Renewed corruption allegations involving FIFA executive members surfaced on Monday just days before they are due to appoint the hosts of football’s 2018 and 2022 World Cups under the eyes of world leaders.

The Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported that Ricardo Teixeira of Brazil, African football chief Issa Hayatou and his South American counterpart Nicolas Leoz were tied to a secret list of payments from bankrupt FIFA marketing partner ISMM/ISL a decade ago.

The firm collapsed in 2001 in a storm of controversy over alleged kickbacks for TV rights contracts, prompting a FIFA criminal complaint that was later dropped.

A court in the Swiss canton of Zug eventually handed down fines on three ISMM/ISL executives in 2008 for embezzlement or accounting offences.

Leoz was already listed as a recipient of suspect payments from the marketing firm, alongside several companies based in offshore havens, in evidence presented by the Zug prosecutor in 2005.

All three long-standing executive committee members are among the 22 remaining top officials due to vote on Thursday on the World Cup hosts.

FIFA’s ethics committee sidelined two others, Oceania football chief Reynald Temarii and Nigeria’s Amos Adamu, on November 18 when it suspended them for misconduct or bribery following an undercover British newspaper report.

There were also signs that the secret ballot on Thursday could be thrown into disarray, as Oceania’s Football Confederation sought the right to vote by replacing Temarii.

Temarii’s lawyer, Geraldine Lesieur, told AFP that FIFA had conditioned his substitution on its executive committee on a decision not to appeal against his one-year suspension for misconduct, after being cleared of bribery.

However, he has still not received the full ruling, a key legal step that would allow him to decide, she explained.

“Mr Temarii will decide after he has been informed of the motivated ruling,” she said. “We are in an impasse.”

Temarii has told AFP that his vote for the two hosts would have been dictated by the choice of Oceania’s football chiefs.

FIFA could not be reached immediately for a reaction.

England, Russia and joint bids by Spain-Portugal and Netherlands-Belgium are in the running to host the 2018 World Cup while Australia, the United States, Japan, Qatar and South Korea are bidding for 2022.

British Prime minister David Cameron, Prince William, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Qatari crown princes were amongst the dignitaries expected to join final pitches by their bids in front of FIFA’s executive committee on Wednesday and Thursday.

Source: AFP

A specialist venue operator which helped launch Wembley stadium and the O2 Arena was today revealed as the third bidder for the London Olympic stadium.

International Stadia Group will compete with two consortiums — West Ham United/Newham council and Tottenham/AEG — to take over the £500 million-plus venue after the 2012 Games.

The disclosure today by Estates Gazette ends months of speculation about the identity of a third bidder for the flagship venue.

It comes days before the Olympic Park Legacy Company, which is handling sales, is due to inform bidders whether they have made the shortlist before a deal is signed next March.

ISG says on its website that is has been responsible for generating more than $2 billion in revenues from the sales and marketing of stadium seats at more than 15 projects.

It has also been involved with Coventry City Football Club’s Ricoh Arena, Galatasaray’s Türk Telekom Arena in Istanbul and the Swebank Arena in Solna, Stockholm.

The group has worked extensively with the US National Football League on financing stadium investment. The NFL is understood to be considering options for moving its franchise to the Olympic Stadium.

It also has close ties with US entertainment giant Anschutz (AEG), which is bidding alongside Tottenham. The two worked together on creating, managing and selling the premium seating at the O2 Arena.

It is unclear whether the ISG bid seeks to retain the athletics track at the stadium post Games.

West Ham, in partnership with Newham council, entertainment group LiveNation and with the backing of UK Athletics, is committed to maintaining the athletics track post- Games.

Both ISG and the legacy company declined to comment.

England’s 2018 World Cup bid team is to withdraw a complaint to Fifa about Russia’s campaign following an apology from their rival bidder.

The Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko has apologised for comments made by bid chief Alexei Sorokin.

England’s official complaint was that Russia had broken bidding rules when he made disparaging comments about London.

“Mr Mutko approached the bid team with a genuine apology in an honourable manner,” said an England spokesman.

“We, of course, accepted this apology and appreciate the gesture. We now wish to move on from this matter.”

Fifa’s committee met on Thursday to receive reports on the bids.

This years Business India Forum was held on July 22, 2010 and the event once more organised by Celebrasian UK was held this year in London at Christie’s. A lovely small, niche auditorium amongst all those works of art from around the world.
The mix of topics this year was once more quite interesting with sports business meeting luxury and lifestyle in an Indian context, something with the exception of IPL isn’t really the case for India just yet. So something which is set to become more and more real for India in the coming years.

It was a half day forum with over 100 delegates attending. The opening session had the title “Overview of the Indian economy and three sectors”. Ridhika Batra, Director – Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, UK; was in the chair with Vijay Goel, Indo-EU Business Forum; Deepak Lalwani, Astaire Securities; and Farid Haque, Global Markets, Accenture as panellists and they all gave their views on how business could and should be done in India plus where the opportunities and possible problems lie. This set to tone for the rest of the afternoon.

The second session had the topic “The Business of Sports” with myself as the moderator with the focus mainly on cricket and football. My panel included Ishan Saksena, Chairman, Queen’s Park Rangers FC; Ashish Ray, Author and journalist; Kevin Roberts, Editorial Director, Sport Business Group; Anders Grundberg, Partner, McGuire Woods; and Clive W. Leach, Chairman, Durham County Cricket Club.

I started off giving a general overview on the Indian sporting field with the IPL the often mentioned example of commercialisation of sports in India, but I also gave the audience the information that football is a fast growing sport in India with the question to be asked on how and where can cricket grow further. My aim was to give an overview not only of cricket and football, which still where the main focus. My seasoned colleague Ashish took the discussions to another level as he is a cricket purist and was more interested in Test cricket, while most of the world was interested in 50 Overs and T20. An interesting discussion developed as India has clearly shown that Test cricket is of no real interest for the general public these days, while T20 is the new craze through the IPL; while in England Test cricket still has its place of its own. An interesting comparison was made as a strong league doesn’t automatically mean a strong national side. England and the EPL in football were compared to India and its IPL in cricket. And yes, it scarily sounded correct as both national sides have failed in recent major competition.

We also focused in the session on the main topic of business of sports in India. There are numerous opportunities not only in cricket and football with the example of the 30 year deal signed by IMG-Reliance with the Basketball Federation of India recently made, but there are also chances in Formula 1 and Golf.

After a tea break “Session Three – The Burgeoning Luxury and Lifestyle Markets” was held with Amin Jaffer, Director Indian Art, Christies; in the chair. The panel included Fiona Sanderson, Managing Director, The Luxury Channel; Onita Prasada Vashish, Owner, Onitaa Fashion; and Kevin Rego, International Head of Sales and Marketing, B4U TV.

The fourth and final session was on “Doing business in India”. It had Carl Nisser, Board member, Europe India Chamber of Commerce Counsel & McGuire Woods; as the moderator. The panel included Atul Gupta, Director, Euro Max Capital; and Parvinder Bhatia, Wasserman Media Group – India. They talked about the does and don’t in the Indian market. One thing that came out clear of this session was anyone interested to do business in India needs to know and then also understand how to do it in India. And that is the difficulty for international business across all fields as even multinationals have failed in India.

By Arunava Chaudhuri

http://arunfoot.blogspot.com/2010/07/business-india-forum-london-review.html

Relevent Sports, a division of RSE Ventures Inc., has signed an agreement with TLA Worldwide plc, a leading athlete representation and sports marketing group, to bring the elite International Champions Cup (ICC) to Asia Pacific from 2015-2018.

The expansion of the ICC for 2015 comes with the ICC Finals to take place this summer at Sun Life Stadium on Aug. 4.

TLA has partnered with Nine Live, wholly owned by Nine Entertainment Co, a leading Australian media and entertainment company, to organize, promote and deliver the ICC to the region from 2015-2018. Participating teams and the host country for the tournament will be announced in due course.

TLA Worldwide Chair Bart Campbell commented: “With this agreement TLA has made a significant move to diversify its activities into the world’s most popular sport. TLA will play a central role in bringing some of the world’s most widely followed clubs and iconic brands to one of the most dynamic regions of Asia. We are delighted to team up with Nine Live who have market leading regional expertise.”

The Asia Pacific ICC tournament will be the first example of TLA’s collaboration with Nine Live to bring world-class sports events to the region and more opportunities are already being developed jointly for the future.

Geoff Jones, Managing Director at Nine Live, said: “TLA’s international relationships within the sports market make them the ideal partner for bringing this exciting tournament to the region. We look forward to working with them to make this event a major fixture in the region’s sporting calendar and are very confident it will be a huge success, as it is in the U.S.”

The ICC transforms the traditional European club pre-season tour into an annual competitive global tournament, which is currently hosted only in the U.S.

The first ICC was held in 2013 and broadcast in 150 countries, featuring eight top clubs from across the world, including A.C. Milan, Chelsea, Everton, Juventus and Real Madrid. This year’s edition features Real Madrid, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, A.C. Milan, AS Roma, Inter Milan and Olympiacos in matches across 12 North American cities.

This year’s tournament final will be held on August 4 in Miami at Sun Life Stadium.

The Long Beach City Council has proposed a three-year extension to the current Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach agreement, extending the contract through 2018.

Final approval of the amendment will go before the City Council in open session in the next few weeks. The Grand Prix Association has also been informed that simultaneous with the granting of the extension that the Council has instructed City management to enter into the RFP (Request for Proposal) process to determine whether to continue with the Grand Prix Association running Indy cars or to switch to Formula One after 2018.

“We think this is a wise decision by the City Council, pills ” said Jim Michaelian, pills president and CEO of the Grand Prix Association. “It affords the Grand Prix the opportunity to continue to conduct the #1 street race in America while allowing the City to explore another alternative. In the end we are confident that the City will conclude that the partnership it has had with the Grand Prix Association is the most beneficial from every perspective and we will continue to conduct the event in Long Beach for many more years to come.”

The board of the International Cricket Council (ICC) has approved a series of reforms handing more power to India, England and Australia.

Eight of the organisation’s 10 members voted in favour of the wide-ranging proposals (Pakistan and Sri Lanka abstained), which include permanent seats for the ‘big three’ countries on a five-man executive committee.

The 16-man ICC board first discussed the controversial measures, which seek to overhaul “the governance, competition and financial models” of the ICC in Dubai on January 28, but voting on proposals was deferred until Saturday’s follow-up meeting in Singapore.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka, both publicly opposed to the changes in the run-up to the vote, while Cricket South Africa and the Bangladesh Cricket Board both voted despite airing their concerns over the shake-up.

Current Board of Control for Cricket in India president N Srinivasan will chair the ICC executive council from later this year, with CA’s Wally Edwards chairing the executive committee and ECB chairman Giles Clarke continuing to head the financial committee.

ICC president Alan Isaac: “There were eight full members who were in a position to support the resolution today.

“The two who have abstained have pledged to further discuss the issues with an aim to reaching unanimous approval over the coming weeks.”

India had complained of a lack of recognition in revenues from global events, and it has now been agreed that full members will receive a greater share of central funds based largely on their own financial contribution, but also considering “their ICC history and their on-field performances in the three formats”.

Speculation emerged earlier this year that the BCCI had considered pulling the India team out of major ICC competitions such as the World Cup and the World Twenty20, had a new distribution scheme not been agreed.

An ICC statement confirmed the new finance agreement was “required to provide long-term certainty of participation of all members in both ICC events and bilateral series against other members”.

The statement added: “Without that certainty, the rights for ICC events, which are to be taken to market this year, would have been significantly impacted and, by extension, so would the financial support that has driven the growth of cricket around the world.”

As expected, plans for a World Test Championship have again been shelved, and the 50-over Champions Trophy will return in 2017 and 2021.