hebt Bach hervor: “Dies war und ist nicht selbstverständlich gerade angesichts des feigen Attentats auf die israelische Olympiamannschaft in München 1972.”

Der DOSB verleiht die Ehrenmedaille an Persönlichkeiten oder Organisationen aus Politik, Wirtschaft, Kultur, Medien und weiteren gesellschaftlichen Bereichen, die sich herausragende Verdienste um die Förderung und Entwicklung des Sports erworben haben. Sie wurde vom Künstler Markus Lüpertz gestaltet und 2008 erstmals vergeben.

Die Ehrenmedaille wurde bisher verliehen an:

– 2012 – Charlotte Knobloch, Präsidentin der Israelitischen

Kultusgemeinde München und Oberbayern und Vorsitzende des

Zentralrates der Juden a. D.

– 2011 – Christian Wulff, Bundespräsident

– 2010 – Richard von Weizsäcker, Bundespräsident a. D.

– 2009 – Wolfgang Schäuble, Bundesfinanzminister und

Bundesinnenminister a. D.

– 2008 – Horst Köhler, Bundespräsident

Sally Munday, viagra CEO of England Hockey hopes any potential Sport England merger with UK Sport will not deter the organisations from reaching their goals. 

Speaking to iSportconnect, sale Munday believes a possible merger will be more superficial rather than change the ethos of each organisation.

“My understanding is that the decision to formally merge those organisations is being reviewed, but whether it goes ahead or not is probably unlikely in a formal merger. I think they’ll probably end up sharing office space,” she said. 

She continued: “Ultimately, it’s very difficult to merge an organisation that is UK based with an organisation that is based purely in England and I think that there are some real challenges around that. I don’t think it’s a particularly straight forward thing to achieve. 

“Also, separately to that, whilst they’re both obviously dealing with sport, they have very different objectives. UK is so much about the elite and what they’ve done really well is kept their focus on things that are adding value to us and make us successful on the world stage, and I wouldn’t want to see that diluted.”

“Sport England, likewise, do a fantastic job supporting us and helping us to drive participation. “

“I don’t have a strong feeling that it has to happen or doesn’t have to happen. What I want to protect is that both those organisations get the ability to carry on doing what they’re doing because they both provide critical support to us, for us to achieve our own objective.”

Four U.S. professional sports leagues, discount including the National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB), have sued to block sports betting in New Jersey, saying it would raise doubts about the integrity of games.

The leagues seek to block a law signed by Governor Christopher Christie in January that would permit gambling at racetracks and Atlantic City casinos on professional and college sports. The National Hockey League (NHL), National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) joined the complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Trenton.

“Sports gambling in New Jersey would irreparably harm amateur and professional sports by fostering suspicion that individual plays and final scores of games may have been influenced by factors other than honest competition,” the leagues said in the complaint.

Christie, a first-term Republican, has said he wants to bring sports wagering to New Jersey by November without seeking approval from federal regulators. A 1992 U.S. law bans betting in all but four states: Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon.

“The voters of New Jersey said they wanted to allow sports gambling,” Christie told reporters yesterday in Trenton. “I think we’re going to win. I don’t believe the federal government has the right to decide that only certain states can have sports gambling. On what basis?”

The New Jersey governor also said there is illegal sports gambling “going on in every state in America.”

“So why is this more injurious somehow than illegal sports gambling to the operations of the league or NCAA?” he said.

The leagues and NCAA asked a U.S. judge to rule that New Jersey’s law, and related regulations, violate the U.S. Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992. That law gave New Jersey a chance between Jan. 1, 1993, and Jan. 1, 1994, to enact sports betting. At the time, New Jersey declined.

The complaint seeks to bar New Jersey from implementing the new law, as well as proposed regulations that were published on July 2. The Division of Gaming Enforcement is asking for public comments through Aug. 31. After that, regulators will accept applications for licenses to engage in sports betting.

The leagues and NCAA “cannot be compensated in money damages for the harm that sports gambling poses to the character and integrity of their respective sporting events,” according to the complaint.

“Once their reputations and goodwill have been compromised, and the bonds of loyalty and devotion between fans and teams have been broken, plaintiffs will have been irreparably injured in a manner that cannot be measured in dollars,” the complaint added.

Crime and security minister James Brokenshire has suggested security preparations for the Olympic sailing events in Dorset have been tested and are ready.

Brokenshire said security officials would continue to survey the area until the Paralympics finished.

He was visiting the Olympic sailing venue at Weymouth and Portland to watch exercises carried out by Dorset Police.

The largest Olympic and Paralympic site outside London, the venue hosts the only other full-time Olympic village.

Mr Brokenshire said: “Portland, Weymouth and Dorset are ready. Ready for the Games, ready for the sailing, ready for the Olympics and ready to welcome thousands of people to this really special event.”

Unlike at previous Olympic sailing events, the waters around Weymouth and Portland will not be closed, allowing the ports to stay open with restrictions during the Games.

The fields of play will be controlled by marshals, with the help of police and Royal Navy personnel.

Ch Insp David Dent, maritime security co-ordinator for Dorset Police, said they had a “range of tactics” to deal with any incoming craft that might pose a threat.

He said: “The top end of those tactical options is what was seen out on the water today, which was a thing called running gear entanglement, which basically means deploying a device in front of the vessel which will cause it to stop in a very short distance.”

Security organisations are preparing for a severe to critical threat level, although the country’s current threat level is lower. Issues they are preparing for include poor weather, protesters and terrorism.

Waters will be patrolled on jet-skis, inflatable boats and smaller craft and will be supported by all three military forces.

Related discussion: windsurfing out, sailing next?

A panel for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has called on FIFA to examine whether Blatter re-elected to a fourth, four-year term last June was just and to re-evaluate why the ISL documents relating to a kickbacks scandal haven’t been published yet.

FIFA should probe “whether the candidates in its recent election for president and particularly the successful candidate exploited their institutional positions to obtain ‘unfair advantages for themselves or for potential voters,’’ the panel said.

Though he was facing criticism for alleged corruption in soccer’s governing body, Blatter ran unopposed in 2011 when rival candidate Mohamed bin Hammam withdrew after being accused of bribing voters. Bin Hammam claims that Blatter helped orchestrate the bribery scandal, and is challenging his life ban by FIFA at the Court of Arbitration for Sport next month.

FIFA responded Wednesday that it already investigated the allegations against Blatter and they were dismissed.

The new report also tried to increase pressure on FIFA to reveal details of a scandal involving its former marketing agency, which collapsed into bankruptcy in 2001.

FIFA should “publish in full any judicial and other documents’’ it has concerning the ISL case, in which senior soccer officials allegedly took millions of dollars in kickbacks from World Cup broadcast deals, the report said.

Blatter promised to publish a court dossier last year as part of a wide-ranging reform program. At least one party has appealed to Switzerland’s supreme court to block publication of the material. FIFA said it “already stated its full support’’ for releasing court papers.

The BBC has reported that two Brazilian officials — Blatter’s predecessor, Joao Havelange, and Ricardo Teixeira, a FIFA executive committee member who leads the 2014 World Cup local organizing committee — pocketed payments.

The Council’s report pointed to Bin Hammam’s case and a 2006 match-fixing scandal known as Calciopoli, which exposed Italian officials who selected referees to favor some clubs, as examples of how power struggles and economic interests “seriously jeopardized’’ ethics in sports.

“Moreover, the sports scandals that come to light are only the tip of the iceberg: experts are fully aware that the hidden part, unknown to the public, is even bigger and of a more worrying dimension,’’ the report said.

The panel consulted FIFA officials before drafting the 20-page report.

Other proposals included limiting sports leaders to eight-year terms in office, requiring their salaries and bonuses to be published, and inviting “former athletes of acknowledged integrity’’ to serve on federation committees.

FIFA said the Council also praised “several positive elements’’ of its work, including its rules restricting international transfers of players under 18 and investment in social programs.

The report will be debated on April 25 when parliamentarians from 47 Council of Europe member states meet in Strasbourg, France.

Discuss the issue here

by Ismail Uddin

The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Sacramento Kings stadium naming rights agreement is being revisited by the Power Balance wristband company after the deal officially took effect on Tuesday, March 1.

The facility name was formally changed to Power Balance Pavilion from Arco Arena, and the team said that the “Power Balance name is going up in spots around the building.”

But Power Balance officials said that they are “delaying installing a Power Balance sign over the front door pending resolution of the talks” that could send the Kings to Anaheim after just 11 more games in Sacramento.

Distribution agreements have been brokered by MP & Silva between the ACB Spanish basketball league for deals deals in Italy and Singapore for the remainder of the season.

Agreements have been reached with Sportitalia and Starhub, health which have already aired games from the Spanish Copa del Rey basketball tournament.

The ACB has also added English commentary to the international feed in one of the two games broadcast abroad every weekend.

ACB chairman Eduardo Portela stated: “According to our ongoing internationalisation process, we have to see our competition as a global product, so it was the right time to add English commentary to our games.

“This service will improve the experience of our current audience and will increase the opportunity to reach new territories,” he added.

Planning Permission has just been granted for the new training facility for English nPower League One soccer team Southampton Football Club.

The state of the art venue has been designed by AFL Architects and the company released a statement on their webiste today, February 14 to confirm the approval.

The statement from the architectural company read: “The design for the new building represents a contemporary but contextual approach. By using natural timber cladding to the walls and roof of the new building, the contemporary architectural style and massing will sit comfortably within it’s rural setting at the edge of the New Forest.”

Renewed speculation arose today that the Glazer family is reportedly on the brink of selling Manchester United to Qatar Holdings for £1.6bn (US$2.56bn).

UK newspaper, health The Daily Express claimed that a deal was “virtually done” and that the two sides are “only haggling over details”.

If the figure touted is accurate then any sale of the club by the controversial American owners would represent double the money that Malcolm Glazer and his family spent, pharmacy viagra in the six years since they paid £790m ($1.26bn) for the club in the summer of 2005.

United has consistently denied it is interested in selling the club since Qatar Holdings, cheap the business investment branch of the Qatar Royal family, was first seriously linked with a bid just before Christmas. According to sources of the newspaper, the Qataris have agreed to add another $160m on to their initial $2.4bn offer.

United’s director of communications Phil Townsend, who now also acts as Glazer family spokesman, maintained: “There has been no approach to buy Manchester United and no approach would be welcome.”