Sky Media Network will consult professional football player Mesut Özil with his future selection of sponsors and advertising partners. 

Along with new business unit F4B (Faces for Brands), pills the marketing company has been assigned with the task of the worldwide marketing of the German midfielder. The focus of the partnership is the development of a promotion strategy for the German and Real Madrid star and positioning him on the international advertising market. The marketing strategy of Sky Media Network comprises all relevant aspects of marketing such as the selection and acquisition of national and international advertising partners, herbal negotiations and setting-up agreements as well as conceptual design and support services.

Martin Michel, pills Managing Director of Sky Media Network said: “As an established sports marketing agency, we are the perfect interface between the advertising market and professional sports. Therefore marketing successful sports personalities such as Mesut Özil is a logical consequence for us.”

Mustafa Özil, father and manager of Mesut Özil: “Sky Media Network are the most significant sports marketing agency in Germany and are the perfect partner for us when it comes to the selection and acquisition of new sponsors and advertising partners for Mesut.”

With its new business sector F4B, Sky Media Network will expand its previous activities with marketing celebrities from the sports and entertainment sectors. The goal is to connect successful sports personalities and popular Sky presenters with national and international top brands. 

The business unit F4B will be led by Matthias Trott, the previous Head of Product Management at Sky Media Network. The journalist is an experienced expert in the sports marketing sector; before he joined Sky in 2009, he had leading positions with sports marketing agency Sirius Sport Media as well as Bundesliga channel Arena.

The Australian Open will hold a regional wildcard playoff in Nanjing, China in October for entry to the 2013 grand slam.

The male and female winners of the playoff, which will take place at China’s National Tennis Academy from October 15 to 21, will be awarded entry to the main draw of the Melbourne Park tournament.

The playoff, which will not be open to Australian players, was announced by the Premier of Victoria Ted Baillieu at a news conference in Beijing on Monday, also attended by China’s 2011 French Open champion Li Na.

Asia is  an important market both for attracting visitors to Melbourne to watch the tournament and television audiences to maximise the value of media rights.

“There has been a 400 percent increase in visitation to the Australian Open from the Asia-Pacific region over the past eight years,” Tennis Australia’s CEO, Steve Wood, said.

“More than half the Australian Open’s global media value is now generated from the Asia-Pacific region and new broadcast deals include access to an additional 65 million homes.

“And when Li Na made her historic run to the final in 2011 we achieved the highest ever broadcast exposure throughout Asia … with 135 million tuning in across the region.”{jcomments on}

Kenya’s plan to hold the London 2012 Olympics trials for a select part of the East African country’s team in the United States have come under criticism by former athletes, who argue that there is no need to depart from the tradition of holding national trials for every single distance.

Athletics Kenya Chairman Isaiah Kiplagat confirmed last week that five male and female athletes would partake in the Diamond League 5,000 and 10,000 meters races in Eugene, Oregon with the top three earning a spot on the Olympic team, whilst the remainder of the team will be selected at trials in Nairobi.

Kiplagat said: “We want to select a strong team for the Olympics because we have not won a (gold) medal in these two events (since 1988). We have therefore decided to take as many as 20 athletes to Oregon, where we shall pick the best runners.”

Paul Tergat, five-time world cross country champion and former marathon world record holder, countered such notions by suggesting that all trials should take place in Kenya. The two-time Olympic silver medallist said: “Kenya is a sovereign state and it makes little sense to conduct part of an Olympic trials outside the country.

“We have always done our trials and selected winning teams here. I don’t understand why we have to take our trials to America.”

His sentiments were reiterated by another leading former athlete, Martin Keino, implying that by not having trials in its homeland, it only serves to take away from the local community. Keino added: “It is unique in the sense that it is the convergence of as many as 20 of the world’s top distance athletes fighting for just three spots through a rigorous system of selection.

“The men’s 5,000m and 10,000m races are generally some of the most exciting races at an Olympic trials here in Kenya. Not to hold these events in such important trials is to deny thousands of fans their only opportunity to watch their stars in person before the Games.”

 

The Premier League will continue their pursuit of pubs who breach copyright following the High Court decision on Friday to overturn the conviction against Karen Murphy, the landlady of Portsmouth’s Red, White & Blue pub.

Murphy had been prosecuted after setting up a Greek decoder card to show English top-flight matches from an overseas satellite feed. Murphy won an appeal to the European Court of Justice in October, and the decision was endorsed by the High Court on Friday.

Although Murphy successfully argued that the use of foreign goods and services must be permitted under European law, Lord Justice Kitchin’s decisions at the High Court have reinforced the League’s rights under separate intellectual-property statutes, and the league is determined to carry on taking action against pubs who use foreign feeds.

“The law gives us the right to prevent the unauthorised use of our copyrights in pubs and clubs when they are communicated to the public without our authority,” said the League in a statement on Friday.

“[Publicans who] use European Economic Area foreign satellite systems to show Premier League football on their premises without our authority and outside the scope of our authorisation make themselves liable to action in both the civil and criminal courts.”

Premier League investigators make repeat visits to suspected pubs to gather evidence. Cease-and-desist letters follow and, after another visit by investigators, criminal proceedings will ensue.

The courts’ penalties have, in the past, extended to four-figure fines and the award of legal costs to the Premier League.

However, due to the criminal nature of breaches, publicans would also be risking their alcohol licences. A League source explained: “We are still pursuing convictions on those using non-EEA cards as well. There’s a database and we know who we are going after.

“The usual culprits are in the North East, the North West, the West Midlands and north London. Some of them will be high-profile places.”

Euroview, who are a major supplier of set-top boxes and cards has declared its intention to “invest in the development of new technology that will allow a risk-free solution” to the clampdown.

It is clear the League remains vulnerable to the exploitation of loopholes in the law. One might be that Murphy was using a Greek residential and not a commercial decoder card intended for Greek pubs.

by Ismail Uddin

The window for reselling unwanted Olympic and Paralympic seats began online this morning at 09.00 GMT.

The digital market place is available through the LOCOG website and is open until Friday, ailment February 3rd.

The window will enable all sellers to recoup the full face value of their tickers provided there is a willing customer.

As soon as a request to sell is submitted, the tickets will be made available to purchase online.

There will be another opportunity to resell in April if any tickets remain unsold during this window.

This may well be unnecessary given the demand for tickets last year which saw 22 million applications for just 3 million tickets and with only football tickets still available.

For those who remain empty handed in the fight to secure tickets in this window, there will also be a final batch of 1.2m extra tickets released in April which have been delayed whilst seating numbers are confirmed in stadia.

The scheme is UK based only. Any British citizens who purchased tickets through official overseas vendors, must contact the individual retailer if they want to resell.

The world’s most prestigious cycling event, Tour de France, has struck a deal with Qatar Airways that will see the carrier become an official transport partner of the event.

Qatar Airways will transport the cyclists from Grenoble to Orly, near Paris, for the final stage of the Tour, a journey which had previously been made by TGV high-speed train.

Tour de France organisers ASO, who arranged the deal with Qatar Airways, has had strong links in Qatar for a while, with the company organising and operating the Tour of Qatar cycling race since 2002. Qatar Airways is the official airline of the race.

Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airlines chairman, said of the deal: “This is an opportunity for us to demonstrate our passion for sport.

“There couldn’t be a better time to announce this news. Earlier this week Qatar Airways was voted the world’s top airline company.”

According to the New York Times, health US billionaire property developer Donald Trump, famed for his role in the American Apprentice TV show, reportedly contacted the owners of Major League Baseball (MLB) side the New York Mets about two weeks ago to set up a meeting to talk about potentially buying a majority stake in the team.

Trump said today, February 16, that he had called current owner Fred Wilpon to arrange the meeting, which has yet to take place, the newspaper reported.

The owners of the Mets said Jan. 29 that they may sell as much as 25 percent of the team to raise money to settle a lawsuit stemming from Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The owners are being sued for as much as US$1 billion over their financial dealings with Madoff, the Times said.

MP & Silva has agreed a deal for the international media rights distribution of the FIVB Club World Volleyball Championship 2010, featuring eight of the world’s top men’s teams and six of the leading women’s teams.

This year, world volleyball’s top club competition has been expanded to include a women’s tournament, for the first time since 1994. Men’s and women’s matches will alternate throughout the event, which runs from 15 to 21 December in Doha, Qatar. The tournament will have a round-robin format to determine the overall ranking and classification before semifinals and final.

Under the terms of the agreement, MP & Silva will undertake the global media distribution responsibilities – with the exception of Middle East and North Africa – for all telecommunication platforms and formats, including terrestrial free-to-air television, satellite and cable television, IPTV, mobile television, mobile, and internet and broadband television.

Paul the octopus, who shot to fame during this year’s FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa for his flawless record in predicting game outcomes, has died, his aquarium in Germany said today.

“Management and staff at the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre were devastated to discover that oracle octopus Paul, who achieved global renown during the recent World Cup, had passed away overnight,” the aquarium said in a sombre statement.

Paul beat the odds during the FIFA World Cup by correctly forecasting all eight games he was asked to predict, including Spain’s 1-0 win over the Netherlands in the final.

Paul’s body is now in cold storage while the aquarium decides “how best to mark his passing.”

“We may decide to give Paul his own small burial plot within our grounds and erect a modest permanent shrine,” said Sea Life manager Stefan Porwoll.

“While this may seem a curious thing to do for a sea creature, Paul achieved such popularity during his short life that it may be deemed the most appropriate course of action.”

International law firm Norton Rose has become the exclusive legal advice partner of Munich’s bid committee to host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, it has been announced.

The firm will provide support to the German city’s bid to host the Games during the candidate city phase, where it faces competition from Annecy, France and PyeongChang, South Korea.

Munich 2018 CEO, Willy Bogner, said: “Norton Rose’s support comes at exactly the right time to boost our preparation of the bid book. We need a large number of contracts and guarantees with local authorities, so we will make full use of their extensive legal expertise.

“This partnership will enable us to continue uniting every level of German society, from individuals to governments, from local businesses to international corporations, in passionate support of Munich’s bid to host the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

“With Norton Rose we have won a partner with a highly influential international network. During the candidate city stage, these international contacts will be an invaluable asset in helping us tell our story all over the world.”

Dr Alexander Von Bergwelt, managing partner of Norton Rose in Germany, added: “Norton Rose is a sports-minded law firm. Naturally, we support Munich’s application to host the Winter Games in 2018. We have local roots and a global presence, with our network of 30 offices all over the world and our lawyers cover all relevant areas of legal expertise.

“This allows us to provide optimal support to the bid committee, particularly drafting the bid book, which will form an important basis for selecting the 2018 host city.”