Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan launched his campaign to become the next president of FIFA in London today and is aiming to change the ‘culture of intimidation’ at world football’s governing body.

Prince Ali will be competing with current president Sepp Blatter, therapy former footballer Luis Figo and Dutch Football Association president Michael Van Praag to lead FIFA and the Jordanian says there is a ‘global desire for change’.

“There is a culture of intimidation within FIFA, therapy ” he said at a press conference in London.

“In the past people have taken a principled stand and they have ended up being punished for it. I hope that if things are played fairly and played rightly that things will go in the appropriate way.

“I also believe that an incumbent has a natural advantage but I want to assure the national associations we are moving in the right direction.”

The Jordan FA chief, who has been a FIFA Executive Committee member for the past four years, has called for a debate between all candidates, including Blatter, prior to the elections.

“If we are talking about transparency I would like to see, at least before the elections, a public debate, including the incumbent, so that everybody knows across the world what our positions are. I think that’s only fair to everyone and I’m ready to do it.”

Ali confirmed that he received nominations from England, USA, Jordan, Belarus, Georgia and Malta for the FIFA presidency.

Despite Blatter being the overwhelming favourite, Ali believes there is a long campaign ahead and nobody can be ruled out.

“It’s a long campaign until May 29^th and I don’t think anybody should be written off, I think globally there is a desire for change.

{jcomments on}

Beijing and Almaty have formally submitted their bids to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Both committees handed over their candidature files to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today.

Read more HERE.

{jcomments on}

The final iSportconnect Directors’ Club of the year will be taking place today at the five-star Grange St. Paul’s Hotel.

The event will be followed by a Christmas Dinner which will be held in the beautiful Sky Bar of the Grange St. Paul’s hotel overlooking St. Paul’s cathedral.

Delegates from major organisations are set to attend the event with representatives from Chelsea FC, medic Tottenham Hotspur FC, cheap Microsoft, ESPN, NFL, English Premier League, The FA, UFC, ATP, WTA, Barclays, Commonwealth Games England, Formula E and many more.

The event will feature a Question Time-style discussion with a panel of well-established executives.

The panellists are; Dave Castell, Global Head of Marketing and Brand Partnerships, Entertainment at Microsoft, Jennie Price, CEO of Sport England, Paul Barber, CEO of Brighton & Hove Albion FC and Phil Lane, Head of Sport and Participation at GLL.

Michael Cunnah, Chairman of iSportconnect, said: “We have a fantastic panel for our final Directors’ Club of the year which will make for very interesting and engaging discussions, it should be a great event.”

Invitation Policy: iSportconnect Directors’ Club is an invitation only event open exclusively for CEOs, chairmen and director level executives from governing bodies, sports teams and sponsorship brands.

Social Media Policy: The iSportconnect Directors’ Club follows Chatham House rules and therefore all content must be kept inside.

We encourage delegates to tweet pictures and use our hashtag #iSCDirectorsClub but please do not quote panellists.

To watch highlights of previous iSportconnect Directors’ Clubs click here.

Official Host Partner:

Official partners:

{jcomments on}

Location: Milwaukee, USA

Closing Date: 30th October

Overview:

The business systems developer position is responsible for the analysis, design, development, testing, and production support of all business applications used by the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club. The position requires experience implementing and supporting packaged software as well as developing custom software through a variety of programming languages and database platforms.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.  Other duties may be assigned.

• Evaluate new solutions to meet the needs of the business.
• Coordinate and communicate with all project stakeholders, including sponsors, team members, contracted resources and internal departments.
• Assist information technology staff with technical support of outstanding application issues.
• Provides updates, status, and completion information to supervisor, help desk problem request tracking system, and end-users, via voice mail, e-mail, or in-person communication
• Participate in the on-call and game day information technology department support responsibilities.
• Maintain a productive relationship with business sponsors and end users.
• Experience creating and maintaining project deliverables such as project plans, status reports, requirements and design documents.
• Demonstrate strong communication skills to ensure understanding of requirements with clients.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Follow standards and methodologies for project management, documentation, system development, and implementation.
• Identify and capture requirements for smaller scale projects, participate in producing work estimates.
• Provide solutions to a variety of technical problems of moderate scope and complexity.
• Experience with software and vendor selection processes and on-going vendor management.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects and adapt to changing needs and requirements.
• Experience with version control systems (SVN preferred).

Further specialization in one of the following areas of oversight:

Business Applications

• Experience with installation, enhancement and support of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
• Support and enhance the Brewers Corporate Intranet and investigate new uses of SharePoint technology.
• Provide application support for the current Sage MAS 500 and HRMS applications. Actively participate on a project team to evaluate and install replacement solutions.
• Function as the primary support person for the desktop client configuration and troubleshooting of our SaaS ticketing application.
• Develop, enhance, and support reports utilizing Excel, Crystal Reports and Microsoft SQL Reporting Services.
• Function as a backup technical resource to support a data warehouse and business intelligence toolsets.  

Business Intelligence

• Experience with data warehousing, Oracle databases, ETL and business intelligence tools.
• Experience with MS SQL Server/SQL Programming, SSIS, SRS, MS Visual Studio, Microsoft .Net Framework.
• Experience with MicroStrategy and Tableau software.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008/2012/2014 Administration experience – database and table design, backup/maintenance, optimization, DTS/SSIS packages and SQL Agent Jobs.
• Demonstrated ability to develop complex SQL queries including multi-table joins, aggregate functions, unions, and sub-queries.

Qualifications To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. 

Education and/or Experience

Bachelor’s degree (B.A.) from a four-year college or university; 3 to 5 years related experience and/or training in web/application development or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Computer Skills

To perform the job successfully, an individual should have knowledge of Microsoft office software including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, and Internet Explorer.

Other Skills and Abilities

·         Knowledge of data analysis/database design technologies/tools in an operational environment.

·         Experience working with SharePoint, creating and maintain document libraries and lists, programming web parts and user controls for use in SharePoint, and administering SharePoint user permissions

·         Web application development experience utilizing HTML5, HTML, XML, CSS, ASP, .Net, JavaScript, VB.Net and or C#.

·         Experience with ReServe Interactive and Extensis Portfolio.

·         Proficiency with Crystal Reports.

·         Experience in a PCI DSS compliant information technology environment.

Work Hours

Business hours are Monday – Friday 9am-5pm. Additional hours will be required as part of an on-call rotation to cover some weekends, evenings, and holidays throughout the year. Travel to our spring training facility in Arizona will be required.

How to Apply

Click to apply HERE

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley has been formally summoned to answer questions in parliament about the treatment of workers at his company Sports Direct.

The Business, generic Innovation and Skills Committee have ordered Mr. Ashley to attend on the 7th June.

Read more HERE.