The Football Association have warned fans not use unauthorised websites in buying Olympic tickets for Team GB matches.

Some supporters have reported a United States-based website offering tickets for the double-header at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium on Friday, ambulance July 20 at hugely inflated prices.

An FA spokesman said: “The FA would strongly recommend to all supporters only to buy through official channels.

“As the only warm-up match for both Great Britain football squads prior to the Olympics, this is the last chance for fans to see the teams live and we don’t want anyone to be disappointed.”

Luxembourg Boxing Federation, capsule who have sanctioned the Haye v Chisora grudge match, have issued legal proceedings against British Boxing Board of Control (BBBoC) since they are not happy at all with the organisation’s behaviour towards the fight.

Former WBA heavyweight champion, David Haye, will lock horns with former British heavyweight champion, Dereck Chisora, on July 14 at the West Ham’s Upton Park Stadium in east London but their much-anticipated fight, which is fuelled by bad blood. 

“The Luxembourg Boxing Federation and a number of licence holders have issued legal proceedings against the British Boxing Board of Control in relation to its behaviour over the Haye v Chisora fight on 14 July 2012,” read a statement from the Luxembourg board.

Both Haye and Chisora don’t have any boxing licence with them because they literally came down to blows in Munich in February, when they clashed at a post-fight press conference which followed Chisora’s loss to Vitali Klitschko.

This is the main reason why BBBoC doesn’t want the fight to take place. However, the Luxembourg board believes this is a fight which everyone wants to see. The board has claimed that the fight will take place and there won’t be any problems.

“This is not something anyone wanted to do and neither is it a step we took lightly, but we felt we were left with no option.”

“The Board has admitted that it can do nothing legally to stop the fight but it is still threatening to call its licence-holders to account for their involvement.

“The fight is going ahead on 14 July and over 28,000 tickets have been sold. This is a fight that the public want to see and is being broadcast live in the UK on BoxNation, EPIX in America, Sky Germany and in more the 60 countries.”

TeamFanShop, erectile Inc., the industry leader of collegiate e-commerce solutions, has announced a new multi-year agreement with Learfield Sports’ Sooner Sports Properties, the exclusive multimedia rights holder for University of Oklahoma Athletics.

TeamFanShop is the retail syndication arm of Fanatics, Inc., the world’s largest online retailer of officially licensed sports merchandise, and for more than a decade has serviced the sports industry with proficiency in online merchandising. The extended agreement includes all elements of the original arrangement such as e-commerce, merchandising, manufacturing, customer and fulfillment services.

The Oklahoma Sooners’ official online store,Shop.SoonerSports.com, showcases an extensive selection of sports apparel and gear totaling more than 2300 licensed products across quality name brands like Nike. A complete line of merchandise is in stock and ready to ship for men, women and kids of all ages and sizes, including t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, jerseys, tailgating gear and more.

Sooners’ fans and alumni will continue to enjoy exceptional customer service policies that include an entire year for returns, low cost shipping, and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. The Oklahoma online store platform provides safe shopping with security and fraud prevention, along with state-of-the-art encryption technology to protect customers’ personal information.

“TeamFanShop has done an outstanding job of providing e-commerce and fulfillment services to the Sooners’ online store since 2009, and it continues to stand out to our organization as the best-in-class online retailer,” said Eric Barnhart, Sooner Sports Properties’ general manager. “Because of the prominence of Oklahoma Athletics, the Sooners needed a viable partner providing an all-encompassing online merchandising solution. In our opinion, TeamFanShop delivers just that and more, which is one of the many reasons why we chose them a second time around.”

Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Fanatics, Brian Swallow, added: “It is an exciting moment for any company when you partner with such an acclaimed organization as Oklahoma, and watch your services exceed their expectations. For the last couple of years, OU has been one of our top converting college partners out of more than 90 collegiate sites. We highly respect what the University of Oklahoma stands for and look forward to extending ourrelationship for years to come.”

by Ismail Uddin

The NHL’s reallignment plan was stalled on Friday after the union opposed the changes. Instead, the NHL will maintain its current alignment and playoff format for the 2012-13 season.

The league’s planned realignment from six divisions to four conferences for next seasonhad been approved by the board of governors in December pending input from the NHL Players’ Association.

“On the evening of December 5, 2011, the NHL informed the NHLPA that they proposed to put in place a four-conference format beginning with the 2012-13 season,” union head Donald Fehr said in a statement.

“As realignment affects players’ terms and conditions of employment, the CBA requires the League to obtain the NHLPA’s consent before implementation. Over the last month, we have had several discussions with the League and extensive dialogue with players, most recently on an Executive Board conference call on Jan. 1. Two substantial player concerns emerged: (1) whether the new structure would result in increased and more onerous travel; and (2) the disparity in chances of making the playoffs between the smaller and larger divisions.

“In order to evaluate the effect on travel of the proposed new structure, we requested a draft or sample 2012-13 schedule, showing travel per team. We were advised it was not possible for the league to do that. We also suggested reaching an agreement on scheduling conditions to somewhat alleviate player travel concerns [e.g., the scheduling of more back-to-back games, more difficult and lengthier road trips, number of border crossings, etc.], but the league did not want to enter into such a dialogue. The travel estimation data we received from the league indicates that many of the current Pacific and Central teams, that have demanding travel schedules under the current format, could see their travel become even more difficult. On the playoff qualification matter, we suggested discussing ways to eliminate the inherent differences in the proposed realignment, but the League was not willing to do so.

“The league set a deadline of Jan. 6, 2012 for the NHLPA to provide its consent to the NHL’s proposal. Players’ questions about travel and concerns about the playoff format have not been sufficiently addressed; as such, we are not able to provide our consent to the proposal at this time. We continue to be ready and willing to have further discussions should the league be willing to do so.”

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the league was unable to address the union’s concerns despite four weeks of negotiations.

“It is unfortunate that the NHLPA has unreasonably refused to approve a plan that an overwhelming majority of our clubs voted to support, and that has received such widespread support from our fans and other members of the hockey community, including players,” said Daly in a statement.

“We believe the union acted unreasonably in violation of the league’s rights. We intend to evaluate all of our available legal options and to pursue adequate remedies, as appropriate.”

The off-season relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg in June forced the NHL to reconsider its divisional structure.

The new plan tried to address teams’ travel concerns, as well as guarantee home-and-home series for every team and change the league’s playoff format.

Shortly after the plan was approved, commissioner Gary Bettman said the NHLPA had expressed concerns but that the league didn’t need the union to sign off on the changes.

Fehr rejected Bettman’s claim and said the proposed plan would have fallen under the players’ terms and conditions of employment in the collective bargaining agreement.

The plan was to have two conferences with seven teams all based in the Eastern time zone: New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Washington and Carolina in one and Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Buffalo, Florida and Tampa Bay in the other.

The third conference consisted of eight teams in the Eastern and Central time zones: Detroit, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, Chicago, Minnesota, Dallas and Winnipeg.

The fourth conference had eight teams in the Mountain and Pacific time zones: Los Angeles, Anaheim, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Colorado.

Players reacted warmly to the changes in December, but some expressed concern with the increased travel during the regular season.

The uneven conferences, which featured two made up of eight teams and seven teams in the other two, was also contested since the number of teams qualifying for the playoffs would have been four in each conference.

“Personally, I’d like to have the same shot at making the playoffs as everybody else,” Flames winger Alex Tanguay said at the time. “If you’re in one of those conference that has eight teams, it’s definitely going to be much tougher than [those with] seven teams to make the playoffs.

“I don’t know how they can make that work. I’m sure there’s a solution.”

The lost plan also sets an uneasy tone to the start of labour talks, which were expected to begin after the all-star weekend later this month but are essentially underway now.

The collective bargaining agreement is set to expire Sept. 15.

Major League Baseball (MLB) players and owners are about to put their NBA counterparts to shame as they are set to agree on a five-year labor contract and hope to have a signed deal by Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

Negotiators reached an understanding when they met late Thursday at the InterContinental O’Hare in Rosemont.

The sides hope to sign a memorandum of understanding in time to announce the agreement Monday or Tuesday. The last item to fall in place was the luxury tax on high payroll teams.

The agreement, the first for the union since Michael Weiner succeeded Donald Fehr as head last year, would replace the deal expiring Dec. 11 and would give baseball 21 years of labor peace since the 1994-95 strike.

Under the agreement, there will be a new restraint on the amount of money a team spends each year to sign selections from the amateur draft, with teams going over a threshold being penalized with a type of luxury tax.

In addition, there will be a separate restraint on the amount of money spent to sign international amateur free agents from nations such as the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Cuba. There also will be a committee established to review the system for international signings, leaving open the possibility of a new system during the term of the deal.

Negotiators also worked to lower the percentage of major league free agents who require the highest form of draft pick compensation for the teams losing them.

As part of the deal, players and owners are agreeing to add an extra wild-card round to the playoffs. The extra round will be one game, winner take all.

With the new deal will come Houston Astros inclusion into the American League in 2013.

Mediaset have secured the rights to the UEFA Champions League premium package which includes free-to-air coverage of 16 exclusive Wednesday first choice live matches, the Saturday final (which will be simultaneous with Sky Italia), highlights on both Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well as the UEFA Super Cup. Mediaset will broadcast the UEFA Champions League matches on Italia 1 and Canale 5.

In line with UEFA’s platform neutral approach, the rights to both UEFA club competitions will also be shown on the internet and through mobile technology via www.sportmediaset.it and via Mediaset’s mobile portal.

Guy-Laurent Epstein, Marketing Director of UEFA Events SA, said: “UEFA is excited at the prospect of extending its partnership with Mediaset. They have proved their commitment to the UEFA Europa League helping establish it as a high quality property in the market. This renewal will help to further consolidate the positioning of the competition in Italy.

“In addition, Mediaset’s coverage of the UEFA Champions League on the two leading commercial free-to-air channels in Italy, Canale 5 and Italia 1, will ensure football fans throughout Italy great access to the competition.”

 

European sports broadcaster Eurosport has started the selling of advertising spots surrounding the London 2012 Olympic Games, as well as around broadcasts linked to the Games in the two years leading up to them.

“Road to London” is the marketing campaign offering advertising opportunities around international sporting events featuring Olympic sports.

The main events in the scheme are the major European and World Championship events that as qualifiers for the 2012 Olympic Games.

There will also be an environmental initiatives developed by the organisers of the Games, and magazine programmes focusing on the athletes and events appearing at the Games.

Nearly 75 per cent of Eurosport’s schedule is made up of Olympic sports. It has created advertising-funded programming around the theme.

 

 

 

Heathrow Express has retained Havas Sports & Entertainment UK (HS&E), sales the UK office of the global brand engagement network of HAVAS, to promote its partnerships with England Sevens, USA Rugby and Premiership Rugby.

HS&E’s key objective is to help position Heathrow Express as a world-class brand and the first choice for business travellers to travel between Heathrow and central London, particularly in overseas markets where rugby sevens is a rapidly growing sport. The agency will be delivering a fully integrated activation strategy including experiential engagement, content creation, social media, digital, PR and CSR. 

As well as managing the company’s England Sevens partnership, a key component of the brief is to promote the partnership between Heathrow Express and USA Rugby. The USA, where rugby is the fastest growing sport, is Heathrow Express’ biggest market outside the UK, with around 10 million Americans forecast to pass through Heathrow Airport in 2014.   

For Heathrow Express, the unique appeal of rugby sevens is that the annual HSBC Sevens World Series is broadcast live to 154 countries with its tournaments taking place in some of its major feeder cities, such as Hong Kong and Dubai. 

Commenting on the appointment, Lucien Boyer, President & Global CEO, Havas Sports & Entertainment, said: “Heathrow Express’ involvement in rugby and in particular sevens comes at a very exciting time as it’s fast, spectator friendly format is the future of the sport. The Commonwealth Games, Rugby World Cup 2015 and the Rio 2016 Olympic Games are all around the corner which gives us a fantastic opportunity to be innovative in rugby. We look forward to helping them take the brand to a global audience in a new and engaging way.” 

Heathrow Express Head of Communications, Simon Evans, added: “We are thrilled to bring on board the enviable creative and strategic firepower of Havas to help us bring our investment in rugby to life, to measure its effectiveness and ultimately to deliver on our principle objective – to get more people to ride our train. We received pitches from a number of leading agencies, and Havas was the clear winner.” 

Havas Sports & Entertainment UK clients include Coca-Cola, The FA, AEG, Sport England and Yahoo!