Brazilian Sports Minister Orlando Silva has resigned from his position following the serious corruption allegations that emerged against him earlier this month.

The allegations came from influential Brazilian magazine Veja who claimed that he aimed to embezzle around $23 million for himself and his Communist party over eight years by awarding fraudulent Government contracts for a number of projects, including one that promotes sport for poor children.

The Sports Minister had rushed back to Brazil from the Pan American Games here last week to defend himself from the allegations but he has now decided to step down from his high-ranking job although he maintains his innocence.

Following a meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Silva said: “I submitted my resignation, I decided to leave the Government so that I can defend my honour.”

Silva’s resignation comes less than 24 hours after the country’s Supreme Federal Court confirmed that it has opened a formal investigation into the allegations which effectively made his position untenable.

A spokesperson from the office of the President said: “After that Supreme Court decision, Orlando was a Minister who was already on his way out.”

The scandal is the latest corruption incident in Rousseff’s short reign as President as four senior Ministers have resigned or been sacked after being accused of illegal activity since her appointment in January.

Silva, who has been relentlessly hounded by the Brazilian media since the accusations emerged, is now the fifth Minister to be added to the list.

But he is arguably the most high profile due to the fact that he is the Government lead on both the FIFA 2014 World Cup and Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games which will be the two biggest international sporting events in the history of the continent.

Silva has been involved in both global sporting events since their infancy after being named Sports Minister by popular former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva back in 2006.

He was also the only Minister from Brazil’s Communist Party to maintain his position when Rousseff’s Coalition Party came to power at the beginning of the year largely due to his heavy involvement and knowledge of the 2014 and 2016 projects.

Silva’s resignation could have catastrophic repercussions for the two events, particularly the 2014 World Cup which has already been heavily criticised by FIFA for being well behind schedule.

Rousseff is now expected to allow the Communist Party to nominate a replacement for Silva from its own ranks.

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English Premier League soccer club Everton have secured a new three-year sponsorship deal with Maximuscle, the sports nutrition brand, to become the team’s official sports nutrition partner.

Maximuscle will provide nutritional support to help optimise the players’ performance and meet the unique physical demands of the world’s most popular domestic soccer league.

The company will work together with Everton’s backroom staff to supply the team with nutritional programmes, as well as providing access to Maximuscle’s comprehensive range of products.

Mark Morgan, sponsorship manager at Maxinutrition, stated: “We are looking forward to helping Everton Football Club achieve their Premier League ambitions. We believe that our significant experience in delivering world class sports nutrition backed by a wealth of science and research will contribute towards helping the team maximise their potential.”

Dave Billows, head of sports science at Everton Football Club, added: “Maximuscle’s reputation for providing athletes with top quality, certified sports nutrition is unrivalled. Premier League footballers train very hard and require a high intake of protein to help their bodies recover quickly from the intensive sessions they are subjected to. Maximuscle supplements provide high quality nutrients at the correct levels to both energise the players and aid their recovery in an efficient and effective way.”

According to the chief rights negotiator for the International Olympic Committee, Richard Carrion, a US broadcast deal covering up to the next four editions of the Olympics should be in place by July.

Among those believed to be in the runnin to become US Olympic rights holder include major broadcasters NBC, Fox and ABC/ESPN, and the deal is likely to be the most lucrative in the history of the Games. The IOC had delayed awarding the US rights for more than a year due to the slump in the advertising market.

Carrion told Reuters: “I suspect we will have a deal in place by (the IOC session in July) in Durban. Our goal is hopefully to have it by then. We are currently in the process of reviewing the contract, updating the contract from 2010-12.”

The current deal with NBC, spanning from 2010-12 for the US Olympic broadcast contract is worth a total of around US$2 billion, but Carrion claimed that for the new deal “we will see an increase”.

He added: “We are still open to the idea (of a four-Games deal). We will listen to their proposals, but it is not something that we are going to demand from them.”

Carrion is one of a small number of candidates to have been suggested as a possible replacement for IOC president Jacques Rogge, who will step down in two years’ time after two terms at the helm, but the rights negotiator played down the speculation: “Let’s just wait. I am very honoured (to be linked with a presidency bid) but let us just wait.”

The Sauber Formula One Team have announced a new premium partner in Mexican insurance group, Interproteccion.

The company’s logos will now be clearly visible on the rear wing endplates of Sauber’s Formula One cars under the deal which starts as of 2011. The Interproteccion logo will also adorn the drivers’ overalls and team clothing.

The agreement shows an increased Mexican influence on the Sauber team after agreeing a deal with telecommunications company, Telmex in recent times. The financial details of this deal are yet to be released although the Telmex deal is believed to be worth a sum of US$20.6m over two years. In addition, Mexican GP2 driver Sergio Perez joined the Formula One Team.

Team principal, Peter Sauber stated: “We met the key people from Interproteccion for the first time at the Brazilian Grand Prix in November, and are very pleased that we’ve been able to come to an agreement so quickly. Interproteccion is present in over 100 countries, and the international nature of Formula One offers correspondingly broad potential for synergies. We’re particularly happy, of course, that in Interproteccion we’ve now added a second Mexican company to our list of partners alongside Telmex.”

Interproteccion chief executive officer, Ignacio Casanueva, added, “We are proud and thrilled to be a partner of Sauber Motorsport, who have signed the two talented Mexican drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutierrez for next season – Sergio as a race driver, Esteban as a test and reserve driver. Interproteccion is always aiming to achieve the highest standards, with both our clients and our partners. And supporting talented young drivers like Sergio and Esteban is a way of saying, ‘we believe in Mexico, we believe in success.”

With just over 600 days to go before the 30th Olympiad takes place in London, key sponsors of the London 2012 Games including Coca Cola, adidas, Deloitte and GE, have given their thumbs up to preparations and the latest developments at the Olympic site.

At a meeting of the Chairman’s Club, a collective of the Worldwide, Tier 1 and Tier 2 level Partners of London 2012, held at the Olympic site last week, sponsors welcomed the strong progress made in the last 12 months.

John Connolly, Global Chairman of Deloitte, said: “Everyone who attended the meeting was struck by the evident progress made on the site. The Olympic Delivery Authority and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, working in conjunction with the Government, the London Mayor’s Office, business and other stakeholders, are clearly ahead in the delivery of the venues – in one case by months.”

Mr Connolly commented that the leading sponsors were confident that the London 2012 family would be successful as the pace builds up: “Everyone now working on the Games is moving into delivery mode. The Chairman’s Club members reviewed progress and toured the Velodrome. We left the site with real confidence that the infrastructure is in good shape, the shift from planning to operations is being very carefully managed, and the Games will achieve their ambitions. We were impressed by the strong relationships between the main players – Seb Coe and Paul Deighton at LOCOG, John Armit and his ODA team, the very clear commitment of Jeremy Hunt at Cabinet level, and Boris Johnson, leading the city of London’s contribution. This provides extra confidence not just that the plans are in shape but that any delivery challenges still to come will be tackled and resolved collectively.”

Created in 2008 by Deloitte and Think London, the Mayor’s Foreign Direct Investment Agency, the Chairman’s Club brings together some of the world’s most experienced business leaders from companies with combined global sales of more than $1.2 trillion, and employing over two and a half million people.

The establishment of the Chairman’s Club is the first time in the history of the Olympic Games that a group of lead sponsor companies have come together as a single group ahead of an Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“It’s vitally important that the business community works in collaboration to ensure that London and the UK benefits from a sustainable legacy following the Games,” said Mr Connolly.

Seb Coe, Chair of the London 2012 Organising Committee, who attended last week’s business summit, said that the effort of sponsors was crucial as preparations for the Games intensified.

“The sponsor family is absolutely vital to the success of London 2012,” said Lord Coe. “The Games would not be able to happen without the products, services, support and consumer programmes they provide.”

Michael Charlton, Chief Executive of Think London, thanked the members of the Chairman’s Club for their support and partnership. Using the 2012 Games as a catalyst Think London, with the support of these partners, has helped create over 3,700 jobs for Londoners as a direct result of 2012 campaigns.

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo has accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages from the Daily Telegraph at London’s High Court.

It claimed in July 2008 that he put an injured ankle at risk by “living it up” at a Hollywood nightclub while a Manchester United player.

The report that he put down crutches to dance with four models caused offence and embarrassment, the court heard.

The paper has accepted the allegations were false and apologised.

In a statement, Ronaldo said he was “delighted” with the outcome.

“I take enormous pride in my professionalism. I treat my training and recovery from injury very seriously and would never have drunk and danced in a nightclub without my crutches,” he said.

The Welsh Rugby Union is struggling to sell tickets for the Autumn International match against South Africa?.

Little more than 35, anabolics 500 fans were at the Aviva Stadium for the South Africa against Ireland match on Saturday – initially due to the IRFU admitting to charging too much for its home games.

“We appreciate how tough it is financially for supporters, price ” said the WRU chief executive, Roger Lewis.

“The crowd we had against Australia compared well to what we used to attract at the old National Stadium but it would be disappointing if we did not get more than 45,000 this weekend.”

However, it appears that the Springboks are failing to attract the large crowds that the team used to pull on its visits to the British Isles.

Soccerex announced that Dr João Havelange the Honorary Life President of FIFA and father of modern football has confirmed that he will address delegates on the opening day of the Soccerex Global Convention 2010.

As well as being President of FIFA from 1974 to 1998, Dr Havelange is the longest serving member of the International Olympic Committee, was President of the CBF (Confederação Brasileira de Futebol) for 17 years, a member of the Brazilian Olympic committee from 1955 to 1963 and even competed as a swimmer in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and as part of the Brazilian water polo team in 1952 Olympic games in Helsinki.

The Global Convention will be exhibiting a selection of the many prestigious awards received by Dr Havelange during his lifetime, just some of which are the Cavalier of the Légion d’honneur (France), the Order of Special Merit in Sports (Brazil), the Commander of the Cavaliers of the Ordem Infante Dom Henrique(Portugal), the Cavalier of the Vasa Orden (Sweden) and the Grand Cross of Elizabeth the Catholic (Spain).

The event will also feature a football legacy panel named after Dr Havelange, who has done so much to promote the importance of legacy in sport. It will bring together a panel of experts and key figures involved in social responsibility with the football industry and will focus on the situation in Brazil and the social legacy the 2014 World Cup needs to leave on the country.

The Soccerex Global Convention (20-24 November 2010) will consist of an in-depth conference schedule, packed exhibition, a large range of networking and two-day Football Festival all taking place in the Forte de Copacabana, Copacabana beach and Sugar Loaf Mountain, Rio de Janeiro. iSportconnect is the official Social Media Partner of the event.

pharmacy helvetica,sans-serif;”>IPL Kochi was on Wednesday served with a termination notice by the BCCI, giving the franchise a time period of 30 days to resolve “infighting”, failing which their IPL contract will be terminated on the 31st day.

“The Governing Council received replies from two parties, the Rendezvous group and the other co-owners, and they both felt that the dispute still exists,” BCCI President Shashank Manohar told reporters after the meeting.

With this decision, Kochi may become the third team after Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab to face the axe. Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals were ousted earlier this month due to several violations of their contract.

Indra Nooyi, ed chairman and chief executive of PepsiCo, has accepted an invitation to join the board of directors for the USA bid committee aiming to host the 2018 or 2022 Fifa World Cup, according to the US Soccer Federation.

Indian-born Nooyi is a renowned leader in the business world and oversees PepsiCo employees in over 200 countries.

Other members on the board of directors include New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg,comedian Drew Carey, former boxer Oscar De La Hoya, American soccer stars Landon Donovan and Mia Hamm, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber, former U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger, director Spike Lee, actor Brad Pitt and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Chairman of the bid committee and president of US Soccer, Sunil Gulati, said: “Indra Nooyi has the same gift in developing and overseeing innovative corporate strategy as she does inspiring the people around her and everyone she meets.

“It’s that kind of leadership that will be important to our efforts, and for that reason we are fortunate to welcome Indra to our team. Indra and PepsiCo are also longtime friends of US Soccer so their familiarity with our mission will be extremely beneficial in the months ahead.”