International Cycling Union (UCI) President Pat McQuaid, generic his predecessor Hein Hein Verbruggen and the governing body itself are reportedly suing former pro cyclist turned author and journalist Paul Kimmage for defamation.

According to a report in the Irish Independent, McQuaid, Verbruggen and the UCI claim in papers said to have been filed at the Swiss district court that stories by Kimmage published principally in The Sunday Times and L’Equipe have seriously damaged their reputations. Each is claiming damages of 8,000 Swiss Frances (£5,540).

According to the newspaper, the 49-year-old Kimmage, whose award-winning autobiography Rough Ride, published in 1990, shed light on doping within the peloton, is said to have been “dishonest” in his allegations against McQuaid, Verbruggen and the UCI.

Those are said to include having accused them of “having knowingly tolerated tests, of being dishonest people, of not having a sense of responsibility, [and] of not applying the same rules to everyone.”

Should Kimmage lose, he could be required to take out advertisements in newspapers worldwide to communicate the court’s decision, paid for out of his own pocket.

As the Irish Independent notes, one curiosity of the case is that it is Kimmage being sued, not the newspapers that published the articles.
However, it should be pointed out that in November it was reported that he was to lose his staff position at The Sunday Times.

McQuaid was Kimmage’s manager in the Ireland cycling team that took part in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and there are a number of similarities between the two men.

Both are from Dublin and belong to Irish cycling dynasties, with fathers who had been national road race champion and brothers who also entered the sport – six in McQuaid’s case, two in Kimmage’s.

Each won the Irish national road race title during successful amateur careers before going on to brief but unspectacular professional careers – their biggest impact on the sport coming through the activities they chose to undertake post-retirement.

In their current roles, each have regularly clashed, including over the allegations Floyd Landis has made about doping by Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service team. Last year, the UCI confirmed that McQuaid and Verbruggen were to sue Landis over his accusations that the governing body had covered up a positive test for EPO involving seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong.

There have been no further developments in that case, but one theory being advanced on forums is that in taking action against Landis and now Kimmage, the UCI and its past and current president are attempting effectively to gag them ahead of any revelations that may result from the ongoing enquiry in the US into doping that is centred around Armstrong and US Postal Service.

In November 2010, Landis gave a five-hour interview to Kimmage that formed the basis of an article in The Sunday Times in which the former US Postal Service and Phonak rider, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France, made a series of allegations against Armstrong and the UCI.

A ticketing mishap by London 2012 organisers that led to 10, anabolics 000 tickets for synchronized swimming being oversold may have worked out well for some customers as organisers are offerring tickets to other events including the 100-meter track final.

Organizers said Wednesday they accidentally oversold 10, prostate 000 tickets for synchronized swimming because of human error in processing applications.

As a result, customers have been offered the chance to exchange those tickets for other events they applied for but were unsuccessful — including some of the most glamorous and coveted events.

About 200 more people will be able to watch the men’s 100 final in the Olympic Stadium, the highest demand sports event of the games.

Organizers realized a few weeks ago that they had sold twice the number of tickets available for four sessions of synchronized swimming.

“In December we contacted around 3,000 customers who had applied for tickets in the four sessions during the second round sales process,” the organizing committee said in a statement Wednesday. “We are exchanging their synchronized swimming tickets for tickets in other sports that they originally applied for.”

The alternate tickets will come from the pot of 1 million for all events that are to go on sale in May once the seating configuration has been finalized at all venues.

Some ticket buyers took to Twitter on Wednesday to reveal their delight at the administrative blunder.

“Just exchanged our Olympics synchronized swimming tix for men’s & women’s medley finals & freestyle finals,” London-based author Stella Duffy tweeted. “Sorry synchros, but woo hoo!”

The process for people to resell any unwanted tickets in their possession opens on Friday.

Many people, including some of Britain’s top athletes, have been unhappy at the ticketing system because of its complexity and perceived lack of fairness of the ballot.

Two-thirds of ticket seekers failed to earn any in a first round of sales last year, with 22 million requests for the 6.6 million tickets available.

In July, the company managing the ticketing system also accidentally charged about 700 people twice for tickets.

San Francisco moved closer to becoming the host city for the 34th America’s Cup, after city officials made a deal with the Golden Gate Yacht Club, which says Spain is out as a rival.

San Francisco officials completed a deal with Golden Gate Yacht Club, backers of America’s Cup defender BMW Oracle Racing, that could lead to the 2013 Cup being staged with Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop.

Tom Ehman, a spokesman for the Golden Gate Yacht Club, said Valencia, the Spanish port that hosted the 2007 and 2010 America’s Cups, is no longer a candidate for the main regatta but could still host a preliminary regatta.

That would leave Italy as the lone rival to San Francisco and unless the Italian offer equals or beats what San Francisco offers, Ehman said he expects the America’s Cup to be hosted in California in 2013 pending city approval.

A host city agreement was submitted Tuesday to San Francisco’s board of supervisors, which must approve it before any deal could be finalized.

The board voted 9-2 last month to approve a term offer and six supervisors are co-sponsors of the agreement, which pledges civic help in raising 270 million dollars to help cover costs of staging the event.

Source: AFP

Source- BBC News:A dispute between US cable TV firm Cablevision and pay-TV outfit Fox may deprive Cablevision’s customers of coverage of baseball’s World Series.

The firms disagree on how much New York-based Cablevision should pay to carry Fox, which owns the baseball final rights, on its cable network.

With the World Series just hours away, Cablevision made a new offer to Fox.

However Fox declined, calling the offer “incomplete”. Fox has now been off-air to Cablevision viewers for 11 days.

In its latest offer Cablevision, which has three million subscribers, said it was willing to pay the same rate as rival Time Warner Cable in a one-year deal.

“This is higher than the rate we pay any other New York broadcast station,” Cablevision said in a statement. “This solution is in the best interest of not only baseball fans but of all Cablevision customers and Fox viewers.”

But Fox responded in a statement: “We remain committed to negotiating a fair deal with Cablevision, but today’s incomplete proposal is not acceptable. Cablevision is seeking a discounted ‘package rate’ without buying the entire package.”

The 106th World Series will see the San Francisco Giants take on the Texas Rangers.

On Tuesday, James Dolan, boss of Cablevision, had written to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), urging it to call a meeting between the two firms in an attempt to find a solution before the World Series begins.

But a Fox Network spokesman called Mr Dolan’s letter to the FCC a publicity stunt.

The best-of-seven MLB final brings together two teams who have not been known for recent successes.

The Giants have not won the championship since 1954, four years before moving from New York to San Francisco.

Meanwhile the Rangers are in the first World Series in their history.

On Wednesday 27 October at 12 midday (CET), unhealthy FIFA’s Director of Competitions Mustapha Fahmy will conduct the draw for the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2010 presented by Toyota at the Home of FIFA. The draw will be streamed live on Fifa.com.

The competition will be held in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates from 8-18 December 2010. The opening game will feature UAE League champions Al Wahda against OFC O-League champions Hekari United of Papua New Guinea.

The winners of that game will then proceed to the quarter finals where they could be drawn against either Pachuca CF (Mexico), site the AFC Champions League winners (Korea Republic’s Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma or Zob Ahan of Iran) or the CAF Champions League winners (TP Mazembe Englebert from DR Congo or Tunisia’s Esperance).

Waiting in the semi finals will be Italy’s Internazionale Milano, winners of last season’s UEFA Champions League and S.C. Internacional of Brazil, the reigning Copa Libertadores champions representing CONMEBOL.

Formula One sponsor LG has said it is confident the Korean Grand Prix will go ahead as planned in October, despite problems over the construction of the circuit.

Executive vice-president and chief marketing officer at LG – which is based in South Korea, Dermot Boden, has said everything is being done to ensure the race goes ahead.

He said: “I live in Korea – I’ve been living there for two-and-a-half years – and this race is going to occur.

“The Koreans are passionate, driven and committed. They are very focused on delivering on their Key Performance Indicators and I want to be clear – we will have a race in Korea.

“I strongly believe that and I don’t have any reason to doubt that. The Koreans will want to deliver not jst a race but an outstanding race – and I think they will do that.”

 

Canadian company Rogers Communications has replaced General Motors (GM) as the title sponsor of the Vancouver Canuck’s ice hockey arena.

The arena has now become Rogers Arena, after a 20-year deal between GM Canada and Canucks Sports and Entertainment ended five years earlier than originally intended. Rogers Communications has agreed a ten-year naming rights deal for the arena.

Chief operating officer at Canucks Sport and Entertainment, Victor de Bonis, said: “General Motors has been an integral part of our business for many years. We are excited about our continuing sponsor partnership that will align with General Motors’ new business priorities. Our home arena has hosted some of the biggest events in the history of our country and we are fortunate that General Motors has been a loyal partner for so long.”

Rogers Communications president and CEO, Nadir Mohamed, said: “It’s not just the branding aspect, but also extending it into the community and leveraging our technologies. One of the things we believe in is taking the game to the fans wherever they might be.”

Rogers also owns Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays and the team’s home, Rogers Centre.

The International Triathlon Union (ITU) have announced that Abu Dhabi will debut on the 2015 ITU World Triathlon Series (WTS) calendar for the first race of a five-year partnership between the Abu Dhabi Sports Council (ADSC) and ITU. The United Arab Emirates capital city will kick off the WTS season on March 6-7.

“This is a partnership which represents a meeting of like minds in terms of ambitions,” said Marisol Casado, ITU President & IOC Member. “Abu Dhabi is a world class city and offers a fantastic combination of beautiful water and superb road infrastructure that is entirely suitable for a WTS event. 

“In our talks leading up to the partnership it became apparent that Abu Dhabi wants to take its triathlon to the next level and expand the sport’s reach in much the same way as ITU is determined to progress the sport internationally.”  

ITU also confirmed that the dates for the World Triathlon London are officially set for May 30-31 and will again offer a sprint distance course. The Hamburg and Edmonton stops on the Series will also feature the fast and furious sprint races. 

Abu Dhabi is the only new stop on the 2015 calendar, while Gold Coast returns for the first time since 2009 for a Series that will feature a total of 10 cities. 

“The World Triathlon Series represents the ‘best of the best’ – like Abu Dhabi – with the sports elite competing in a 10-city circuit, all striving to become World Champion and qualify for the Olympic Games,” said His Excellency Aref Al Awani, General Secretary, ADSC. 

“We envisage a host of benefits emerging from this partnership. These include further positioning of Abu Dhabi as a destination for world-class sporting events, additional destination exposure among an influential client base, encouragement of our own youth to join in one of the world’s fastest-growing Olympic sports and the promotion among our own community of the benefits of healthy lifestyles.

The Women’s Rugby World Cup is set to be broadcast to more homes and countries than ever before, the International Rugby Board has revealed.

With just one week before the tournament kicks off in Paris, fans in 138 territories around the globe will be able to watch the pinnacle of the women’s fifteens game from France.

The competition, which runs from August 1-17, will be beamed to a potential 289 million homes across the globe, with 306 hours of live Rugby broadcast, more than any previous Women’s Rugby World Cup.

The pool stages will be played at FFR headquarters in Marcoussis, with the semi-finals and final to be played at the newly re-developed Stade Jean Bouin in central Paris. New Zealand’s Black Ferns are out to retain their crown after beating England to win the coveted trophy in London in 2010.

Fifteen matches will be broadcast to a global audience by host broadcasters France TV and Eurosport over the five match days in the French capital, including all matches from pitch one in Marcoussis and all matches from Stade Jean Bouin.

International Rugby Board Chairman Bernard Lapasset said: “The fact that millions of Rugby fans in almost 140 countries can watch Women’s Rugby World Cup is testament to how well the women’s Game has been developed in recent years.”

“It’s also fantastic that so many fans can access the matches on irb.com. We’re really looking forward to kick-off this time next week, as I believe this tournament will really raise the bar for women’s Rugby, and we have some classic matches in store.”