Detroit Pistons guard, Ben Gordon is at the centre of controversy as he won’t play for Britain in this year’s EuroBasket finals in preparation for the Olympics in 2012 because he couldnt reach an agreement on insurance with the national team.

Their failure to achieve a deal followed complications linked to the current National Basketball Association lockout, British Basketball said in an e-mailed statement.

For a agreement to be had the National team would have to pay 40 percent of insurance fees for Gordon, performative director for British Basketball, Chris Spice explained. The insurance agreement between the NBA and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) doesn’t cover lockout periods.

“We have done our best to provide a cover that is close to what we would have had in a normal season, but in the end things didn’t work out from a financial or scope-of-cover perspective,” Spice said today in the statement. The team is still hoping to make an arrangement with Gordon in time for next year’s Olympics, according to the statement.

Britain got insurance last week for the EuroBasket games with 26-year-old Chicago Bulls star forward Luol Deng.

“You don’t get much change from 100,000 pounds ($164,000),” Spice said yesterday of Deng’s arrangement, following a warm-up game in Cobham, outside London, where Britain beat the Netherlands 96-70. British Basketball didn’t have an estimate of what it would cost to insure Gordon.

Gordon, a 28-year-old London native, was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year, denoting the best substitute player, as a rookie with the Bulls. He hasn’t played internationally for Britain.

NBA Owners have been in a lockout since July 1.

The European Women’s Boxing Championships in Rotterdam can go ahead as planned after the International Boxing Association (AIBA) lifted its provisional suspension of the Dutch Boxing Association (DBA).

The suspension of the DBA was sanctioned on 23rd February over “irregularities and rule violations related to the organization of the so-called Final Four tournament last year”. 

Following the suspension order, the European Boxing Confederation had on the same day issued fresh tenders to find another host city for the European Women Championships.  

Despite announcing that the suspension had been lifted, the AIBA disciplinary commission slapped a fine of around US$2,180, plus a further $1,090 in costs on the DBA.

The case pertained to the “Final Four” competition that the DBA had organised last year – on 3 April 2010 – involving amateur, professional and kick boxers, without the use of headguards or vests and in spite of a warning from AIBA.

According to a statement issued by AIBA: “The DBA wrote directly to Aiba on February 24, 2011 to explain that the “Final Four” was organized as a pilot event and that the DBA was not aware of any warning from AIBA. The DBA believed that the initiative was in line with the developments within AIBA, based on the existence of the World Series of Boxing. The DBA board admitted in the letter that they had made a major mistake in their judgments.

“In correspondences between the Dutch Olympic Committee and AIBA’s president CK Wu, the Olympic Committee explained the problems regarding the recent history of the DBA, which had led it to intervene and install a new board, consisting of newcomers to the world of sport. The warning regarding the “Final Four” had been sent to the previous DBA president, who had only shared the information with selected persons. The Board was therefore unaware of the warning. On behalf of the Dutch boxing family, the National Olympic Committee apologized for the trouble caused. AIBA has also asked the president of the Dutch Olympic Committee to meet with the AIBA president to discuss the situation of boxing in the Netherlands and in particular the Dutch Boxing Association’s situation.”

The statement concludes, “In a submission of March 7, 2011 the DBA fully recognized that ‘it has committed a serious violation of the Aiba technical & competition rules and ethics code’. Measures have since been taken to ensure that such problems will not occur in future and the DBA is preparing a statement for its website, in Dutch and English, to report the mistake made and state its apologies to Aiba and the world of boxing.”

After the success of last year’s ‘free racing week’, Racing for Change has linked up with Lovetheraces.com and 25 of Britain’s racecourses to give the public the chance to watch horseracing free of charge for the entire month of April.

The initiative which lasted for 7 days in 2010 attracted an additional 40,000 visitors to the races and has been extended to a whole month this year. Some of Britain’s most famous racecourses are involved, including Ascot, Epsom Downs, Newbury, Newmarket and Sandown Park.

Seventeen fixtures are entirely free in at least one major enclosure at each racecourse, while there are a total of 5,500 free tickets available in advance at a further 11 meetings, although these are expected to be snapped up quickly.

Racing for Change chief executive Rod Street stated: “This groundbreaking move in April is being organised in a bid to attract record numbers of new customers to the fun and exciting sport of horse racing. It’s also a great way to reward existing fans of the sport.”

Street added: “The aim of the month is to appeal to people who have been infrequent visitors to horseracing in the past or who have never been to a racecourse. At many of the meetings, there will be staff, literature and displays to explain more about the sport.”

US President Barack Obama is set to offer a new financing deal that will allow United States companies more opportunity to get involved in preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, when he visits Brazil next month.

The financing scheme, which would be worth in excess of hundreds of millions of dollars annually, has been under discussion between the two Governments for several months now and is set to be formally announced when Obama travels to Brazil on March 19 and 20.

Obama was closely linked with Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics, even turning up for the final vote at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session at Copenhagen in October 2009, where Rio were awarded the Games.

The vehicle for the financing will be the Export-Import Bank of the United States, or Ex-Im Bank, which has seen its role expand dramatically in the last two years as the Obama administration looks for business opportunities abroad.

According to the company’s Chairman, Fred P. Hochberg, Ex-Im Bank seeks to make an unspecified amount of funding available for US-based companies and US subsidiaries of multinationals to help build roads and other infrastructure projects in Brazil.

It is difficult for foreign companies to earn major building contracts in Brazil unless they partner with a company already established there.

Hochberg told Reuters: “Brazil is a place where we see major promise, a lot of potential for cooperation.

“Investment in infrastructure (in emerging markets) is growing at a level we’ve never seen before.”

Funds for joint US-Brazilian projects in other countries would be provided through a “co-financing” deal between Ex-Im Bank and Brazil’s state-run development bank, BNDES. 

Such arrangements provide a “one-stop shop” with one set of documents and financing conditions for joint ventures.

Ex-Im Bank last year authorised a record high US$24.5bn in loans, guarantees and insurance worldwide.

Major League Soccer (MLS) commissioner Don Garber revealed yesterday, February 15, that newcomers to the league and second Canadian representative, the Vancouver Whitecaps are leading the way in terms of sponsorship revenue ahead of the 2011 season.

According to the Vancouver Sun, Garber stated: “The total value of Whitecaps sponsorships signed so far outpaces every other franchise in the league – even New York and Los Angeles.”

Garber added: “Even with Los Angeles and its stadium and David Beckham, the largest sponsorship base is here in Vancouver.” This is down, in the main part, to major tie-ups of recent times including signing a lucrative jersey sponsorship deal with Bell last summer and since adding deals with BMO, EA Sports and Labatt.

Garber stated that the Bell sponsorship is “one of the richest sports sponsorship deals in North America,” noting that the deal “doesn’t involve television advertising or other media – just a pure rights fee.”

 

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Paul Barber – Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Whitecaps FC is a member of iSportconnect

 

The building of a new 33,000 capacity football stadium on the University of Manitoba campus has been approved by the City of Winnipeg and is to open in the spring of 2012.

The city council voted 14-2 in favour of a deal in which the city contribute the majority of the stadium’s US$190 million construction costs. US$85 million of which, however will take the form of a loan to the Canadian Football League’s (CFL) Winnipeg Blue Bombers and will be paid over a period of 44 years.

Mayor Sam Katz said: “Some councilors have said this is a good deal. With all due respect, I disagree. It’s a great deal.”

It has been reported that English Premier League (EPL) soccer clubs are interested in following the example set by Barcelona, story of having more than one kit sponsor to increase revenue.

The commercial regulations to allow clubs the opportunity to sell space on their shirts to multiple backers is not currently allowed although initial approaches are thought to have been made to change this ruling, viagra 100mg claims the Daily Mail.

The Premier League is examining the proposal, which would need majority support among the 20 clubs though it is believed that the league do not want to follow in the footsteps of the Formula 1 route of multi-sponsorship branding.

Barcelona will become the first test of the new arrange after the club agreed a deal to have both its charity partner UNICEF and its £125m record-breaking sponsors the Qatar Foundation on its shirts.

Tottenham received permission from the Premier League this season to have a league backer in Autonomy and Investec on its cup shirts.

The ICC Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC) will meet for its next quarterly meeting in Dubai on 30 November 2010. The main objective is to consider the new Future Tours Programme Agreement (2012-2020) and the accompanying league rules.

The Chief Executives and their respective FTP managers will work towards implementing the new FTP and the Test and ODI leagues. Following the CEC recommendations in September, ed the new international cricket structure was approved by the ICC Executive Board in October.

Haroon Lorgat, the ICC Chief Executive who chairs the CEC, said: ‘The restructure of international cricket has been a significant and strategic piece of work which now requires a new FTP Agreement incorporating league rules and regulations to be discussed and approved.’

With less than three months to go to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, the CEC will also receive an update on final plans and preparations before the start of the event. CEC will also further consider the design of ICC strategy for the period 2011-2015.

Mr Lorgat said: ‘The present ICC directors and chief executives have recognised their essential role in shaping the future strategy of the ICC and the game.’

The CEC comprises the chief executives of the 10 Test-playing Members and three representatives from the ICC Associate and Affiliate Members. It is chaired by the ICC Chief Executive. The Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee was also in attendance.

Haroon Lorgat                                     ICC Chief Executive (chairman)

Clive Lloyd                                         Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee

 

James Sutherland                                Australia

Manzur Ahmed                                   Bangladesh

David Collier                                      England and Wales

N Srinivasan                                        India

Dr Justin Vaughan                              New Zealand

Zakir Khan                                          Pakistan

Gerald Majola                                     South Africa

Nishantha Ranatunga                         Sri Lanka

Dr Ernest Hilaire                                 West Indies

Ozias Bvute                                        Zimbabwe

 

Associate and Affiliate Member representatives

John Cribbin (Hong Kong)

Warren Deutrom (Ireland)

Francois Erasmus (Namibia)