India’s boxing franchise, TransStadia is set to discontinue it’s involvement in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) following reports of lack of funds and administration problems.

The Mumbai-based team, which bought the franchise last year, is likely to announce its decision of calling it quits after just one season in the event — a club-based part-professional league with winners in different categories getting direct qualification to the Olympics. The WSB is also sanctioned by the International Boxing Federation (IBF).

The franchise, which was to start its campaign this season against Dynamo Moscow on November 17, did not call up any of the boxers for any traiining, leading to speculation about the team’s future. “They just got fed up with the system which did not support the team one bit,” a boxer who was a part of the team, said.

“This year they did not have enough funds also. The budget had shot up and they were not prepared for that,” added another boxer.

None of the boxers who competed for the team last season have been given any official intimation as their contracts had expired for this year. The Fighters were to recruit new boxers for the upcoming season.

The federation, on its part, claimed ignorance of the pullout and no official came on record to speak on the issue. National coach GS Sandhu was also caught unawares by the development but felt if true, it was bad news for the sport.

“Participating in the WSB and the AIBA Professional Boxing is very important for the overall development of Indian boxers. We definitely need to compete in these events to excel at the world level because a lot of Olympic quota places are at stake here. If the Indian franchise is withdrawing than I would say it is a huge loss for Indian boxing,” he said.

Sports underwear brand Freya Active is launching a campaign to get 2,012 women back into sports during 2012.

Freya Active is a sister brand of Freya Lingerie and this new initiative comes as a response to research carried out by Sport England which suggests that over 338,000 UK women no longer play any sport at all.Despite the fact that Britain is hosting the largest sporting occasion it has ever experienced, it appears many women in the UK have lost their sporting spirit.

The last three years have seen a drop in the number of women participating in sports such as athletics, hockey, running and tennis.Research reveals that confidence is a key factor as many women doubt their ability to play sports well. However, simply not being aware of sporting opportunities locally can be a barrier too. Additionally, some women have suggested they struggle to afford the cost and time needed to play even 30 minutes of sports a few times a week.Interestingly, one of the only sports women have remained loyal to in the UK is netball.

With this in mind, Freya Active has launched a nationwide campaign to re-engage women with sport, and get 2,012 women ‘Back to Netball’ in 2012.

According to England Netball, the sport has seen a 15% rise in women taking part over the past three years. The Back to Netball scheme provides a gentle reintroduction for women of all ages. The programme is perfect for those looking to get fit whilst avoiding high gym fees – with flexible hourly sessions from as little as £2.

Ann Marie Manley, from Freya Active said, “With so much excitement building up around sport this year, it is surprising that so many women have stopped playing or taking part in sport. We’ve launched the get 2,012 women Back to Netball in 2012 campaign to try and win women’s love of sport back. It’s about the only sport which women haven’t dropped and there is a reason for that.”

Joanna Adams from England Netball said, “Netball is fun and energetic and is the perfect sport to pick up quickly again. People don’t realise how fit netball keeps you, you’ve got to be incredibly quick and just one hour burns off a lot of calories.”

By Paul Freudensprung

With the Opening Ceremony of the first Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) just days away it is worthwhile to take a closer look at the confirmed host cities of the Youth Olympic Games.

The foremost goal of the IOC is to connect with teenagers through the Youth Olympics’ sport, culture and education programs, expanding its demographic reach. However, during the early days of this new idea it also had been communicated that this event would give an opportunity to countries that could not afford to host the Olympic Games.

This latter argument has not been used much anymore in the last years. Not unsurprisingly, looking at the first 4 confirmed host cities. Singapore and Nanjing, China represent two economic powerhouses with the political will and financial depth to organize Youth Olympic Games that do not come second in magnitude in comparison to the Olympic Games.

With Innsbruck and Lillehammer even two former host cities of the Olympic Winter Games have been selected to now host the Winter YOG. As the IOC stipulates that no new venues should be built for the YOG, this is a logical choice considering cost and legacy of venues such as Luge and Ski Jumping.

The question is what this means for cities with aspirations bidding for either YOG or Winter YOG, but that do not have pockets that deep or not enough venue infrastructure. At that moment it seems it is rather the Olympic Games reaching new horizons – geographically speaking – rather than the YOG.

Paul Freudensprung : He has over 15 years of experience in the sport industry and specialises in directing and advising multi-stakeholder working groups at major events where different objectives and interests need to be aligned in order to develop effective event operations and functional venue infrastructure.

Paul has been involved in operations of 4 Olympic Games, 2 FIFA World Cups, and was the Games Plan Director of the 2014 Salzburg Olympic Winter Games Bid. In 2006 Paul set up his own consultancy company offering strategic solutions related to the development of integrated event operations programs, appraising contractual issues around venue agreements and supplier contracts and defining infrastructure development concepts and operational venue designs. He also teaches courses on event management for the MBA program at the European University in Barcelona.

Before joining the event management industry Paul spent 3 years conducting environmental and economic impact assessment of European transport infrastructure projects. Paul holds a Masters degree from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Sydney and a Masters degree from the Institute of Geography of the University of Vienna.

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It has been revealed that British taxpayers are paying out a monumental £250,000 ($391,502) fee a day on security to protect the Olympic venues

With construction already completed on five of the arenas the cost of providing security for them has dramatically increased. The new figure is more than treble what it cost to look after the venues a year ago.

According to Sky News sources, it cost the Government a total of £35m ($54.8m) to protect the sites in 2011. In September alone it cost a staggering £7.5m ($11.7m).

The money is being spent on security guards, fencing and screening of staff going in and out of the venues.

The cost of securing the venues come as these stunning pictures reveal how work in the nine venues is nearing completion with less than 250 days until the start of the Games.

Designers completed work on the Olympic Stadium in March following an operation that cost £486 million ($761.2m). The Olympic Stadium was the second major venue on the Olympic Park to be finished, after the Velodrome was unveiled in February. The 6,000-seat venue will play host to the main cycling events and reportedly cost Olympic chiefs around £93m ($145m), less than the initial forecast.

Another venue that has been opened by London 2012 officials is the Aquatics Centre, which will welcome the world’s best swimmers, with British hopeful Tom Daley looking to add to his two gold medals which he won at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

The £269 million ($421m) wave-shaped venue, was the fifth and final venue to be finalised after more than160,000 tonnes of soil was dug out to make way for the structure.

The iconic stadium which houses two 50 metre pools and a diving pool, can seat 17,500 spectators during the Games but will revert to a 2,500-seat facility after the competition.

Meanwhile, the 12,000-seat basketball arena was completed, a mere 15 months after building work began.

It will host men’s and women’s group matches in the basketball competition, as well as the women’s quarter-finals. The rest of the knockout stages will be held in the O2 Arena in Greenwich. Standing at 35metres high, the venue is set to be dismantled after the Games despite its impressive and unique structure.

Mohamed Bin Hammam continued to take the fight to FIFA over his ban by posting a letter on his blog from FIFA Secretary General JeromeValcke suggesting the governing body used intimidation of witnesses to implicate him in a bribery scandal.

Bin Hammam was banned for life from soccer after being found guilty of bribing Caribbean soccer officials with $40, look 000 each during a May meeting in Trinidad for votes in a June 1 presidential election. Prior to the election, he dropped out, and Joseph “Sepp” Blatter won unopposed.

Monday’s blog post is the latest defence in his long denial of bribery. He has called the charges “politically motivated,” and last week announced he filed his appeal.

In the blog post, Bin Hammam produced a July 25 letter (pdf) from FIFA Secretary Valcke that says following the decisions made two days prior by FIFA’s Ethics committee (which include Bin Hammam’s ban), the next phase of the investigation should turn to those who did not report receiving money.

“Based upon the evidence gathered to date, there is reason to believe that people have not been completely candid and forthright in their statements about what transpired during the Trinidad and Tobago conference, specifically about whether they or others were offered or received money,” Valcke wrote in the letter.

FIFA officials couldn’t be reached for comment, though the letter’s contents were reported by CNNthe day after its issuance.

Valcke requested that Caribbean soccer officials come forward with their findings within 48 hours, and if they did, the cooperation would be considered a mitigating factor in whether to punish them for their actions. Anyone who didn’t comply, according to the letter, would be “subject to the full range of sanctions.”

Bin Hammam didn’t say in the blog post how he obtained the letter. He did, however, blast the “Kangaroo Court – FIFA branch,” and expressed outrage at the letter’s contents.

“Valcke, the co-owner of FIFA, issued a letter to the [Caribbean] member associations, threatening them to either admit that they have been bribed or he will open an investigation to find out if I have bribed them or not!!” Bin Hammam wrote in his blog post.

Sixteen of the Caribbean soccer officials who attended the meeting are under investigation for allegedly taking bribe money. In its announcement of the probe against the Caribbean officials, FIFA warned that more cases could follow.

The Singapore Grand Prix will continue to be sponsored by Singtel with the company having renewed their as title sponsor for two-years.

Singtel has held the position since the race’s inception in 2008 and the decision comes ahead of the worldwide launch of ticket sales for the 2011 race on Thursday.

The deal is thought to be worth around US$4 million a year, drug though the agreement has been struck with Allsport Management, which handles Formula One’s major commercial rights from Switzerland, rather than with local race organisers.

Chief Executive of the Formula One Group, Bernie Ecclestone said: “We are delighted that Singtel will be continuing as the title sponsor of the Formula One Singtel Singapore Grand Prix. As a Singapore company which has grown to become a key player in the world of telecommunications and multimedia, Singtel is the ideal naming rights sponsor for this innovative and prestigious round of the FIA Formula One world championship.”

Singtel chief executive Chua Sock Koong announced several innovations for this year’s race, most notably including the ability to watch the race on a variety of platforms connected to Singtel, stating: “Now into our fourth year of this partnership, we will continue to achieve amazing things at record speed to bring the best to our customers in Singapore and around the world.

“This year will also be the year that we will be creating several ‘firsts’ to bring alive the Grand Prix experience, which we hope will dazzle both Singaporeans and visitors – whether they are big fans of the sport or not.”

Major League Soccer (MLS) has awarded its broadcasting rights in neighbouring Canada to TSN for the next six-years, beginning this year and running through to the 2016 season.

Under the terms of the deal TSN and TSN2 will broadcast 24 MLS regular season matches this season featuring Canadian teams Toronto FC and/or Vancouver Whitecaps FC. In future seasons, the networks will broadcast at least 30 games featuring the three Canadian teams – including the 2012 MLS expansion team, the Montreal Impact.

All MLS games on TSN and TSN2 will be broadcast in High Definition and additionally TSN also acquires the broadcast rights for the MLS Cup, MLS Cup Play-off games and the popular MLS All-Star Game, along with additional MLS games featuring non-Canadian teams.

Stewart Johnston, President of TSN, stated: “As seen with the success of Toronto FC and MLS’s expansion to Vancouver and Montreal, there is an incredible appetite for professional soccer in Canada. This is a long term partnership with MLS and we are looking forward to working with them not only to give fans ‘best in class’ game coverage but also to help build the profile of the league and grow the game of soccer across the country.”

Don Garber, MLS Commissioner, added: “We are very pleased to partner with TSN, the leading sports network in Canada. This announcement comes at an opportune time for MLS, as we enter a period of growth in Canada with the Vancouver Whitecaps joining the League this season and the Montreal Impact in 2012.  We look forward to building the sport together and creating an exciting multi-media platform for soccer fans throughout the country.”

Under the leadership of David Bernstein, drug the Football Association (FA) has launched a new tactic in an attempt to stamp out bad behaviour from fans and players by launching its own soccer club, see Respect FC.

The fictional side have their own website, medicine www.RespectFootballClub.com, where fans can unite in their respect when playing or watching the game at all levels. For every person that joins to become a member of the site, the FA have pledged to put £1 (US$1.60) back into the Respect initiative within grassroots football – up to the value of £50,000 ($80,000).

In becoming a member, fans of the Club will be able to vote online to say how this money is used at the end of the 2010 / 2011 season. 

Mark Watson, a British comedian and avid Bristol City fan, has been appointed as club chairman and the club has been founded through concern from both the top level of the game and the grassroots community around abuse towards referees and poor sideline behaviour.?

An online viral has been released to promote the initiative featuring former Liverpool captain Neil Ruddock, Portsmouth legend Steve Claridge and Sky Sports commentator Chris Kamara.

Alex Horne, FA General Secretary said of the initiative: “Football fans from all clubs and all leagues have a collective responsibility to let others know that they will not stand for this behaviour from the grassroots of the game up to the international stage. That’s why we’re asking everyone, to ask everyone, to join the club and together win the match against bad behaviour.”

The PyeongChang bid team to host the 2018 Winter Games have appointed a further two vice-chairman and bid ambassador in Ki-young Uhm, sale Jeong-soh Oh and Kolleen Park respectively.

Park is a musical creative director and head professor at Howon University directing and conducting many large-scale musical productions and also hosted musical television programmes.

Ki-young Uhm is a Korean television news anchor and former CEO of Korea’s MBC Broadcasting, canada pills while Jeong-soh Oh is a former minister of Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs. The two new vice-chairmen takes the bids total to 10, including senior vice-chairman and Gangwon Province Governor Gwang-jae Lee.

Yang Ho Cho, PyeongChang 2018 bid committee chairman and CEO stated: “As we approach the last six months of the bid campaign, we are delighted to have the support of our new ambassador and vice-chairmen,

“Their business and political experience, and their passion for the bid, will be an asset for PyeongChang 2018’s campaign right through to the 2018 host city decision in Durban” he added.

“We welcome our new team members, and I look forward to working with them all as we progress towards important milestones next year including the candidature file submission in January, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Evaluation Commission visit in February.” The IOC will opt for PyeongChang, the German city of Munich or Annecy in France on July 6 in Durban, South Africa.