Hello and welcome to this week’s Digital Café blog.

Fast Talk: The MotoGP Twitter Interview

We’ve seen Twitter used as a crowdsourcing interview technique before. It’s quick and effective. A little like the two interviewees in the Faster show in which two of the leading MotoGP riders put questions from fans to each other. Dani Pedrosa and Repsol Honda team-mate and current world champion Marc Marquez put questions to each other which had been sent in by fans. The quiz ranges from their desire to racie in F1 to their favourite track corners to where they keep their trophies and it’s not only a way to get more interaction between athletes and fans, but also good to see the relationship between the two riders.

Second Screen Stadia: For & Against

In America sport is finding ever more progressive ways to link fan and spectacle. The Jacksonville Jaguars has just announced a major technology partnership with Extreme Networks Inc which will see, as part of the deal, top end wi-fi connectivity so fans can use mobile devices at games and the American football team can interact with them via apps and push unique content to spectators. Interestingly, in contrast this week Manchester United has written to fans to say iPads and large electronic devices are now banned from Old Trafford. While the list of articles you shouldn’t take to games includes some obvious ones like weapons and flares, the inclusion of tablets and laptops does seem a little over-zealous. At a time when second screen is not only increasing in popularity, but actually being encouraged by some clubs, removing access to that content by banning certain devices is counter-intuitive. But, what you think? Should devices be banned so you can actually enjoy the game, or are mobile devices as much part of the match as half-time hot dogs? Let us know below

Bayern Munich: Taking Soccer to the States

The rush to secure new-found football fans in the States continues apace. The latest European club to virtually cross the Atlantic is Bayern Munich. To capitalize on potential new supporters the club has launched a brand new, US-focused website at fcbayernmunich.com. As well as content tailored for American fans, users will also have access to other Bayern Munich platforms such as FCB.tv Perhaps football finally has put down roots in the US, post-Brazil. And digital outreach like the Bayern Munich site can only help them grow.

Social high Flier: Paul Bonhomme

The athlete we’ve shone a social spotlight on this week is aerobatic ace Paul Bonhomme. In between flying passenger jets for British Airways, Bonhomme competes in the Red Bull Air Race series and you can check out the build-up to the UK round this weekend via his excellent Twitter and Facebook feeds – they include some incredible inflight shots.

Watch the Digital Media Cafe on iSportconnect TV

 

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Having spent eight seasons in Formula One managing the digital channels for world champions Red Bull Racing, David Granger now runs Fact 51, a social and digital content agency.

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Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) have announced the formation of a brand new Puerto Rico Summer League, which began its inaugural season on June 3.

The league is designed to support youth development in Puerto Rico, which has a rich baseball tradition, having produced MLB legends Orlando Cepeda and Roberto Clemente.

The league consists of two four-team divisions and gives players between the ages of 14-17 more chances to refine their game.

Rob Manfred, MLB’s chief operating officer, said: “For decades, the island of Puerto Rico has left an enduring imprint on the diversity of our game. Major League Baseball remains dedicated to providing ample opportunities for the youth of Puerto Rico to participate in the game year round.

“In the spirit of our other local programs, such as the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy and the Passed Over Showcase, the Puerto Rico Summer League will serve as an immense resource for those players who wish to remain on the field during the summer months, while also presenting the Major League clubs with an additional outlet for scouting.”

The number of Puerto Rican players in MLB has dropped in recent years, with 11 starting the present season, including Carlos Beltran (pictured) of the New York Yankees, compared to 34 back in 2005.

Tony Clark, executive director of the MLBPA added: “Increasing and advancing playing opportunities for young players is a priority of active Major Leaguers in general, and Puerto Rican players in particular, especially opportunities that provide young players with expert coaching and training,”

“Puerto Rico has produced some of the greatest players to have played our great game, and the creation of the new summer league honors previous generations of Puerto Rican Major Leaguers and provides a new path for future generations to follow.”

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Eurosport is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year and its exclusive coverage of the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris gives a good picture of how far the group has come since 1989.

Eurosport CEO Jean-Thierry Augustin said yesterday that the groups’ content strategy is to continue to build on “great franchises” with more exclusivity and Roland Garros epitomizes the approach.

Eurosport, which has now reached 100 million subscribers via pay platforms, as well as 34 million on free-to-air in Germany, is showing the French Open for the 25^th time. Eurosport and Eurosport 2 are showing more than 250 hours of live action, with video-on-demand access to seven courts via the Eurosport Player

Eurosport’s new agreement with the French Tennis Federation (FFT), running until 2021 gives Eurosport exclusivity in 12 markets this year and adds another next year when it will add exclusive Italian rights to the package.

Eurosport France has a separate deal running until 2018. In France, Eurosport has exclusivity through the first nine days of the tournament (until Thursday at 3 p.m.) and then shares rights with France TV for the closing days.

Eurosport has exclusive Roland Garros rights in Spain, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Turkey, Israel, Hungary, Ukraine and Russia.

“We are the gatekeeper in these markets,” said Eurosport’s Géraldine Filiol, who negotiated the new FFT deal shortly before moving to her new role as head of corporate communications.

Eurosport’s exclusivity is Spain is especially striking, given that Rafael Nadal’s superstar status there. The Spaniard has advanced to the men’s semi-finals seeking to capture the title for the ninth time. If he makes the final, Eurosport will share the rights with Spanish terrestrial television (as required by regulations in Spain).

Last week Discovery Communications completed its acquisition of a controlling interest in Eurosport International, increasing its stake to 51% from 20% as part of a partnership with TF1 Group begun in December 2012.

The closing price for Eurosport International was based on an average enterprise valuation for the Eurosport Group of €902 million. The value of Eurosport France (€85 million) has been deducted. TF1 expects to retain its 80% interest in Eurosport France until at least 2015.

Augustin said that he expects Discovery to be in the driver’s seat in France eventually too. The current structure is a reflection of regulatory constraints.

Discovery International is also celebrating its 25^th anniversary by reaching a new milestone.

The acquisition of Eurosport takes the group to a point where its business outside the USA is bigger than the domestic business, according to Jean-Briac Perrette, President of Discovery Networks International.

With Eurosport’s six pay-TV brands, Eurosport, Eurosport HD, Eurosport 2, Eurosport 2 HD, Eurosport Asia-Pacific and Eurosportnews, Discovery Communications now operates more than 210 worldwide TV networks reaching 2.7 billion cumulative subscribers.

The move into sport is a an excellent fit for Discovery because, said Perrette, the American group’s programming brand is all about “telling factual stories” and sport is full of them.

Deep-pocketed Discovery’s move into the sports market adds a fourth major player to the picture of global competition for premium rights along with ESPN, Fox and more recently Al Jazeera.

During the FIFA World Cup kicking off next week, Eurosport will reach the level of 8 million unique internet visitors per day with 50% of them coming via mobile.

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Jay Stuart has been covering the international media industry since the 1980s. He was deputy bureau chief in Rome of US show business newspaper Variety, editor of Television Business International magazine, editorial director of Kagan World Media and editorial director of the Press Association’s PA Sport Services. He was also co-creator and Associate Producer of Naked Sport, a major documentary on the sports business for Channel 4, PBS and Showtime.

He is also currently Head of Media Relations for SportAccord Convention, the annual summit meeting of the international sports federations and the Olympic movement.

He is also the founder of Sport MediaHub Ltd., partnering in the development of marketing tools for video content providers.

In the last weeks, UEFA published its updated 2014 Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) procedural rules. These rules have been amended with a number of significant additions. Of particular importance are Articles 15 and 16 regarding settlement which were not included in the original regulations. As a result, only months before the first break-even sanctioning decisions are announced a new procedure has been put in place for defaulting clubs. This blog looks at the key features of the new provisions and the potential issues.

Introduction

For an understanding of the UEFA Licensing and Financial Fair Play regulations, click here. Come the Spring, the CFCB will be taking decisions based on financial submissions provided by clubs to ensure they have ‘broken-even’ which effectively allows for a €45m acceptable loss. Previously, the CFCB published regulations setting out, among other things, its powers, remit and sanctioning capabilities. This document has now been updated and amended and now includes the ability for the CFCB to ‘settle’ with clubs who are in breach.

There are settlement procedures in a number of regulatory frameworks. For example, the European Commission has a settlement framework in place to incentivise companies who have breached the competition rules in cartel matters to admit to the breach. This translates into a quicker administrative process whilst also allowing the company in breach to receive a lesser sanction (usually a fine reduction). This (more lengthy) settlement procedure is set out here. In contrast, UEFA’s settlement procedure is set out in the two provisions below.

The New Procedural Regulations

It is useful to set out the relevant text in order to consider a number of issues arising from this new procedure.

Article 15 – Settlement agreement

1. Settlement agreements pursuant to Article 14(1)(b) shall take into account, in particular, the factors referred to in Annex XI of the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations. Such agreements may be deemed appropriate in circumstances which justify the conclusion of an effective, equitable and dissuasive settlement without referring the case to the adjudicatory chamber.

2. Settlement agreements may set out the obligation(s) to be fulfilled by the defendant, including the possible application of disciplinary measures and, where necessary, a specific timeframe.

3. The CFCB chief investigator monitors the proper and timely implementation of the settlement agreement.

4. If a defendant fails to comply with the terms of a settlement agreement, the CFCB chief investigator shall refer the case to the adjudicatory chamber.

Article 16 – Review of decisions of the CFCB chief investigator

1. Any decision of the CFCB chief investigator to dismiss a case or to conclude a settlement agreement or to apply disciplinary measures within the meaning of Article 14(1)(c) may be reviewed by the adjudicatory chamber on the initiative of the CFCB chairman within ten days from the date of communication of the decision to the CFCB chairman.

2. Any decision of the CFCB chief investigator to conclude a settlement agreement or to apply disciplinary measures within the meaning of Article 14(1)(c) may be reviewed by the adjudicatory chamber at the request of a directly affected party within ten days from the date of publication of the decision.

3. The adjudicatory chamber only reviews decisions of the CFCB chief investigator with regard to the existence of a manifest error of assessment.

4. The adjudicatory chamber may uphold, reject, or modify the decision or refer the case back to the CFCB chief investigator.

Initial Issues to Consider

In the period before the new Articles 15 and 16 were drafted and implemented, it was assumed that any club who was in breach of the acceptable deviation provisions, would be referred to the CFCB’s adjudicatory chamber for a sanctioning decision. We now know that there are two routes available to the CFCB. The second settlement route gives the CFCB investigatory body the power to settle without the CFCB’s adjudicatory arm becoming involved. The test for settlement appears to be in instances “which justify the conclusion of an effective, equitable and dissuasive settlement.”

Many clubs will see this as a somewhat controversial regulatory inclusion. This is because, in my experience of settlement procedures from a competition law perspective, companies will only admit to a breach if they are rewarded for such an admission. As such, the CFCB will have to offer sanctions which make it attractive not to take the matter to the adjudicatory chamber or to CAS. As a result, sanctions are likely to be weaker to incentivise the club to settle.  However weaker sanctions may still include large fines, points deductions or player de-registration.

A number of clubs have made public statements about the need to punish clubs who breach the break-even provisions. If the CFCB is settling with clubs in breach rather than letting the adjudicatory chamber handle the breach, a number of compliant clubs may well be annoyed that such a route has been made available.  Some owners may believe UEFA should not be providing this new avenue for clubs at this late stage.

Other issues that will need to be decided upon (perhaps by CAS) during the first set of sanctioning and settlement decisions will include:

1. Who will be an affected party?  If the season has yet to finish and the league placements yet to be decided, a number of clubs may take precautionary measures to protect their position in the event of settlement affecting them if they finish, for example, one place below a team who is in breach but is not expelled due to a settlement decision. It is worthy to note that the test to appeal against a settlement decision by an affected party (“a manifest error”) appears to be quite a high test to satisfy.

2. At present, Article 15 makes reference to Annex XI of the FFP regulations (which references the size of the breach, projected results, currency fluctuations and debt position) as the instances where the settlement procedure may be used.  Presumably the greater the loss or projected loss and the larger the debt, the less likelihood there is of a club ‘qualifying’ for settlement.

Conclusion

While settlement may allow FFP defaulters to escape a full Champions League ban by effectively being put on probation to get their finances in order, it also opens up a new legal process by which a team’s rivals could challenge their Champions League/Europa League place.

With the sanctioning decisions now just a few months away, many stakeholders will await the CFCB decisions with interest. The new settlement procedure is in force and may cause controversy in instances where a club is in breach but is not sanctioned to the same extent had it gone through the ‘normal’ CFCB procedure.

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Daniel Geey, Associate in the Competition and EU Regulatory Group at Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP.

Daniel has provided advice and presentations on a whole raft of football related issues and can offer industry specific legal advice on football takeovers, Premier League, Football Association, UEFA, FIFA, FFP and more.

Check out Daniel’s blog, ‘The Final Score on Football Law’ here  and follow Daniel on Twitter here 

Please feel free to get in touch with Daniel Geey should you or your club have any questions concerning the regulations.

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Prince Feisal has been President of the Jordan Olympic Committee (JOC) since 2003 and is also the Chairman and founder of Generations For Peace, ambulance a charitable peace building organisation. He has been Chairman of the organisation since 2007.

In terms of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Prince Feisal has been a member of the Women and Sport commission since 2006 and Entourage since 2010. 

He is the son of King Hussein of Jordan and Princess Muna Al Hussein.

By Daniel Anwar

Congratulations on being re-elected for a third term as JOC President, what are your plans for the coming term?

The elections happened a couple of weeks ago, we’ve got a number of new board members, so our media plan is to get them up to speed – to understand how they work and how the Olympic Committee works.

The hard work then starts, when you’ve actually got to look at reviewing the strategy we had and then deciding on any modifications that we feel are necessary to really implement the strategy and prepare for Rio in 2016, so we’ve got quite a bit of work ahead of us, but I hope that by reviewing it and adjusting it accordingly, we will maximise our chances of having athletes ready to compete in 2016.

One of your initiatives is Generations for Peace. What were your personal motivations for establishing that?

When we looked at Generations for Peace, the inspiration was looking at the issues of peace and peace-building, and looking at my father’s legacy, and the challenge is how do you make peace plans at the grass-roots, at the street level? So in working and looking at that, with a lot of research and preparation with my co-founder, we came out with the plan as a way of initially looking at sports as being a tool for peace-building, but we’ve since expanded that to include art, music and advocacy as a way to bring young people together in an activity that they enjoy and letting them interact, building respect and acts of tolerance.

We came out with this formula that seems to be working very, very well and we’ve had great achievements in the six years since we started.

What is it about sport in particular that has the power to bring people together and change lives?

I think sport is a great mechanism to teach a lot of very valuable life lessons including respect for rules, teamwork, being able to work together, building respect. There’s so much that you can learn in sports that can be applied in life.

Sports are great, particularly when you’re focusing on children, because they love to play. It’s natural for children to play, they enjoy all types of sports and a competitive environment and it’s what they can learn together, how to work together, from different parts of communities and to respect each other for it, is so great.

If you put a ball in front of any child, even a one or two-year-old, they’re going to try and kick it. It’s almost built into our DNA, a love for sport. It’s universal and it’s something kids really enjoy to do. It’s a way to have a captive audience and teach them good life skills and also teach them respect for each other and to work together – that’s the power sports have and the Olympics is a great example of just that thing.

Are there examples in particular of how Generations for Peace has had that impact on children and young people?

We have programmes running in 46 countries. In Asia, Africa and Europe and there have been a lot of examples of great success stories that have happened. You need to start, you need to adapt to the local environment. One programme  for instance   is working displaced people in refugee camps in Pakistan and has been extremely successful, they have got a  lot of people participating, started off very small but as people see the fruits and the results of these programmes more and more people have been asking ‘we want to have these types of programmes in our community and so it has grown and we have had over 210,000 children involved and our delegates have gone on to train over 8,000 like-minded youth leaders in their communities to be able to run these programmes. So I think in a very short period of time we have had some great success stories and really, it’s difficult to explain it. But you really need to speak to the people who are actually doing the programmes on the ground and listen to their stories and how they have been able to transform their own communities.

As well as being a big success it must be a difficult logistics task. So how do you manage working around the world like you do?

The programmes that we have, the basic camps where we bring in people from the conflicting communities and we teach them all the processes of how to use Generations For Peace. And it doesn’t stop there, when they go back to their communities and become delegates once completed the camp we continue to mentor them, we work with them, we try help them and in some cases partner them up with other  organisations within their communities to try and help them succeed.

We have done a lot of good work, in this last year or so we have been focussed on doing advanced courses, where we bring in on average 30 of our peace pioneers who have demonstrated successfully run programmes and giving them another 5 day training programme to take them up to the next level so they can be more effective and more productive.

Right now we have one of our basic camps which now include 4 new countries: Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya all participating, and that’s the first time for us to move into North Africa and this camp was supported by the Norwegian government. And so we are continuing to expand the envelop and it doesn’t stop at the end of the camp, it’s the start of that relationship. We continue to help, mentor and support them so they can run successful programmes in their community.

Generations For Peace was established six years ago, what do you hope to have achieved six years from now?

We were very lucky this year. We were recognised as one of the top 100 NGO’s in the world by a global magazine which in 6 years is very impressive. We will hope to continue to expand that work, reach more countries, and have more programmes. We are trying to balance between running programmes and supporting them.

We also started the Generations For Peace Institute a couple of years ago which looks at bringing in the academic community to look and evaluate sports for peace and development. We are making the information accessible, we’ve got scholarships for people to study in that field and to do field research to demonstrate the impact sports for peace and development can have as well as being able to help us monitor and evaluate what we are capable of doing, and to make sure that what we’re teaching has the greatest impact and is the most innovative and that it is sustainable.

We’ve tried to close the loop at both training, support in the field as well as getting feedback and doing an academic evaluation of what we are doing so that we can get the lessons learnt and help the sports for peace and development community understand the impact it has, and what works and what doesn’t work in that field.

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The second leg of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race created fast and competitive racing across the South Atlantic with another close finish in picture postcard conditions in front of the iconic table mountain with a light topping of cloud providing a text book table cloth covering.

The GREAT Britain yacht took first place and was joined on the podium by Henri Lloyd and Invest Africa, arriving within three hours of each other after 3,400 nautical miles of racing.

The fleet was berthed in the V&A Waterfront with the backdrop of Table Mountain which made a perfect base for one of the busiest stopovers to date. It comprised over 20 guest sails, numerous receptions on yachts, VIP and celebrity marquee events, local hospitality and visits by a Deputy Mayor, two Consul Generals, a High Commissioner and an Ambassador.

This high level of activation together with hundreds of thirsty and hungry crew, friends, family and fans, and an attractive exchange rate, stimulated a significant spend in the local economy.

Northern Irish entry Derry~Londonderry~Doire is building on its return to the race for two more editions following a highly successful debut campaign in 2011-12. They are focussed on tourism, trade, technology and building a powerful legacy for their UK City of Culture status this year.

Deputy Mayor, Alderman Garry Middleton of Derry City Council, led the delegation and told me how the city aims to strengthen its international connections in South Africa and invited media, business and tourism representatives to a special reception to mark the arrival of their yacht.

He explained that as the inaugural UK City of Culture 2013 the city has a transformation agenda that has already activated more than £100 million into the local economy. Building on this success, they are looking for new ideas and initiatives with international partners.

Their multi-edition strategy with the Clipper Race has enabled them to build on their last visit to South Africa in 2011 to develop their relationship with a number of agencies and organisations even further. They have a new story to tell and clearly demonstrated that Derry~Londonderry is open for business and wishes to grow its international connections with digital, education, tourism and media interests.

They aim to capitalise on their changing reputation with a firm focus on the city’s economic future. On the visitor economy the Irish Ambassador Brendan McMahon attended to endorse their partnership with Tourism Ireland, to attract even more visitors through South African travel businesses.

However, Alderman Middleton also reminded me of the huge impact the Clipper Race had in its visit to Derry~Londonderry in 2012, with a festival attracting over 100,000 people creating an economic impact of £3.4 million. And their plans for our return next June sound even bigger and better.

In Cape Town I was impressed by the large number of sponsors who took full advantage of the opportunities the Clipper Race creates to activate creatively and effectively, especially Invest Africa and their Team Partners, from Rickety Bridge Winery to the inspiring Sapinda Rainbow project which has worked with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF) to develop young South Africans through their participation in the race.

In addition the young Sapinda Rainbow crew are raising the profile and funds for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust. NMCF representative Ncazelo Mlilo came to Cape Town to congratulate them on their achievements and told me how our project is helping them achieve a dream and a challenge that their founder Nelson Mandela gave to the NMCF to build a hospital that is much needed for the care and support of their children.

It’s rewarding to see how the Clipper Race is providing an international platform for such a diverse range of initiatives; so many that I cannot fit everything into this short report. Some of the other activities ranged from a visit with the Springbok Rugby Sevens team to cooking traditional food in a local township.

But I cannot close without congratulating The British High Commission in South Africa for creating some excellent business and media networking opportunities hosted by the new British High Commissioner Judith Macgregor and British Consul General to Cape Town Chris Trott, as part of our participation in the GREAT Britain campaign.

Leg 3 of the race is now heading into the Southern Ocean and the Roaring Forties – next stop ‘Amazing’ Albany in Western Australia.

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It is 45 years since Sir Robin Knox-Johnston set off on his record breaking solo, non-stop circumnavigation in 1968-69. In 1995, he established the Clipper Race, to give everyone, regardless of sailing experience, the opportunity to discover the exhilaration of ocean racing.

Now the world’s longest ocean race, 670 amateur sailors representing more than 40 nations will compete in the Clipper 2013-14 Race. They set sail from London on September 1 and will travel 40,000 miles on twelve Clipper 70’s in 15 races across all six continents, not returning to London till July 2014.

Youcan follow the Clipper 2013-14 Race at www.clipperroundtheworld.com and on Twitter via @ClipperRace. Follow Sir Robin on Twitter @SirRKJ.

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The success of Buenos Aires in winning host rights to the Youth Olympic Games in 2018 raised new issues over the entire concept.

The capital of Argentina defeated Medellin of Colombia 49-39 in the second round of voting after seeing off Glasgow in the first round in an extraordinary session of the full  International Olympic Committee in Lausanne.

Hence the Olympic movement will be returning to South America just two years after the ‘senior’ summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. Not only that, but Buenos Aires will be hosting the important Session [congress] in September at which the IOC will choose a new sport for the 2020 summer Games, the 2020 host city and then a new president.

IOC president Jacques Rogge said later: “Buenos Aires won on the basis of its experience in staging major sports events, great capacity of the venues with an Olympic corridor and also because of its philosophy of engaging with youth at all levels including working with social media and having the same philosophy as we have in the Youth Olympic Games.”

Latin trend

Glasgow (13 votes only) may ponder that, in such a case, it lost not in terms of proposal but in terms of politics. The clear strength of the Latin vote may make observers revisit their opinion of Madrid’s prospects of winning the 2020 summer Games when the decision is taken later this year in . . . Buenos Aires.

The YOG was Rogge’s brainchild. Not all of his members are convinced about the concept and it will be intriguing to see how it evolves under a new leader after the Belgian’s retirement in September.

All six candidates to succeed him are agreed on the Olympic movement’s need to re-connect with the younger generation but perhaps not all are convinced that the YOG is the correct path.

The idea  may come further into question after the Buenos Aires decision since this is a city which, clearly, has the capacity to stage the ‘senior’ Olympic Games. The knowledge that bidding is open to a major city may make smaller venues think twice in future about spending heavily on a bid process which is weighted against them.

Presentations

The cities each had an opportunity to explain their concept to the IOC before the vote.

Buenos Aires set out its stall in a comparatively straightforward style with all the essential information delivered ahead of an exciting closing montage. This featured goal-grabbing action from Barcelona superstar Leo Messi plus a contribution from Evita – albeit the musical version.

The closing line of the excerpt from Don’t Cry for Me Argentina was the neatly-judged: “I kept my promise, don’t keep your distance.”

The message was obviously taken to heart by the IOC members. This was all the more remarkable considering the way the city and its bid had stumbled initially over the crucial issue of financial guarantees.

Next up was Glasgow with the Olympic family advantage of having vice-president Sir Craig Reedie to lead off with a presentation which mixed up people, information and images.

Reedie addressed immediately the issue of a possible return to the UK so soon after London 2012.

Youth outreach

“I understand this question,” said Reedie, “but I believe the challenge for the Olympic movement is to focus on the most effective global youth outreach strategy that is possible. Glasgow gives us the best chance.”

However, despite a closing appeal from London 2012 leader Lord Seb Coe, the Glasgow bid was voted down immediately. Reedie suggested to reporters that probably the vote came too soon, less than a year after the London Games.

The most intriguing bid was the one from Medellin, a city which is turning around its image after years of dread association as centre of the Colombian drugs cartels.

Medellin’s presentation was headed by the most senior politician in view, indeed the most senior politician possible in Juan Manuel Santos, the state President.

In a powerful personal address about the transformation of his country he said: “The Youth Olympic Games will represent the largest and most important international event to take place in my country’s history.

“It will bring a tremendous boost to Colombia’s younger generation. Colombia and Medellin has moved forward in an amazing way from very difficult times.

Financial backing

“As President of Colombia I guarantee our government’s financial backing to meet the needs of the Games and I want to guarantee the security and safety of all visitors.”

The members clearly thought that, for all the potential of the Colombian bid, it represented too daring a vote at this early stage in Medellin’s new era.

The evaluation report on the cities was presented formally by the commission’s German chairman, IOC member Claudia Bockel.

She said that each of the three cities “could organise successfully the Youth Olympic Games even though each proposes a very different and unique Games project.”

But, whichever city was chosen, the “Olympic movement will be gaining a strong partner presenting minimal risk to the IOC.”

Hence, Buenos Aires.

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Keir Radnedge has been covering football worldwide for more than 40 years, writing 33 books, from tournament guides to comprehensive encyclopedias, aimed at all ages.

His journalism career included The Daily Mail for 20 years as well as The Guardian and other national newspapers and magazines in the UK and around the world. He is a former editor, and remains a lead columnist, with World Soccer, generally recognised as the premier English language magazine on global football.

In addition to his writing, Keir has been a regular analyst for BBC radio and television, Sky Sports, Sky News, Aljazeera and CNN.

Keir Radnedge’s Twitter: @KeirRadnedge

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By Ismail Uddin, ailment republished from isportconnect.

Alex Gough is the CEO of the Professional Squash Association (PSA).

Alex first joined the organisation as Director in 2002 when he was still an active squash professional on the tour.  Shortly after his retirement as a player, Alex became the COO of PSA in June 2008, dedicating his time to furthering the growth of the sport that has played such an important role in his life. In February 2009 Alex was appointed CEO of PSA.

As a player, Alex was ranked in the world’s top ten for over 28 months and achieved his highest world ranking of 5 in July 1998. During his career he won a total of 10 World Tour titles and a Bronze Medal in the men’s singles event at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. Read more here >>

The Turkish Basketball Federation has come a long way in the past 20 years. Our vision was to create success on the court and to position Turkey as one of the leading basketball nations in the world.

We have focused and prioritised our work to achieve this. In 2010 our men’s team won the silver medal at the World Championship and in 2011 our women’s team won silver at the EuroBasket and now they are playing in the Olympic Games.

We don’t believe in coincidences. We believe in long term planning and hard work. This year we launched our new strategic plan and our focus is clear. We believe that the key to running a successful sports federation is sports success. However that is not achieved accidentally. Success at the highest level depends on the strength of the entire sports development system. We work systematically to increase participation, identify and develop talent and ensure that our medal winning performances inspire the next generation of players.

To support our sports development system we have identified two other key areas of activity – hosting major sports events and professional and innovative marketing.

The Turkish Basketball Federation is the only federation in the world to have hosted and been selected to host all major international basketball tournaments. In 2001 we hosted the Men’s EuroBasket, in 2005 the Women’s EuroBasket, in 2010 the Men’s World Championship, in 2012 we hosted the Euroleague Men’s and Women’s finals and in September we will host a leg of the new FIBA 3×3 World Tour. 2014 will be a special year for us as we will be hosting the Women’s World Championship.

We do this because it inspires our players to fight harder and it gives our fans a chance to see their idols live. By hosting major basketball events we have placed basketball at the top of the national sports agenda and gained respect in the international basketball community.

We are now also working to ensure that we increase the value of TBF through an effective marketing strategy. Commercial partnerships, social media and PR are key elements of our marketing activities.

Managing a sport federation is different from managing a business. At the heart of what we do is basketball. It is our sport that drives us. We are therefore more excited than ever that our women’s team have made it to the Olympics. This is what it’s about.

Their hard work will inspire thousands of children in Turkey to play basketball and pursue a healthy life style.

Basketball has the power to change lives and to change the perception of our nation. We know this and we take our responsibility very seriously.

This is our way to success. This is Turkish Basketball.

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About Turgay Demirel

Turgay Demirel was elected President of the Turkish Basketball Federation (TBF) in 1992 following a successful career in basketball. He played basketball for Galatasaray for 16 years and retired as the captain of the team in 1988 after having won two national championships and lead Galatasaray to the top of the Turkish Basketball league. Turgay Demirel also played 41 games for the Turkish National team.

During his career as a player Turgay Demirel also managed to establish his reputation as a talented and successful business man. The combination of management skills and his passion for Basketball has led to a 20 year term as the President of the Turkish Basketball Federation as well as a valued member of the international basketball family including positions as FIBA Europe Vice President and FIBA Finance Commission member.

Turgay Demirel’s

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