Karen Murphy a pub landlady has won her battle to air Premier League games using a foreign TV decoder in the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

Karen Murphy had to pay nearly £8,000 in fines and costs for using a cheaper Greek decoder in her Portsmouth pub to bypass controls over match screening. But she took her case to the ECJ.

The ECJ now says national laws which prohibit the import, sale or use of foreign decoder cards are contrary to the freedom to provide services.

The decision could have monumental repercussions for the Premier League and its current exclusive agreements with Sky Sports and ESPN, and set a precedent of cheaper viewing of foreign broadcasts for fans of top-flight English games.

The ECJ said national legislation, which banned the use of overseas decoders, could not “be justified either in light of the objective of protecting intellectual property rights or by the objective of encouraging the public to attend football stadiums”.

Mrs Murphy said: “My reaction is relief, excitement, I’m thrilled. It has taken rather a long time, this has been going on for six years, but obviously it’s been worth it. It’s taken quite a chunk of my life but I’m glad I took it on. It’s been like Karen versus Goliath.”

“It has been a rollercoaster, highs and lows, nerves… It has been a strange time and I am glad it is coming to an end. I feel I have taken on the Premier League and Sky.”

Mrs Murphy said she no longer had a decoder box in her Red, White and Blue pub and would wait for the “stamp of approval” from the High Court before reinstating it.

The ECJ findings will now go to the High Court in London, which had sent the matter to the ECJ for guidance, for a final ruling.

However, the court structure in the UK makes it highly unlikely the decision in the ECJ will be overturned by the state High Court.

Daniel Geey , Sports media lawyer of Field Fisher Waterhouse solicitors, said: “In practical terms, the Premier League will now have to decide how it wishes to re-tender its rights. There can be little doubt it will have contingency plans ready to go and has various options available.

“Be it a pan-EU tender, selling in only certain EU member states or devising a plan to start its own channel, they will be deciding how best to maximise the value of their product to ensure any revenue shortfall is minimised.”

The judges said the Premier League could not claim copyright over Premier League matches as they could not considered to be an author’s own “intellectual creation” and, therefore, to be “works” for the purposes of EU copyright law.

But, the ECJ did hasten to add that while live matches were not protected by copyright, any surrounding media, such as any opening video sequence, the Premier League anthem, pre-recorded films showing highlights of recent Premier League matches and various graphics, were “works” protected by copyright.

To use these extra parts a pub would need the permission of the Premier League. This will make it hard for pubs to showcase the games as most games include these extras and therfore breach copyright law.

By ensuring that its branding was on screen all the time, the league may be able to claim pubs were in breach of this ECJ ruling on copyright.

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Related discussion: European Court of Justice ruling by Colin Robinson

Olympic Tickets may be sold out but sport fans who are in the unfortunate position of not having tickets for the games will be given another chance to see their favourite athletes at a series of test events.

The London 2012 organisers Locog have revealed a programme of top-class sport in venues being used for the Games.

British Medal hopefuls Tom Daley, Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins and Rebecca Adlington should all be in action. Other Olympic and Paralympic events and venues will also be tested with tickets only on sale for certain events.

Tickets for the International Gymnastics Olympic qualifier, Track Cycling World Cup Classic and Diving World Cup test events will go on sale on 17 November while tickets for the British Swimming Championships and the Table Tennis Grand Finals are being sold through the national governing bodies.

Tickets for archery, handball and the Paralympic sport of goalball will be distributed to selected schools, colleges, local residents and national governing bodies.

Three Games venues in the Olympic Park will be used for the first time – the Velodrome, Aquatics Centre and Handball Arena. ExCel, North Greenwich Arena and Lord’s are the other homes of Games events being used in the programme.

Paul Deighton, Locog chief executive  said: “After completing 18 very successful Olympic test events this summer, it is with great anticipation we start the next round of test events in the London Prepares series.”

UK Sport’s head of major events Esther Nicholls said: “UK Sport is thrilled to be supporting the cycling and diving test events.

These events are set to give more of our athletes a taste of what is to come in less than 12 months time at the Olympics and Paralympics.

“Following the great success of the first test events, where we saw some incredible performances in iconic venues across London, we are looking forward to hosting more world-class events on home soil,” Nicholls added.

Test events have so far been held in a variety of Olympic sports, including beach volleyball, basketball, mountain biking and equestrianism.

Locog said the events are used to test the sporting field of play, results, timing and scoring systems, as well as how teams work together and how people move around venues.

Feedback is then taken into account when finalising plans for the 2012 Games.

At July’s equestrian test event in Greenwich Park some of the riders were not impressed by the surface and in August, BMX star Shanaze Reade wanted improvements to the cycling course.

The Olympic Games begin on 27 July next year with the Paralympics starting on 29 August.

BBC London claims to have learnt that over half of the applicants for London 2012 Olympic Games tickets did not receive any in the ballot, with around 55 per cent believed to have missed out.

Almost 1 million of the original 1.8 million people applying for 6.6 million available tickets to the public will now enter a second ballot for those who were unsuccessful, though no tickets remain for the opening and closing ceremonies or athletics finals.

London 2012 said those who missed out will have priority in the next ballot but BBC London’s Olympics correspondent Adrian Warner said the big events had sold out as well as cheaper events like BMX and archery.

He said: “Even though people will be entered into a second ballot, the cheaper tickets have gone. So, for example, if you do want to watch track and field it will be the preliminaries and it will cost between £40, which is double the cheapest available, and £150.”

A London 2012 spokesman added: “Those who were unsuccessful in the initial process will have priority in the next round of sales which start later this month and they will be contacted soon to inform them about the next steps.

“There are still plenty of tickets available to see great Olympic sport across all price points.”

Paul Deighton, chief executive of London 2012, told BBC London that he understood the disappointment of Londoners and that London 2012 was working as hard as possible to make tickets in the second round available to as many people as possible, adding: “The objective of the second round is that it is exclusively for those that participated in the first round.

“We want to make sure that people who were disappointed first time around have the best chance of getting tickets.”

Deighton admitted: “The biggest chunk of tickets are in the team sports where we have lots of matches, big venues, so it’s with volleyball, hockey, tennis, basketball, handball.”

After LOCOG chairman Lord Coe suggested only around 100,000 seats will be put on sale, organisers have moved to clarify the number of tickets available in the second phase of sales.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Coe said the seats would be made available to the one million people who missed out in the initial ballot on a first come, first served basis on or before 24 June.

However, a LOCOG spokesperson said the number of tickets available would actually be “hundreds of thousands”, and said a full breakdown of seats and events would soon be made available.

Coe later said he was unaware that he had made a mistake over the numbers, claiming: “I did say hundreds of thousands of tickets, I couldn’t be clearer about that. I’ve been repeating the same thing four or five times. Let there be no ambiguity about this. Hundreds of thousands of tickets at [different] price points [will be sold] in the second phase.”

SAP SE and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) have intoduced a new technology innovation to allow coaches to bring a WTA-authorized mobile device onto the court during a coaching break and use real-time data insights to analyze player performance for WTA games.

Developed by SAP as a custom-built solution using core SAP technology based on requirements of the WTA and its players, the WTA coaching app, which has been used this season by players and coaches post-match to prepare for future games, will be available for use by the WTA when the athletes call their coaches on-court during matches in the 2015 WTA Season. The announcement was made at the 2014 BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global taking place at Singapore Sports Hub, where SAP is an official sponsor.

On-court coaching was originally introduced by the WTA in 2008 as a broadcasting initiative offering fans an inside look at the strategy between players and coaches. SAP worked very closely with WTA players and coaches in the development of this app to ensure that the data and analytics gathered will help them better engage by providing players and coaches with a tool to have insights about match performance live during a match.

“We believe that technology will play a major role in modernizing our sport, delivering more to our fans without altering the integrity of the game,” said Stacey Allaster, CEO and chairman, WTA. “Tennis is a data-driven sport and information is power. Many of our matches usually come down to just a few key points and any advantage that players and coaches can gain by analyzing trends and data could deliver and edge in the match. This technology sets a new standard for women’s tennis and we’re excited to work with SAP to innovate our sport and provide state-of-the-art resources to enhance our athletes’ performances and our fans’ experiences.”

Currently, WTA players and coaches receive post-match point-by-point analysis from SAP that allows them to visualize the subtle technique variations that players use throughout a match, helping them to analyze performance. Over the course of the 2014 WTA season, SAP technology experts worked closely with coaches and players to identify what information was essential to create a powerful analytics solution to optimize performance. As a result of this co-innovation approach, SAP developed a simple and engaging app to enable players and coaches to access key performance data such as serve direction and shot placement in real-time during match play.

“These statistics on the coaching app will make my job easier and advice more accurate during a match,” said Wim Fissette, WTA Coach.

In addition to the coaching tool, SAP developed the official WTA Finals mobile app to provide fans around the world with access to exclusive content, news, virtual replays, fan polls, statistics, player profiles and photos, along with ticketing and tournament information. 

“We’re very fortunate to collaborate with an enthusiastic player and coach community to develop breakthrough technology to improve player performance and to simplify how the WTA engages with fans,” said Stefan Wagner, general manager, Media, Sports and Entertainment Industries, SAP. “The addition of this new coaching app completes what we’ve been doing from a post-match analysis by making the data available in real time to provide deeper insights during match play.”

Hockey India has today elected Dr. Narinder Batra as President of Hockey India for a four year term.

Batra, cough who served as Secretary General of the organisation for four years, advice was elected unopposed for the position. 

Sarbananda Sonowal, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge) said: “I would like to congratulate Hockey India and the Indian Men Hockey Team for making the country proud at the 17th Asian Games 2014 in Incheon.

“Winning Gold after 16 years is a big encouragement for all the hockey lovers in the country and this achievement is a positive sign of a new beginning of Hockey in India. I will extend complete support from the Ministry and myself to Hockey for competing in the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2018 World Cup in India as I am very much confident that the team will come up with even better results in their upcoming and future tournaments.”

“Hockey India under the leadership of Dr. Narinder Batra is running well and has shown tremendous results and I am proud of it. I assure hundred percent support from my end as well as the Ministry towards the betterment of hockey.”

Speaking on his new appointment as President of Hockey India Dr. Narinder Batra said, “We welcome on board the new Office Bearers and I am confident that they share the same vision of Hockey India and with their coming on board they will now be responsible for taking ahead the legacy of Hockey in India. Also, being appointed as an unopposed President, I feel overwhelmed with the trust and faith that the members have showed in me. I shall strive to live up to the new role that I am stepping into and hoping to justice to it.”

British Swimming have agreed a partnership with the Royal Navy which will see the two organisations showcase the multiple opportunities available to recruits and the possibilities of a career in the Royal Navy.

The partnership will evolve over the coming months with the two parties exploring further ways to share knowledge and training skills with a view to forging a longer term relationship to promote careers within the Royal Navy.

Captain Mark Cameron said: “By developing a relationship with British Swimming the Royal Navy is able to demonstrate that there are many more parallels than people might realise. The Royal Navy might offer one career but there are many opportunities within that and if recruits are particularly passionate about a sport, hospital like swimming, denture then we can support that. I can clearly see in Michael and Keri-anne the qualities we look for in personnel: leadership, camaraderie, courage and passion.”

 

Citi, ed which will sponsor the 2014 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams for the Sochi 2014 Olympics, has unveiled a new national advertising and marketing campaign ahead of the Winter Games.

The campaign, featuring U.S. Olympic and Paralympic qualifiers, hopefuls and legends who comprise Team Citi, includes broadcast, print, out-of-home, social media, and digital advertising, as well as special events, promotions and retail activations. The campaign is infused with Citi’s brand messaging and showcases many of Citi’s competitive and innovative banking products, including Citigold, the Citi Mobile app, and the Citi ThankYou Preferred Visa card.

Citi is continuing its successful Every Step of the Way program, first launched for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and bringing it to life through a comprehensive advertising and marketing campaign featuring the athletes of Team Citi – Julie Chu, Billy Demong, Erin Hamlin, Ted Ligety, Evan Lysacek, Dan Jansen, Picabo Street, Alana Nichols and Rico Roman. 

“Citi is delighted to continue its support for Team USA, this time in their efforts at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games,” said Citi Chief Brand Officer Dermot Boden. “Building on the success of Citi’s inaugural Team USA sponsorship at the London 2012 Olympic Games, we are now pleased to launch a fully integrated campaign that will create an enhanced connection with our customers, our employees and fellow Olympic and Paralympic fans. Just as Citi aspires to help our clients on their journeys from ambition to achievement, we are proud to support our Team Citi athletes every step of the way as they work towards and reach their goals.”

Citi’s television campaign will kick off today with a spot featuring Nordic combined skier Billy Demong. Two additional broadcast spots airing later this month will feature alpine skier Ted Ligety and will focus on the way the Citi Mobile app allows consumers to bank from almost anywhere. The spot that begins airing today will focus on the Citi ThankYou Preferred Visa card, which allows consumers to earn 2X points on dining and entertainment at no annual fee. 

“Our customers want their bank to understand how they live and get them where they want to go – whether they are banking on their smart phone mountainside or earning points for music downloads purchased with their Citi ThankYou Preferred Visa card,” said Elyssa Gray, Director of Creative and Media, North America Consumer Marketing, Citi. “We’re excited to introduce this advertising in which Team Citi athletes bring to life the stories of Citi’s banking products in a fun and engaging way.”

The NCAA has awarded NCAA Division II Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships to host venue IMG Academy for the 2016-17 seasons.

IMG Performance will host the championships in conjunction with the University of Tampa on the campus of IMG Academy in Bradenton, capsule Florida. The events will take place will take place May 26-28, pills 2016 and May 25-27, order 2017.

“When you look at the list of cities and venues that will host our championships, there is no doubt the experiences across divisions and sports will likely be the best in NCAA history,” said Mark Lewis, NCAA executive vice president of championships and alliances. “The process was extremely thorough and allowed the sport committees to have some tremendous options, which will ultimately provide our student-athletes, coaches and fans the best experience possible.”

“We look forward to hosting our first NCAA Championship event at IMG Academy, where we recently launched a track and field program housed in our new stadium. We feel a key element in our selection is the focus we place on creating a great student-athlete experience,” remarked Gary Pluchino, Vice President, IMG Performance. “We are also looking forward to hosting a national event that will attract athletes, coaches and fans from all over the country to the Bradenton area where they will be greeted by a welcoming community, great weather, and countless attractions.”

Sochi mayor Anatoly Pakhomov announced the city will host the 2014 Russian Grand Prix in November of that year.

Russia is scheduled to join the Formula One circus in 2014 with the Black Sea resort of Sochi playing host to the grand prix.

It is costing around $200 million to build the venue.

There were serious reports of construction delays last year, although Pakhomov insists everything is now progressing on schedule.

“It will be held in November, after the (Winter) Olympics,” Pakhomov told Reuters.

“The circuit’s construction is being closely monitored by the regional government. Everything is going according to plan.

“If we had any problems we would have asked for help from other regions.”