UEFA’s Infantino Joined by Sheikh Salman, Sexwale and Bility in FIFA Presidential Race

UEFA have confirmed that General Secretary Gianni Infantino has entered the race to become the next president of FIFA ahead of today’s deadline.

An emergency meeting was called today with UEFA’s Executive Committee to discuss the possibility of Infantino running for the presidency and he has received unanimous support from members of the committee.

UEFA president Michel Platini’s hopes of running in the election hang in the balance as he contests the 90-day ban he received from the FIFA Ethics Committee and European football’s governing body have now thrown their backing towards his right hand man for the past six years.

A statement released today by the UEFA executive committee, said: “The forthcoming election for a new Fifa President represents a crucial moment‎ in the governance of the game and the future of Fifa itself. We believe that Gianni Infantino has all of the qualities required‎ to tackle the major challenges ahead and to lead the organisation on a path of reform to restore Fifa’s integrity and credibility.

“Gianni has done a great job at Uefa, has a proven track record as a top class administrator‎ and built positive relations with football stakeholders around the globe. He has been a long-time advocate of the need for change and renewed development at Fifa and would bring a refreshing and informed voice to the top table of football’s world governing body.

“We are delighted that Gianni has agreed to stand and he knows that he has our full support in his campaign to become Fifa President. He is in the process of submitting the required nominations and will issue a statement on his candidacy later today.”

More candidates

Infantino will be joined in the race by Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman al-Khalifa, South African businessman Tokyo Sexwale and Liberian Football Association president Musa Bility who all confirmed their candidacy on Monday.

The AFC said in a statement: “Sheikh Salman has assured the AFC Executive Committee, who offered him overwhelming support, and the 47 AFC member associations that his campaign will be entirely self-financed and that he will not use the AFC’s resources, human or otherwise, in the election.”

Prince Ali bin-al Hussein of Jordan, Jerome Champagne and Platini, subject to his ban being overturned before the election date, make up the remaining candidates. 

The election will take place on 26 February.

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Tottenham Launch Digital Strategy in Korea to Capitalise on Heung-min Son’s Exploits

By Christian Radnedge

The signing of Asian players has usually been cynically derided as a marketing ploy by Premier League clubs to expand growth in the far-east region.

Tottenham Hotspur’s £22m outlay on Heung-min Son from Bayer Leverkusen, medicine however, anesthetist has already proved effective on the pitch as the summer signing has scored three goals in two matches – including the winner against Crystal Palace at the weekend.

No doubt the South Korean is attracting a huge amount of interest in his native country for his exploits in England.

So the North London club have taken it in their own hands to make it easier for his fans to keep up.

Tottenham announced this week that they are going to provide content targeted directly to supporters from South Korea, including Facebook posts written in Korean language and exclusive images and video-based content covering Son’s activities at the Club on and off the pitch.

Online articles in Korean, including interviews, match reports detailing Son’s performance  on the pitch and other features will also be made available to supporters in the area.

This follows on from Spurs’ continued growth in brand awareness in the region, helped by their £16m five-year sponsorship deal with Hong Kong-based insurance firm, AIA.

A statement from the club said: “It also forms part of the Club’s wider work to further engage with its international fan base through its broad range of media channels, with dedicated social media outlets already available in five different languages – Indonesian, Thai, Malay, Hindi and Spanish.”

The outreach from Spurs is a welcome change from simply offering merchandise to market in Asia, as has been seen in the past. By taking content and making it bespoke for the Korea, they are directly handing those fans what they believe they want to ingest.

The Premier League would do well to tailor more of their content towards Asian speaking audiences, given that their executive chairman, Richard Scudamore, admits that the region delivers the biggest slice of international broadcast revenue.

“Many people think that only the big four or five Premier League clubs are interested in Asia. I am afraid to say their understanding is not very accurate,” Scudamore said.

“Asia provides the biggest chunk of the international broadcast rights revenue of the Premier League. This is divided equally among all 20 clubs unlike the UK domestic rights where filters such as league position and television appearances also come into play.”

The Premier League Asia Trophy is one way in which the league reaches out to fans in that part of the world. The competition has been held every two years since 2003 and was won this year by Arsenal in Singapore.

For now, Korean fans can at least enjoy easier access to content about one of their favourite stars.

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Hamburg Sign and Submit Bid for 2024 Olympics to IOC

Hamburg has officially submitted its bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the 2024 Olympic Games.

City officials and German Olympic members signed the bid application document on Wednesday and sent it off to the IOC.

Alfons Hoermann, prostate president of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), said: “We invite the international sports family to get to know our clearly colourful and increasingly diverse country.”

Hamburg will be going up against Los Angeles, Rome, Paris and Budapest for the right to host the 2024 Games. 

The deadline for official bids to be signed is 15 September, with the host city to be named in 2017.

First published in the Associated Press (AP)

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Sports Performance Masterclass Successfully Debuts in London

The first ever iSportconnect Sports Performance Masterclass made an inspiring debut in London today at the five-star Grange St.Paul’s hotel.

Senior sport performance professionals from across the sport industry attended what was an informative and thought-provoking event. The panels included Dr Raphael Brandon, Head of Science and Medicine at the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Richard Gould, Chief Executive of Surrey County Cricket Club, David Sheepshanks, Chairman of St. George’s Park, Dr Ken van Someren, Head of Research & Development at the GSK Human Performance Lab, Simon Wilson, Director of Football Services at City Football Group and David Blackwell, Sports Analytics Partner at Deloitte and Brian Cuniffe, performance lead at the English Institute of Sport.

All panels were moderated by David Slemen, Managing Director of Elite Performance Partners.

Attendees included representatives from Arsenal FC, City Football Group, Leicester Tigers, Leicestershire County Cricket Club, Southampton FC, West Bromwich Albion, Pinsent Masons and many more.

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The first panel featured Dr Raphael Brandon Head of Science and Medicine at the England & Wales Cricket Board, Simon Wilson, Director of Football Services at City Football Group and Dr Ken van Someren, Head of Research & Development at the GSK Human Performance Lab. The trio discussed the best practise to balance resources to give the best chance of success, inviting the audience to particpate thoroughly.

Then the event went on the second panel, featuring Richard Gould, Chief Executive of Surrey County Cricket Club and David Sheepshanks, Chairman of St. George’s Park. The duo focused on what were the main ingredients to build a winning team.

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The third panel concluded the event with a debate on how technology has enhanced performance management in sport. The panel featured David Blackwell, Sports Analytics Partner at Deloitte and Brian Cuniffe, performance lead at the English Institute of Sport.

The Masterclass event will return in September, in Lausanne, with the Digital & Technology Masterclass.

 For more information visit the website HERE.

More pictures below

 

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Networking session before and after the panels.

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David Sheepshanks and Richard Gould during the second panel, moderated by David Slemen

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Dr Raphael Brandon, Dr Ken van Someren and Simon Wilson.

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David Blackwell and Brian Cunniffe.{jcomments on}

STATS Acquires TVT Video Technologies

Sports technology, discount data and content company STATS has acquired TVT Video Technologies Inc. (TVTI), the leading provider of video technology and engineering for baseball and ice hockey.

The acquisition of TVTI strengthens STATS’ existing suite of data and analytics services for professional and college teams.

The transaction also adds advanced and complementary technologies to the STATS portfolio.

For more than 10 years, TVTI has provided video solutions, services and consulting for Major League Baseball (MLB) and National Hockey League (NHL) teams. Most MLB and NHL organizations use TVTI’s services to review and analyze indexed video. The Portland-based company is known for its exceptional sports video engineering capabilities and superior customer support.

“The combination of TVTI and STATS will bring best-of-breed video, tracking and analytics solutions to a broader audience, both in terms of sport and geography,” said Bill Squadron, EVP of Global Strategy at STATS.

“It also will ensure that STATS continues to revolutionize the experience of sport in every arena, just as we have with our acquisitions of BSports, The Sports Network, Automated Insights and Prozone in the past nine months.”

Of the four major professional sports leagues in North America—NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL—86 percent of teams use STATS’ in-depth data, technologies or analytics solutions. STATS is owned by Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm that invests in data, software, and technology-enabled businesses.

“We look forward to joining the global STATS family as we continue to build on our relationships with MLB and NHL teams,” said Ken Rhodes, co-founder of TVTI.

“TVTI’s technology will integrate well with STATS’ data and the BSports pro baseball system, and we are excited about working together to provide the next generation of video services to sports teams globally.”

MediaCom Names Misha Sher as Head of Sport

MediaCom Worlwide has named Misha Sher as its new Head of Sport, viagra  with a brief to expand the agency’s sports advisory capabilities and fully integrating the division into the agency’s new Content + Connections positioning, price where the best output for clients comes from efficiently leveraging cpntent across an entrie system os channels, find including sport.

Sher will ensure clients across the network have access to the market leading insight and most relevant sports properties to compliment their wider communication strategy. 

He will also develop the division’s core services, which include market-leading proprietary sponsorship evaluation tools, strategy consultancy, creation of specialized partnerships with sports properties, and sponsorship activation as part of Mediacom Beyond Advertising.

Set up in 2011 to reflect growing importance of sport as part of brand building and comms planning, MediaCom Sport has experienced major growth and is seen by the agency as a big part of its unique positioning for the future. 

MediaCom now has specialized sport expertise across, EMEA, APAC, and the Americas and MediaCom Sport has advised and created partnerships for some of the agency’s biggest clients, including Dell, Shell, Allianz, Subway, Skoda, Green Flag, and VW.

Sher has been in charge of the agency’s relationship with sporting and humanitarian icon, ‘Pele’ since 2012, helping to create high-profile relationships for the sports star including blue chip brand such as P&G, VW, Subway, Coca-Cola and Shell. Prior to his time at MediaCom Sher also also worked at Fox Sports, Rangers Football Club in Scotland and Soccerex.

He will be based at MediaCom Worldwide hub in London and report to James Morris, Global Head of MediaCom Beyond Advertising.  He will work with regional and local offices to establish sports advisory as a core part of the agency’s global offering.

“I’m very excited by the opportunity to lead our sports division at a time when many of our clients are putting more focus on sport as part of their communications strategy.  We are in a unique position which allows us to leverage the most comprehensive consumer insight to not only build the most robust sport strategies, but execute them with maximum impact for our clients, “ said Misha Sher.

“In the time that Misha has been with the agency, he has demonstrated an innate ability to identify and deliver top level sports partnerships for our clients. His knowledge and understanding of our business, coupled with an incredible global network within the sports industry, provides for the perfect combination to further develop a division which has become a part of our DNA,” said James Morris.

iSportconnect Founder and CEO Sree Varma said: “Myself and (iSportconnect Chairman) Michael Cunnah have had the pleasure of knowing Misha for a number of years, he played a huge role as a friend in the industry and in the growth of iSportconnect. His professionalism is second to none, he will be hugely successful in this new role and I wish him all the best.”

Snooker Pushing For Inclusion into 2020 Olympic Games

Snooker has launched a bid to be included into the 2020 Olympic Games. 

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association will be lobbying hard for the sport to be included by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Full story HERE. 

Leicester Tigers to Play in US as Plan For New Rugby League is Put in Place

Proposals have been revealed for a new rugby union league to be created in the United States.

The National Rugby Football League (NRFL) will be run by Minnesota-based RugbyLaw and launched in 2016.

A match has also been scheduled between English Premiership club Leicester Tigers and an all-star US team, allergist known as the NRFL Rough Riders, to take place in August 2015.

The Rough Riders will consist of players recruited from professional and collegiate football, basketball and hockey as well as rugby.

“This game will truly be the first of firsts in establishing professional rugby in America,” said Michael Clements, the founder of RugbyLaw, of the match with Leicester.

“Awareness and opportunity is what we are bringing to the athletes and sports fans as we birth the major league sport of rugby in America.”

Leicester Tigers chief executive Simon Cohen added: “The name of Leicester Tigers travels across the world and we’re delighted to have been invited to witness the appetite for the game in the USA first-hand.

“Sporting facilities and the pool of talent in so many sports in the USA are the envy of organisations across the world and it should prove a very interesting trip for the club.

“Rugby is making massive strides in America and the fixture against a team selected from the National Rugby Football League clubs will provide an excellent platform both for the home-based players and also for our squad as they prepare for a new season.”

Beckham Unveils Stadium Plans for Miami MLS Franchise

David Beckham has revealed that he wants to build a 25,000 capacity stadium for his Major League Soccer franchise in the Port of Miami.

The former LA Galaxy and Manchester United star looked at 30 sites across the city with his architects before opting for the location.

The open-air stadium would have views of the bay and the downtown skyline, giving a view that according to Beckham’s chief property advisor John Alschuler is only “seen by people with yachts, or cargo ships or by fish.”

Beckham said: “Miami is all about the water, all about the culture. I don’t think people see that enough.

“Our stadium, our site is all about the skyline, it’s all about the water – it opens up to that. And that’s what we want people to see all around the world. It’s the most important thing for us. I’ve been to the Miami Heat games, I’ve been around the area, I’ve seen the vibrant nature, I’ve seen the atmosphere – we want people to be part of that.”

The main opposition to Beckham’s plans come from cruise companies who also want to develop in the area and who are concerned a stadium will bring extra traffic and problems.

“There’s always going to be snags along the way,” Beckham added. “There is going to be people who don’t agree having the stadium in certain places.”

Although no date has been set, it is likely that a new stadium cannot be built before 2018.

If he wanted to launch the franchise before then, Marlins Park, home of Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise the Florida Marlins, could be shared temporarily.

Beckham added: “We will be funding the money ourselves, but as an organisation, we want to be treated like every other (sports franchise).

“We’re not asking for anything more or anything less.”