Four cities have been confirmed as the frontrunners to host the 2014 season-ending Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Championships

The Russian city of Kazan has joined Mexico City, Singapore and China’s Tianjin are candidates.

The tournament brings the top eight women’s singles players together for a broadly televised tournament that has seen tennis brought to non-traditional settings such as Qatar and this year’s host Istanbul.

The winning city will be announced in the spring.

A further 39 cities expressed interest, according to WTA chairman Stacey Allister.

The WTA Championships is today recognised as one of a handful of truly blue chip international events, currently delivering over $140 million of economic and media value to the host city, she said on the WTA website.

Kazan has never hosted a WTA tournament but hosts a men’s ATP Challenger event while Russia’s men’s national team has played Davis Cup matches there.

This year’s WTA championships was won by Serena Williams, who beat Russia’s Maria Sharapova in the final. The doubles title went to the Russian duo of Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova.

Fiat will be the official sponsor and vehicle supplier of the 2012 UCI BMX World Championships in Birmingham.

The Italian car manufacturer will supply the ‘hot seat’ which hosts the rider with the leading time during the time trial event.

In keeping with downhill mountain biking and skiing, the ‘hot seat’ is the place where the leading rider sits throughout the timed event waiting to see if their time is beaten.

The 2012 World Championships takes place between May 24-27 at the National Indoor Arena and will attract 2,000 riders from all over the world.

Jonny Clay, Event Director, said: “We’re delighted to have Fiat on board for the Championships. As a partner of British Cycling they have been a generous supporter of our major sports programme in recent years and we’re proud to have them involved once again for this event.”

Elena Bernardelli, Marketing Director for Fiat Group Automobiles UK Ltd, said: “We are delighted to be supporting the UCI BMX World Championships. Fiat is already a big fan of cycle sports –  we sponsor British Cycling – and the BMX discipline is among the most exciting of them all. I am sure the Birmingham event will be a great success.”

Home favourites Shanaze Reade and Liam Phillips will be aiming for world titles in their final major outings prior to the London 2012 Olympics and points gained there will count towards qualification for the games.

Brazil’s Senate has relieved some of the pressure surrounding hosting the 2014 World Cup by lifting of a federal ban on the sale of alcoholic drinks in stadiums during the tournament.

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (ABI), sale the world’s largest brewer, pill extended in October its beer sponsorship for the FIFA World Cup through 2022. The legislation now needs to be signed by President Dilma Rousseff.

Brazil currently bans consumption of alcoholic beverages at sporting events held in stadiums because of concern it fuels violence. Five of the 12 Brazilian states that will host World Cup games still have local laws that prohibit sales of alcohol in stadiums and may have to suspend them, Senator Ana Amelia de Lemos, a member of the government coalition and one of the sponsors of the bill, told reporters in Brasilia yesterday.

“This could end in court as some states can still forbid beverages,” Lemos said. “If you don’t allow beverages, an international agreement is broken, creating legal uncertainty that undermines Brazil’s image.”

Brazil’s Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo and the chairman of the country’s soccer confederation Jose Maria Marin met FIFA President Sepp Blatter in Zurich on May 8 to discuss the project. FIFA said Brazil has made “significant progress” on preparing stadiums for the tournament.

Relations between FIFA, which is world soccer’s governing body, and the Brazilian government became strained after the country delayed approving the bill. Brazil committed to enact the legislation when it was awarded the $5 billion event almost five years ago. FIFA also complained earlier this year about slow progress in building stadiums.

A US company has won the contract to print millions of tickets for the London Olympics, anesthetist angering some local politicians who say the deal should have gone to a British business.

Weldon, herbal Williams & Lick Inc, ailment a specialist printing firm based in the historic Wild West frontier town of Fort Smith, Arkansas, will produce and package the tickets before they are flown across the Atlantic for distribution.

The London Organising Committee (LOCOG) defended its choice after London-based politicians attacked the decision as bad for British business and for the environment.

“The contract to print and fulfil the bulk of tickets for London 2012 was awarded following a thorough, competitive and open procurement process,” LOCOG said in a statement.

“The company which won the bid has worked on several previous Games, met all of our criteria around security, budget and scale and has specialist systems in place to personalize, print and package tickets on the scale we require,” it added.

Tickets will be packaged with spectator event guides and travel cards before they are dispatched.

Households in Britain who have got tickets for the July 27-August 12 Games will receive them in early summer. They will have to sign for delivery to prevent tickets from falling into the wrong hands.

The printing row is the latest ticketing controversy to hit the Games.

Many Britons were angered after failing to get tickets last year as supply outstripped demand. An official website for the resale of tickets set up last month had to be suspended after it suffered technical problems.

Owner of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Los Angeles Dodgers, Frank McCourt will meet league executives in New York today, April 27, just two days after J. Thomas Schieffer was appointed to monitor the team’s operations.

McCourt revealed that he plans to discuss a television rights deal with News Corp.’s Fox network and the LA Times reported that the club presented MLB Commissioner Bud Selig with an agreement for a 20-year contract with Fox worth at least US$3bn, on April 5.

McCourt said that the agreement “provides financial stability for the ball club for years to come,” adding: “The media rights package is fully negotiated and it is one of the most favorable ever reached by a baseball team.”

MLB announced that Schieffer, the former president of the Texas Rangers, will oversee day-to-day operations of the Dodgers on Monday, April 25 with Selig revealing last week that his office was taking over operations because of “deep concerns regarding the finances” of the club.

The Australian government have handed a funding boost to the nation’s top sailors of around US$250,000 ahead of the London 2012 Olympics.

The extra cash support will be used to enhance the team’s chances of success, providing greater access to support services, quality training and high level competition.

Australia’s Minister for Sport Senator Mark Arbib said the experience of sailing with the women’s national team gave him the chance to see first-hand how their preparations are going.

Arbib stated: “The Australian Government recently committed an extra $250,000.

“This funding is part of our ‘Green and Gold’ project that has injected an extra $2.5m into Australia’s top Olympic sports and athletes, including our sailors.”

Coming on top of the extra $2m in high performance funding committed to Australia’s sailing program in 2010/11, Australian sailing team high performance director Peter Conde welcomed the Government’s commitment.

“This new Government funding will allow us to better support our athletes and coaches with the facilities, equipment and support services they need to be at their best in 2012,” he said.

“It was great to have Senator Arbib on the water with our athletes and to also have the chance to tour the site of our new National Training Centre which is currently under construction here at Middle Harbour Yacht Club.”

Arbib added that this month’s launch of the European Training Centre was further evidence of the Government’s commitment to achieving sustained success on the international stage.

“The Australian Government is committed to giving Australian athletes every opportunity to achieve sustained international success, turning a potential fourth, fifth and sixth placing into a medal at the London Games.”

Football legend George Best’s European Cup winner’s medal has sold for £156,000 (US $250,000) at auction reports BBC Sport.

The 1968 medal was among 13 items belonging to the Manchester United and Northern Ireland star to be sold at Bonhams in Chester on Wednesday.

It was expected to fetch up to £120,000 and the auction house described the final price as “staggering”.

Proceeds of the sale, which totalled about £200,000, will go to the late footballer’s sister, Barbara McNally. George Best died in November 2005, aged 59. The Belfast-born forward made 470 appearances for United between 1963 and 1974, scoring 179 goals.

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) has apologised for using the Victoria Cross in their design for the new England shirts.

The governing body has been criticised for using the image of the medal on the recently-released home and away shirts.

The Victoria Cross, the British and Commonwealth armed forces’ most prestigious medal, has only been awarded 1,354 times during its 158-year existence, most recently in 2012.

In a statement, the RFU said: “We would like to apologise to those who may have taken offence with our new kit. It was certainly never our intention to cause this.

“We are huge supporters of our service personnel and respect and value their support for England.

“We have a longstanding relationship with the Royal British Legion, supporting their poppy appeal at the relevant Twickenham international every year and have helped raise over £2 million for them and for other service charities such as Help for Heroes.

“We will be contacting the Victoria Cross Trust and the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association to see how we can also support their worthwhile work going forwards.”

Gary Stapleton, chairman of the Victoria Cross Trust, hit out at the decision to use the medal as part of the shirt’s design.

“It’s very frustrating when you see the image being used for marketing purposes,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

“I think about how much work we put in and the volunteers put in and the work we do restoring the VC graves, and here’s an organisation that’s probably going to make quite a large amount of money from sales of said shirts.

“It would’ve been a bit more appropriate if they’d said they’d like to do this because they believe what the Victoria Cross represents and would like to benefit a charity that does actually care about the history of the VC.”

The new shirt will debut when England take on New Zealand in the opening autumn Test on November 8.