iSportconnect has announced a partnership with international agency specialising in Sports and Technology Marketing, asthma PR and sponsorship in motorsport, ambulance Sine Qua Non, look as it continues to develop its expertise and services in the motorsport industry, and sports business in general, to its fast growing membership.

An agreement has been reached which will see Sine Qua Non International’s Claire Ritchie and Chris Hughes manage iSportconnect’s Sports technology sub-community, as well as contributing to the Motorsport sub community using their expertise in the industry.

Under the terms of the partnership the duo will initiate group discussions, as well as writing expert columns and publishing case studies to both sub-communities. In addition, Sine Qua Non will also work with iSportconnect in future networking events for both the Sports technology and Motorsport industries.

Claire Ritchie is the founder and Managing Director of Sine Qua Non International. Having had extensive experience in sales, marketing and sponsorship at Hewlett Packard and Nortel Networks where she managed the multimillion dollar Formula One partnership with BMW Williams F1, she has used that knowledge to develop partnerships for technology brands in F1, MotoGP and World Rally as well as other sports.

Ritchie said of the link up with iSportconnect: “With our unique focus on technology and sport, we are pleased and ideally placed to manage the Sports technology sub-community.  iSportconnect has done a great job since its launch in bringing together like minded professionals and we welcome the opportunity to help to contribute to its continued growth.”

Chris Hughes is Head of PR and Communications at Sine Qua Non and has extensive experience in the motorsport arena. Chris was one of the original members of Panasonic Toyota Racing’s Marketing and Communications team and was jointly responsible for building up the team’s Formula 1 press office from scratch. Prior to joining Sine Qua Non, Chris was responsible for MotoGP communications at Bridgestone Motorsport.

Founder and CEO of iSportconnect Sree Varma added: “iSportconnect is delighted to announce this working partnership in order to obtain the expert opinions and views of Sine Qua Non. We are excited to be able to provide our loyal members with the latest news and discussions within the sports technology and motorsport sub-communities and feel that the extensive experience of both Claire and Chris will help us to offer the best service possible within these industries.”

Sine Qua Non is a leading innovator in helping companies to maximise the positive impact of Marketing, PR and Sponsorship across the business to deliver on this challenge.

Since its inception at the turn of the Millennium, Sine Qua Non has enjoyed a period of continuous growth throughout the 2000s. Initially created to fulfil a desire to fuse a driving passion for technology and sports sponsorship, the company has incrementally built up a dedicated marketing and PR competence over the years.

The new collective bargaining agreement between Serie A and the Italian Players’ Association has been put into jeopardy after the Italian Premier League failed to sign leading to a possible strike.

Italian Players Association President, Damiano Tommasi claimed the Italian Football League has yet to sign a new collective agreement.

The previous agreement, concerning players’ rights, expired a year ago and the 2010-11 Serie A season was twice threatened by strikes before they were narrowly averted.

The new campaign is set to kick off on August 27, but Tommasi has warned that action will be taken unless a deal is reached that suits all parties. “Yes, the league kick-off is at risk,” the former Italy and AS Roma midfielder told SkySport24.

“The collective agreement needs to be signed and that needs to happen before the season can start. Even the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) president (Giancarlo Abete) has said it. It would be hard for the players to not take to the pitch but we need their rights to be put in black and white, and it’s not an economic question. The players are united in their intent; I’ve visited 90% of Serie A teams.”

Chinese based hackers have been found out to been privy to computer networks of the United Nations, multinational corporations and the Olympic committees of several countries and the U.S and Canadian governments.

The major cyber attack hacked into a total of 72 organizations starting in 2006 according to Santa Clara, Californi-based McAfee Inc.

There is evidence to suggest that Beijing and Shanghai were the origin from where these criiminal activities took place.

“Even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators,” Dimitri Alperovitch, McAfee’s vice president of threat research, said in the report.

McAfee dubbed details of the incident as Operation Shady RAT, are part of a mounting body of evidence linking China to sophisticated hacking operations targeted against a broad array of both government and commercial targets. RAT is industry shorthand for remote access tool, software used to hack networks.

China’s reply to this came in the form of Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington. He said China is “firmly against international hacking activities and is ready to work with other countries to secure the cyberspace.”

Asian football supremo Mohamed Bin Hammam was on Saturday banned from the game for life after being found guilty of corruption following a two-day hearing of FIFA’s ethics committee.

The 62-year-old Qatari, the president of the Asian Football Confederation ( AFC), had been accused of trying to buy votes in the FIFA presidential election with $40,000 cash gifts to Caribbean football officials.

“The official Mr Bin Hammam is hereby banned from taking part in any kind of football activity at national or international level for life,” said ethics committee deputy chairman Petrus Damaseb at FIFA headquarters.

Whistle-blowers said Bin Hammam tried to bribe officials to vote for him by distributing cash-stuffed envelopes during a Caribbean Football Union (CFU) meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on May 10-11.

CFU officials Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester, also being investigated by the ethics committee over claims they helped hand out the money, were eached banned from football-related activity for a year.

Former FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president Jack Warner was also charged over his alleged role in the affair, but his resignation from FIFA last month prompted the organisation to drop all the charges against him.

Bin Hammam’s subsequent withdrawal from the presidential election gifted a fourth straight term in office to his former ally Sepp Blatter, who made cleaning up FIFA’s tarnished image a post-election priority.

Bin Hammam had already all but conceded defeat prior to the announcement of the ethics committee’s verdict.

“It seems likely that FIFA has already made its decision weeks ago,” he wrote in a blog post on Friday. “So none of us should be completely surprised if a guilty verdict is returned.”

Friday’s 13-hour session did not wrap up until after 10:00 pm local time (2000GMT), while Saturday’s hearing began at around 9:00 am local time beneath grey skies in the Swiss financial capital.

Tokyo on Saturday officially declared its bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

“There’s no point in entering the fight to host the Olympics unless we win,” Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said during the declaration, made at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Japan Sports Association and the Japanese Olympic Committee.

Earlier in the day, the Tokyo metropolitan government submitted the necessary application documents to the JOC, which then decided during an extraordinary meeting of its executives that Tokyo would be the nation’s candidate city for the 2020 event.

Tokyo is aiming to host the 2020 Games as a symbol of Japan’s recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake.

This is Tokyo’s second bid for a Summer Olympics since it was chosen as the venue for the 1964 Olympics. Its previous attempt was its failed bid for the 2016 Games.

Although Ishihara expressed his desire to bid for the 2020 event at a metropolitan assembly session in June, he refrained from making an official announcement, saying support from other prefectures and organizations would be necessary.

JOC President Tsunekazu Takeda later visited the metropolitan government to ask Ishihara to bid for the 2020 Games, and traveled to disaster-hit Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures to seek their understanding.

The Liberal Democratic Party’s Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Division has decided to support Tokyo’s bid, and the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry also asked the metropolitan government to seek to host the Games.

Having therefore judged that political, business and sports circles are showing their support, the metropolitan government decided to make a formal declaration while International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge was in Japan to attend the ceremony.

Rio de Janeiro was chosen for the 2016 event, beating out Tokyo, Chicago and Madrid. The Brazilian city’s bid stressed that it would be the first Olympics to be held in South America, and Japan was eliminated in the second round following Chicago’s exit in the first.

According to a report by the metropolitan government and other sources, Tokyo was highly regarded for the compactness of its envisioned Games, with many competition venues located close to each other. However, the city likely lost because it did not have a strong message of what hosting the event would mean.

Analyses also suggested that Japan lacked strong personal connections in international sports circles.

Rome and Madrid already have thrown their hats into the ring for the 2020 Games. Applications to become a candidate city must be submitted to the IOC by Sept. 1.

The 2020 host city will be named at the IOC’s general meeting in September 2013.

Poll: Predict 2020 Summer Olympic Games Host and win a Directors’ Club delegate pass

By Edward Rangsi

The discussion forums allow iSportconnect members to seek opinions, share their thoughts and gain insight from their peers on all the latest issues in sports business. This year we’ve enjoyed many thought-provoking debates on a wide range of topics from spot fixing in cricket to Premier League Chairman, Sir Dave Richards’ controversial sense of humour. Here are our top ten discussions of 2012…

What implications will the Westfield case have on the domestic and international game? – January

In light of the jailing of the three Pakistan cricketers for match-fixing last year, the integrity of cricket came under further questioning when Ex Essex cricketer Mervyn Westfield admitted to a spot betting charge. There is nothing like controversy to fuel the debate.

Top Quote: Ken Jacobs OAM, Director, Cricket Without Borders: “It is very difficult to believe he acted alone and the latest revelations re Danish Kaniera must add some strength to this belief. It is easy to be critical of the ICC as many have but their powers at this stage are still very limited.”

Are Adidas right to axe Liverpool?- January

Liverpool Football Club’s meteoric drop in performance on the field during the last few years has had many consequences, one being adidas’ refusal to renew their sponsorship. Fortunately, Warrior Sports stepped in with a record-breaking offer, but which brand made the correct decision? After all, it is still Liverpool FC- a club that still means something in the football world.

Top Quote: Alastair Marks, Head of Rugby Growth, RFU: “This is about more than value and the Fenway Sports Group is consistent in doing things a little differently. It’s a huge media buy for Warrior to make a big statement to the market that they have arrived. There may also be a bigger eye on the Asian markets here too as Liverpool are still huge in that territory. Personally, I feel it’s a bit of a gamble on Liverpool’s stock continuing to rise with the potential of them getting back to the level of some of their former glories.”

Why are there so few black managers in UK football?- February

Football has frustratingly been plagued by racism and despite the numerous initiatives implemented by various organisations and governing bodies, the issue seems determined to rear its ugly head, whether it’s on the pitch or in the stands. Naturally, the lack of black managers in UK football hasn’t gone unnoticed…

Top Quote: Phillip Gibbs, Sports Barrister, KCH Garden Square: “The managerial merry go round is self-perpetuating, same old ‘names’ being touted around. Clubs not prepared to take risks.”

Will Brazil be fully prepared for 2014? – March

Another episode in the soap opera that is Brazil’s relationship with FIFA aired out in public when Jerome Valcke, Secretary General of football’s governing body pubically expressed his discontent about the country’s preparation for the 2014 World Cup, claiming that the organisers needed a “kick up the basckside”. Were those words justified?

Top Quote: Renato Geribello de Carvalho, Marketing Consultant, Ponto E Marketing: “Corruption aside from all ends of the deal, from FIFA, CBF and the Brazilian Government, it seems the world cup in Brazil have become a political power struggle to define who the boss is.”

America’s Cup On Network Television!- March

Despite the reluctance of many in the sailing world for the sport to become mainstream, common sense means that a sport needs to appeal to the masses in order to stay afloat. The most recognised saliing event being picked by network television is a massive step in the right direction.

Top Quote: Richard Worth: former Chairman, Americas Cup: “The significance is enormous. Where sailing has been difficult to commit to for primary broadcasters, the new style of coverage is absolutely transformational, and the start times are far more reliable. The America’s Cup events are easy to follow, intensely watchable, and opening the door to a much broader range of viewership. The idea that this is Formula One on the water is not fanciful.”

Taxi for Sir Dave!- March

Sir Dave Richards ill-advised, albeit tongue in cheek, remarks relating to alcohol and Qatar made for rather embarrassing headlines in the media. Thankfully, he fell into a hotel water feature later that evening to take some of the heat away from his comments.

Top Quote: Ben Wells, former Marketing Director, Chelsea Football Club: “And we wonder why the rest of the world doesn’t like us?”

The Softer Side of Corporate Sponsorship- May

In a one-off initiative, Liverpool FC replaced the branding of Standard Chartered with a new ‘Seeing is Believing’ logo on their shirts for their final 2011/2012 English Premier League game against Chelsea at Anfield. Is this the way forward for corporate sponsors to show their softer side and to better engage with the club’s fans?

Top Quote: Pippa Collett, Vice-Chairman, European Sponsorship Association: “On the one hand I applaud any sponsor who looks to use their assets to promote good causes. However, without engagement, preferably over the long term, it could be seen that this was more an exercise in internal back-slapping than in first steps towards generating significant charitable support.”

Windsurfing out, Sailing next?- May

ISAF’s very peculiar and unpopular decision to withdraw windsurfing from the Rio 2016 programme discipline caused outrage and confusion amongst the sailing ranks. The International Olympic Committee demands that all sports be commercially viable, opening questions surrounding the future of Olympic sailing.

Top Quote: Sally Kettle, first woman to row the Atlantic TWICE: “The issue is accessibility. If the Olympics is a showcase for sporting achievement but no one is watching it, due to the rigours of broadcast or the fact that on screen or out in the field it’s just down right dull, then perhaps it is time to move on? Wind surfing being an obvious victim.”

Congratulations to Sir Craig Reedie, the new Vice-President of the IOC – July

The iSportconnect discussion board is not solely about debating the latest sport business topics and sharing successful practices, it is also a place to congratulate a fellow colleague or friend when their hard work pays off.

Top Quotes: Philippe Blanchard, former Director, IOC: “From the bottom of my hearts, all my congratulations for this great recognition, on the eve of London 2012. I really appreciated your insights, your sense of humour and your relentless patience. I do hope our paths will cross again.”

Paul Vaughan, former CEO, England 2015: “Sir Craig, who I have known for many years, has worked tirelessly for the BOA and the Olympic movement for many years and deserves the recognition this position brings. Many congratulations.”

Sir Craig Reedie to head 2020 Olympics Evaluation Commission – September

It’s been a busy year for Sir Craig. Having worked tirelessly to bring the Olympics to London, is there a better and more qualified candidate to choose where the next destination for the multisport event? No.

Top Quotes: Dr Wu, President, AIBA: “I am convinced that he will serve the development of the sport in the best possible way.”

Thierry Sprunger, former CFO, IOC: “He has always made the necessary effort to have a clear understanding of the subject matter, the risks and the priorities and more importantly, his management style is all inclusive giving each member of the team the opportunity to give their opinion.”

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KPMG has announced the agenda for the ninth edition of the KPMG Golf Business Forum, generic at the Renaissance Il Ciocco Tuscany Resort & Spa, in Barga, Italy, September 17-19.

This year’s event, with a special focus on sustainability and innovation in golf operations and resort development, will feature live on-stage interviews with global golf business leaders and celebrities, including Sir Nick Faldo.

New KPMG research into Italy’s growing golf market will be published during the event, along with expert analysis of golf development opportunities in the Mediterranean.

There will also be thought leadership on the critical topic of sustainability from economic, social and environmental aspects, as well as informed forecasting for future trends in sport, golf operations, resorts and destinations.

Andrea Sartori, head of KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice in EMA, said: “While the wider economic situation remains uncertain, it is more important than ever for golf businesses to understand the precise supply and demand characteristics affecting their markets both now and in the future.

“We will be taking a close look at the golf markets in Italy and the Mediterranean, which we believe are well positioned for growth, and factoring in the need for sustainability – financial, social and environmental – as well as innovation in golf developments and operations.

“This is potentially the most informed, insightful and forward looking agenda we have seen at the Golf Business Forum, offering essential market intelligence for investors, developers and all golf businesses.”

The agenda for the Golf Business Forum includes:

Live on-stage interviews

CNN’s Don Riddell will lead discussions with business leaders and figureheads from the golf industry including Sir Nick Faldo, who will talk about his golfing career and approach to business. Dana Garmany will reveal how he developed Troon Golf into the world’s largest international golf course operator managing more than 200 courses in 23 countries, while Sir Rocco Forte will reveal his recipe for successful luxury hotels and golf resorts. The Golf Business Forum will also welcome Constantino Rocca, a trailblazer for Italian professional golf and the first Italian to play in the Ryder Cup.

Italy and the Mediterranean

The market in Italy and opportunities for golf development in the Mediterranean will be a central theme throughout the Golf Business Forum. Andrea Sartori will present the findings of a new KPMG survey on Italy, offering insight and analysis into the key supply and demand characteristics. There will also be detailed discussion on the opportunities for golf development in Italy and the wider Mediterranean region, from the established destinations of Spain and Portugal to emerging markets in North Africa and along the Adriatic.

Sustainability and innovation

Addressing the fall in golf participation highlighted by a recent KMPG study, there will be a special session on trends and innovation in golf course operations, featuring contributions from Bruce Glasco of Troon Golf, Steve Berger of Jonas Software and Scott Ferrell of Player Design. The Forum will also turn its attention to the future of destinations and resorts, highlighting shifting consumer trends and showcasing three developments that are leading the world with their innovative and advanced approach. And Olympic golf course architect Gil Hanse joins top international experts for a special think tank on the economic, ecological and social impacts of golf, also known as the ’triple bottom line.’

The Golf Business Forum, now in its ninth year, brings together 250 leading players from the golf, real estate, finance and tourism sectors in 40 countries and is firmly established as the most important golf industry event to meet and do business in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

The venue for this year’s Golf Business Forum is the newly renovated Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco Resort & Spa.

For more information about the Golf Business Forum visit: www.golfbusinessforum.com