Major League Baseball (MLB) on Friday expanded its playoff format to 10 teams, adding a second wild-card in each league.

The decision establishes a new one-game, wild-card round in each league between the teams with the best records who are not division winners, meaning a third-place team could win the World Series.

This is the only change in baseball’s playoff structure since the 1995 season, when wild-card teams were first added.

“This change increases the rewards of a division championship and allows two additional markets to experience playoff baseball each year,” Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement.

Had there been additional wild-card teams last season, the Braves would have made the playoffs in the NL, while the Boston Red Sox would have qualified in the AL. Instead, each missed the postseason by a game, both going down with historic September swoons.

For the 2012 postseason, the five-game Division Series will begin with two home games for lower seeds, followed by home games for the higher seed. After that, it will return to the 2-2-1 format previously used.

“The players are eager to begin playing under this new format in 2012, and they look forward to moving to full realignment in 2013,” MLBPA executive director Michael Weiner said.

As part of baseball’s labor deal, the Houston Astros will switch to the American League for 2013, creating two 15-team leagues with three divisions each. Players wanted the change to equalize the chances for making the playoffs for every division.

Each season, eight of 30 major league teams have made the playoffs under the format that began in 1995, a year later than intended because of a strike that wiped out the end of the ’94 season. The postseason included just the league winners from 1903-68, then increased to four teams in 1969 after the leagues split into divisions.

In the NFL, 12 of 32 teams make the playoffs. In both the NBA and NHL, 16 of 30 teams advance to the postseason.

Adding two more playoffs teams this year has been complicated because the regular-season schedule was drafted last spring and summer, and the extra game has to be put in place in a manner that doesn’t disrupt the World Series schedule. In a further complication, both sides reached a consensus that ties for division titles would be broken on the field with a tiebreaker game under the new format, and not by head-to-head record.

Head-to-head record has been used since 1995 to determine first place if both teams are going to the postseason. But the sides decided that with the start of a one-game, winner-take-all wild-card round, the difference between first place and a wild-card berth is too important to decide with a formula and that a tiebreaker game should be played.

by Ismail Uddin

Roger Burden, acting Football Association (FA) chairman, has withdrawn his intent to apply for the permanent position following England’s 2018 World Cup bid failings. After being appointed in May, Burden had applied for the full post but has rescinded this, stating that he could no longer trust FIFA members following the recent host decision.

Burden sent out a scathing attack on FIFA, commenting: “I recognise that an important part of the role is liaison with Fifa, our global governing body. I’m not prepared to deal with people whom I cannot trust and I’ve withdrawn my candidacy.”

England received just two votes after it was revealed by many of England’s 2018 officials that they had been promised 6 to 8 votes from the 22 members of the FIFA executive committee.

“We were equal top of Fifa’s own technical assessment of the four bids,” continued Burden. “We were top of an independent assessment of the best commercial bids and our presentation on Thursday [December 2] was widely acclaimed as the best of the 2018 and 2022 bids. 

“Against this background, I am struggling to understand how we only achieved two votes. It is difficult to believe that the voting was an objective process.

“On top of that, Prince William, the Prime Minister and other members of our delegation were promised votes that did not materialise.” 

After stating that he was no longer willing to work with FIFA, Burden did confirm that he would remain as a member of the board at the FA. “I’m absolutely determined that I don’t want to do business with these people personally,” he added. 

“There may be people who have got different experiences to my own who feel they can make a difference and they can speak to Fifa and they are willing to do that, but it’s not within my experience. 

“I usually deal with people who I can trust and who are honourable people – it’s just something I’m not going to do.” 

Despite his own personal feelings on working alongside FIFA, Burden urged the FA not to sever its ties with the governing body.

“They are our governing body and it’s up to us now to find ways of dealing with them and getting some sense into the organisation and I’ll certainly be looking to do that. Walking away from Fifa I don’t think is the answer – they are our governing body and we must look for ways of working with them.” 

Burden, who had previously changed his mind on applying for the permanent position, has now reverted to his original stance in not putting himself forward. Burden became acting chairman following the departure of Lord Triesman earlier in the year and will remain as acting chairman until a successor can be found, with the FA due to name a permanent chairman early next year.

In an interview with a group of journalists at the Global Sports Industry Congress in London, here Munich 2018 chairman Katarina Witt  said Munich has been able to overcome local opposition to its bid to host the 2018 Winter Games.

The city is competing with Annecy, France, and Pyeongchang, South Korea and the International Olympic Committee will vote July 6 on the next host in Durban, South Africa.

Witt said a dispute with landowners in Garmisch- Partenkirchen, where the alpine events will be held, was “mostly solved.” The neighbors had been reluctant to give up some of their land for use in the 2018 Games.

“They were right because there wasn’t the right discussion going on at the right level,” Witt said. “It wasn’t a bad intention. In general, it was sort of like, ‘We got the Olympics, and now everybody will do it.’ You didn’t think about, ‘Well wait, you’ve got to secure some people who own the land.’”

Witt, a gold medalist at the 1984 Games in Sarajevo and Calgary in 1988, said Munich isn’t at a disadvantage with members of the IOC because the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and the 2012 London Summer Olympics will also be held in the European region.

Munich, which also organized the 1972 Summer Games, is seeking to become the first city to host both summer and winter editions. Pyeongchang failed to win during two previous bids.

“You have to keep your tradition, and you have to nurture your heartland, where the sport has been for many, many years,” Witt said

“We’re pretty confident we will be able to deliver magic.”

Spreadex, the financial and sports spread betting firm, has recorded its highest ever monthly volume of sports bets thanks to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Spreadex said that sports bets increased by 16 per cent compared to its previous highest levels set in March this year. The company has also seen its highest ever number of unique bettors and new registered accounts.

A Spreadex spokesman said: “The World Cup is the biggest betting event on the globe and it always helps when matches are shown on terrestrial television rather than satellite TV, but we’ve been surprised in the upturn in business.

“England’s early exit doesn’t seem to have had a negative impact. In fact we’ve had higher number of bets placed on many matches featuring other countries rather than the games involving the Three Lions.”

Spreadex launched its online sports betting service in May 2006, and launched its fixed odds sports division in May 2010.

Gene Haas has revealed he may postpone the debut of his Formula 1 entry until 2016.

The NASCAR team owner had an application to enter the F1 world championship accepted by governing body the FIA last week.

“The FIA has told us we have to elect which year we want to participate, ampoule ” Haas explained, link “with a timetable around June. 

“I think 2015 is too close and 2016 is too far. If we wait we’ll end up spending even more money because we’ll just be in a neutral position. We need to come up with a plan where we can arrive with a car, based on our partners’ technology, within the rules of the FIA.”

Speaking in a live online press conference, Haas also confirmed Gunther Steiner as team principal of his new enterprise. Steiner has previously worked in Formula One racing for Jaguar and later for Red Bull, where he was appointed technical director ahead of the team’s debut season in 2005.

“We need to define our technical partners and then go from there,” Steiner said of the team’s entry plans. “We will announce in six to eight weeks what we are doing. We want to make the right decision; we don’t want to jump and say ‘wow, we got this wrong’ and fail. 

“We have an option to start in 2016, so we will speak with people and make a qualified decision.”

The final round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship will take place in San Luis, impotent | organisers of World RX of Argentina have announced.

The event, order which will run from 28-29 November, anabolics will be based in the country’s Cuyo region as San Luis is set 400 kilometres south of Cordoba and 900 kilometres west of Buenos Aires.

“We are working hard on the World RX circuit and everything is looking very positive so far,” explained David Eli, World RX of Argentina’s championship promoter. “Our local authorities are very enthusiastic about rallycross in Argentina and we know that the fans are delighted that the Championship has decided to include a round in South America.”

Martin Anayi, Managing Director of the FIA World Rallycross Championship for IMG Motorsport – a division of IMG, the global sport, fashion and media company – spoke positively about the new host city of San Luis.

“I recently visited Argentina and I am confident that San Luis has all the ingredients to make World RX of Argentina a fantastic event,” explained Anayi.  “The race will form part of their Speed Week and the addition of World RX to the motorsport calendar will help boost tourism throughout the Cuyo region.  We’ve also got an exciting broadcasting deal confirmed for World RX TV coverage in South America which we are set to announce at our World Championship media day in Italy later this month.”

The opening round of World RX will get underway at Montalegre in Portugal on the weekend of 3-4 May.