The worldwide exclusive rights holder of the FIFA Hospitality Programme, purchase  Match Hospitality AG, has appointed UFA Sports as its exclusive agent in Germany for the sale of the Official Hospitality Programme of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil and the FIFA Confederations Cup 2013.

MATCH Hospitality Executive Chairman Jaime Byrom stated: “We are very happy to partner with UFA Sports for the sale of hospitality packages in Germany to the numerous German fans, whose passion for the game is well known. UFA Sports is renowned for their strength to create innovative formats that focus on their clients’ wishes and will be able to cater for the tastes of a variety of stakeholders in the game. What is more, the RTL Group behind UFA Sports is a global media player that will additionally leverage UFA Sports´ approach to promote their premium products and services.”

UFA Sports MD Philip Cordes added: “For every football fan in Germany it is a lifetime dream to experience a FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The 2014 Corporate Hospitality Programme offers a top class opportunity to become part of this unique festival. We are looking forward to the partnership with MATCH Hospitality for this prestigious event”.

NIKE, ampoule Inc. has announced today that Cindy Davis, ampoule President of NIKE Golf, will retire from her role with the sports apparel giant. 

Davis joined NIKE Golf USA as General Manager and has served as President of NIKE Golf since 2008.

“We thank Cindy for her leadership throughout the years as she has led the development and growth of NIKE’s Golf Business worldwide. Under Cindy’s direction, NIKE Golf has steadily delivered profitable growth year after year since 2009,” said Jayme Martin, Vice President & GM, Global Categories.

Nike will name Davis’ successor at a later date.

ZTE, the 4th largest Smartphone provider in the United States, have activated their sponsorship of the Houston Rockets by supporting the NBA team’s Season of Giving program.

Throughout this holiday season, Rockets players, coaches and staff will host a series of events for hundreds of children and their families in the greater Houston area in order to give back and spread cheer to those who need it most.

To date, ZTE and the Rockets have hosted two community events and ZTE sponsored the December 6 charity night game, while a third community event is still on the horizon. ZTE announced their partnership with the Rockets in early October.

“We know that the Houston Rockets share our desire to give back to the community. That’s why we are so excited to have teamed up for this year’s Season of Giving program to give local children an unforgettable experience with their favorite Rockets players and holiday gifts they might not otherwise receive,” Lixin Cheng, CEO, ZTE USA. “Season of Giving allows us to further our long-standing tradition of serving the communities in which we work and live. As we continue to establish significant business and technology partnerships in the U.S., we are most proud of this community effort.”

ZTE’s continued collaboration with the Houston Rockets as the team’s official smartphone of the season represents the company’s ongoing commitment to the U.S. market. 

“ZTE’s enthusiasm for the community has allowed us to host several successful events and bring smiles to the faces of kids across Houston,” said Tad Brown, CEO Houston Rockets. “We are proud to execute this year’s Season of Giving events with a partner that shares our desire to give back to the community so fully.”

The International Federation of PGA Tours, troche an organization of the top professional golf tours in the world that sanctions the World Golf Championships and the World Cup of Golf, has announced that the 2013 World Cup of Golf will return to The Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and will be played from November 21-24.

The Royal Melbourne Golf Club, which hosted The Presidents Cup 2011, will host back-to-back events in November. The World Cup will be preceded on the calendar by the Australian Masters, which boasts Adam Scott as the defending champion.

The World Cup has been played three previous times in Australia, each at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club. The event was last played in Australia in 1988 as part of the nation’s bicentennial celebrations when the United States team of Ben Crenshaw and Mark McCumber defeated the Japanese team of Masashi (Jumbo) and Tateo Ozaki to win the tournament.

“It is an honour to host the World Cup and welcome another international golf event to Melbourne, home of great sporting events and, of course, the incredible Sandbelt region,” said Victorian Premier Dr. Denis Napthine.

“Melbourne is the pride of Australia when it comes to major events, and we would argue rivals any city in the world in that regard. Today’s announcement is another exciting chapter for Melbourne, and we eagerly anticipate the World Cup in November, when we can once again showcase all that Victoria has to offer to the event’s players and fans.”

As part of the move, the event boasts an $8 million total purse and returns to an individual, stroke-play competition for $7 million, with a team component (adding the total scores of two-man teams) for $1 million.

The qualification system for the event is similar to that which will be used in the Olympic Games, when golf returns to the program in 2016. The field will include 60 players (no cut), with eligibility taken from the Official World Golf Ranking. Up to four players can qualify, per country, if they are in the top 15 of the OWGR. Beyond No. 15, up to a maximum of two players per country can qualify.

If two or more players from a country qualify, then the country is eligible for team competition, with the top-two players comprising the qualified team.

The major difference between the World Cup qualification model and that of the Olympic golf competition is that England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will each be considered a separate country (for the purpose of the Olympics, those four countries compete as Great Britain).

Further, the Olympic Games golf competition will not feature a team component OWGR points will be awarded for the individual portion of the competition.

“We’re thrilled that the World Cup will return to Australia, bringing this historic event to a venue, city and country that have hosted the biggest and best international sporting events for many years,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem on behalf of the International Federation of PGA Tours.

“The Presidents Cup 2011 was the best in event history, thanks in no small part to the welcome provided to us by the incredible Australian sports fans, the Victorian government and the Victorian Major Events Company . With all of those ingredients still in place, and added to them Adam Scott’s win at the Masters Tournament in April, there is tremendous momentum and excitement for the World Cup 2013.”

“Melbourne, Australia, is a perfect venue for the World Cup,” said Jon Linen, chairman of the International Golf Association. “We look forward to a terrific competition this November and are confident that the many sports fans in Melbourne will turn out to cheer on the Australian team and the players from many other countries who will be participating in the event.”

“This is a great day for golf and a great day for Australia,” said Chief Executive Officer of PGA of Australia Brian Thorburn. “The addition of the World Cup will complement an already strong swing of tournaments including the Australian PGA, Open and Masters and will significantly boost the international player prospects for these events.”

IMG, which is staging the Australian Masters in the week preceding at Royal Melbourne, will also manage the delivery of the World Cup.

Global Head of Golf at IMG Guy Kinnings said, “Australian golf is fortunate to have such outstanding support from the Victorian Government and we are delighted to have the opportunity to partner the 2013 World Cup immediately following the Australian Masters, which we are proud to stage at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club for the first time.”

The tournament was founded by the International Golf Association in association with industrialist John Jay Hopkins for the purpose of promoting international goodwill through golf. It began in 1953 as the Canada Cup and was renamed World Cup in 1967.

The World Cup was staged as part of the World Golf Championships series from 2000 to 2006. In 2010, it was announced that the event would change from annual to biennial, held in odd-numbered years, to accommodate the 2016 inclusion of golf in the Olympics Games.

The FIA has announced that the date for next season’s German Grand Prix has been brought forward one week to July 7.

At a meeting of the governing body’s World Motor Sport Council in Istanbul on Wednesday, it was also decided to reserve the July 21 date for another European race.

It has been hoped that the French Grand Prix might rejoin the calendar but with both the Magny-Cours and Paul Ricard circuits unable as yet to agree deals, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has suggested that the Turkish Grand Prix might reappear after a two-year hiatus.

Meanwhile organisers of the U.S. Grand Prix want to change the date of next season’s race in order to avoid a clash with an American Football match.

The Austin race is scheduled for November 17, the same weekend that the University of Texas are hosting a college game against Oklahoma State.

With the Texas Longhorns drawing an average crowd of 100,000, there is concern that having the two sporting events on the same weekend will put too much pressure on the city’s transport infrastructure and leave hotel rooms hard to come by.

Last month’s inaugural race at the Circuit of The Americas drew a race-day crowd of 117,000.

Circuit chairman Bobby Epstein has been quoted as telling the Associated Press that he is confident that F1 officials will work to find a solution.

The National Football League (NFL), treat which produces the biggest audiences in U.S. broadcasting, advice is looking to use social media to its advantage for when the college player draft starts tonight at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

The league has a squad of players, search analysts, team executives and television personalities armed with laptops to play online host to the biggest offseason event in the U.S.’s most popular sport. Commissioner Roger Goodell has called digital media “critical” for increasing the NFL’s more-than $9 billion annual revenue.

“The second the commissioner walks up to announce that first pick, you see this absolute explosion on all these platforms,” Jeff Berman, general manager for NFL Digital Media, said in a telephone interview. “What’s happening here is we’re catching a wave that’s been building for years.”

The NFL’s three-day draft begins with the Indianapolis Colts choosing first and the Washington Redskins second. The Colts said they will take Stanford University quarterback Andrew Luck; the Redskins probably will select Baylor University quarterback Robert Griffin III.

Fans aren’t waiting for television analysts such as ESPN’s Mel Kiper to break down the picks before beginning conversation on social media, said Frank Hawkins, a founder of New York-based consulting firm Scalar Media Partners LLC. Twitter mentions of the terms “NFL draft” and “#nfldraft” are up about 37 percent to 192,000 over the equivalent week last year, according to San Francisco-based Topsy Labs Inc.

A five-month-old investigation of possible rules violations could have been committed by the University of Miami athletic department.

Mark Emmert, healing National Collegiate Athletic Association President confirmed the probe after Yahoo Sports said Miami booster Nevin Shapiro, stuff who’s imprisoned for his role in a $930 million Ponzi Scheme, cheap sale provided thousands of impermissible benefits to at least 72 athletes from 2002 through 2010.

“If the assertions are true, the alleged conduct at the University of Miami is an illustration of the need for serious and fundamental change in many critical aspects of college sports,” Emmert said on the NCAA’s website. “This pertains especially to the involvement of boosters and agents with student-athletes.”

Emmert said the NCAA has been looking into the matter at Miami for five months.

“The serious threats to the integrity of college sports are one of the key reasons why I called together more than 50 presidents and chancellors last week to drive substantive changes to Division I intercollegiate athletics,” Emmert said.

Shapiro described an eight-year run of NCAA rules violations, some involving participation and knowledge of Miami football and basketball coaches, during 100 hours of jailhouse interviews. In addition to cash, Shapiro also suggested that the benefits he gave athletes included prostitutes, jewelry, travel, paid trips to nightclubs and restaurants, entertainment in his home and yacht and bounties for on-field performance.