The second annual Global Sport Industry Congress took place on Monday in London. Amongst the participants of Congress are representatives of the IOC, sick National Olympic Committees, ed International Sports Federations, order and Sports Editors from some of the world’s leading media outlets.

The major themes discussed at the Congress include the opportunities and challenges associated with ‘Emerging Sport Nations,’ the vision and the mechanics behind preparations for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the future direction of world football.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, the President and CEO of Sochi 2014 presented a progress report which covered all elements of the preparation for the Games in Sochi:

“All of the work is being carried out in accordance with the schedule, approved by the IOC. More than 20,000 people are working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, creating a base for the most innovative Games that the world has ever seen. By the year 2012, all of the competition venues will be put into operation so that we can ensure that two full-seasons on test competitions can be held before the opening of the Games.”

The program of test competitions will include 74 races, including 29 international and 5 World Championships. There will be over 5,000 athletes participating in the test events in front of more than 250,000 spectators. The first “test” will be the European Cup in alpine skiing, which will be held in Sochi in February 2011.

Speaking about financing for the preparation for the Games in 2014, Dmitry Chernyshenko praised the success of the Sochi 2014 marketing program committee:

“Sochi 2014 has attracted major sponsors and broken Olympic sponsorship records with a commercial program worth more than $1bn. Our commercial program is so successful, we self-financed the 2009-2010 financial year, without Government support,” he said.

Touching upon the topic of media coverage of the 2014 Games, Dmitry Chernyshenko said, that journalists visiting Sochi will have their expectations “met and exceeded”.

AzPetrol, order Azerbijan’s biggest oil agency, check has renewed its patronage contract with the European Hockey Federation and signed a new partnership agreement for a further four years.

This partnership will be used to fund development activities of the EHF member countries.

The president of the EHF, Martin Gotheridge, travelled to Baku, Azerbaijan to sign the new contract and said “I cannot over estimate our gratitude to AzPetrol for continuing to support the European Hockey Federation. The Umpire Development Project over the past years would simply not have been possible without the funding from AzPetrol or indeed the dedication of the umpires in the programme and their mentors who have spent endless unpaid hours advising, watching and supporting them. It is a huge testament to the success of the programme that we now see these umpires at EHL, at the Youth Olympics and at the top women’s Club Championship tournaments.”

On the occasion of signing the new contract Wednesday, Gotheridge said, “This new four year contract gives the EHF the reassurance that we can now turn our attention to other areas of development.

“Partnership is of course a two-way thing and we look forward to working with Huseynaga Ragimov, Azpetrol, and his team and making sure that their brand is supported at all EuroHockey events.”

The Mayor of Madrid has said the city will put a bid for the Olympic Games on hold in order to help Spain win the bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Madrid has failed in its last two attempts to host the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, cheap losing out to London and Rio de Janeiro respectively.

And now Mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon has said the city will do everything it can to see teh joint Spain-Portugal bid succeed.

He said: “The Spanish Football Federation behaved incredibly well towards us in our Olympic candidacy. They directed their needs for matches to be played around the dates that favoured the Madrid candidacy.

“It is not a return of favour – it is for conviction that now all of us have to work together so that Spain is able to organise this World Cup and after that we can start to think about other sporting events.”

NBA Europe has appointed Darrell McLennan-Fordyce as its senior director of communications, it has been announced.

McLennan-Fordyce is a former member of the Madrid bidding team to host the 2018 Ryder Cup and a 2011 Volvo Ocean Race consultant and will oversee the growth and development of the NBA sports brand across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

He said: “The NBA is a fantastic global sports brand and I’m very excited to be working with a great team based in London  and across the region.

“Not only can we build on the future with the London Olympics just over the horizon but with the LA Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves coming to London in October for NBA Europe Live we have a number of the great platforms to work with that demonstrate what great sport and entertainment the NBA offers.”

The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) has renewed its partnership with Automobili Lamborghini in a new four-year deal. 

As part of the deal, the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo North America championship will continue to be contested under IMSA sanction through the 2018 season.

The 2015 Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo North America event calendar was recently unveiled. The schedule features 10 rounds at five venues at some of the most iconic, exciting circuits in the United States. Races will take place in conjunction with IMSA’s top sports car series, the most prestigious in the U.S.

Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo North America competitors also will race in the World Final, which features top drivers and teams from the three global Blancpain Super Trofeo Series — Europe, Asia and North America. The location of the 2015 World Final will be announced this November.

Each Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo North America event will feature two rounds. The season will open May 1-3 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California. The next round will take place June 26-28 at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York, followed by Aug. 21-23 at Virginia International Raceway in Danville, Virginia.

The season will continue Sept. 17-19 with the series’ first visit to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, with the next event Oct. 1-3 during Petit Le Mans week at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia.

Following the decision of Canadian Football League commissioner Mark Cohon to leave the organisation, asthma the Board of Governors have created a search committee to begin the process of finding a successor.

The Committee will be led by CFL Chairman Jim Lawson, symptoms who is the chairman of the board of Woodbine Entertainment Group, apoplectic Canada’s largest racetrack operator. It will also include several CFL Governors while senior leadership from each CFL team will have input throughout the search process.

Spencer Stuart, one of the world’s leading executive search firms, will also assist in finding the next commissioner.

“The committee is looking forward to a process that will result in securing the best possible candidate for this prestigious position at an important time for our league,” Lawson said in a statement.

Cohon announced back on August 20 that he would not seek a third term as commissioner when his contract expires next spring. Now in his eighth season as CFL commissioner, only Jake Gaudaur (1968-1984) and Sydney Halter (1958-1966) have held the position as long.

A lucrative television deal, the return of Ottawa to the CFL, labour peace until 2018, a more stringent drug-testing policy and new stadium projects in Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Hamilton and Ottawa will be among Cohon’s legacies.

“I looked at that list and said ‘you know what? It’s probably the right time for me,“’ he said earlier this year. “I’ve loved this job and I love this job. But I think there is a point in anyone’s career that you look at it and say ‘OK, I’m 48 years old. I’m going to be 49 at the end of my term.”