Wednesday, 20th December 2006

HEADLINE OF THE DAY

WWE® Back from Iraq

The WWE Superstars have just returned from their annual Tribute to the Troops tour in which they went to the front lines, distributed gifts, signed autographs, took pictures, and performed a live television event at Camp Victory in Baghdad. This television spectacular, “WWE Tribute to the Troops: Christmas in Baghdad,” will air on Christmas Night in the USA. The Raw, SmackDown, and ECW Superstars and Extremists will compete for the nation's troops stationed in Iraq. Source: WWE Site, 19th December 2006

WWE has visited troops in Iraq four consecutive years, and this month they delivered the 2.6 millionth letter from Shauna Fleming's "A Million Thanks" effort to deliver a letter to each service member in Iraq. On Christmas day, WWE will air a Tribute to the Troops filmed Dec. 8 in Baghdad. Bringing service members and their families together with the pro wrestling entertainers they look up to is a great way to boost troop morale. Source: The Conservative Voice, 19th December 2006

WWE is also teaming up with America Supports You, A Million Thanks and Microsoft to show support for U.S. uniformed personnel. Source: The Miami Herald, 17th December 2006


SPORTS SHORTS

* The Mayor of Caracas has stated that the Venezuelan capital wants to host the final of the 2007 Copa America. Venezuela will host the tournament, between June 26 and July 15. Meanwhile, work at Caracas’ Olympic Stadium is at 80% completion. The stadium’s capacity is being boosted to 40,000 for the Copa America. The Copa America is the oldest surviving national team tournament in the world with Argentina and Uruguay the two most successful nations with 14 wins apiece. Brazil won the 2004 tournament in Peru, defeating Argentina 4-2 in a penalty shoot-out after a 2-2 draw in normal time. Source: Football Insider, 19th December 2006

* Asia may lose its automatic right to host the 2018 World Cup under a plan being considered by FIFA. Its President, Sepp Blatter said the world governing body was considering scrapping its policy of rotating the tournament between its regions after the 2014 event in South America. He added that FIFA's executive committee will make a decision after deciding who will host in 2014. Asia hosted the 2002 edition of the tournament, which was held in Europe this year. Source: People’s Online Daily, 19th December 2006

* Spanish public broadcaster TVE has retained rights for the MotoGP. TVE will pay about €20 million annually for the rights for five seasons starting 2007 through 2011 in the new deal with Dorna Sports. Popularity of motorcycling has soared with the success of Spanish riders such as Álvaro Bautista (current 125cc champion) and Jorge Lorenzo (current 250cc champ). TVE beat a strong challenge from Cuatro for the rights and it is likely that the new rights fee represents a significant increase on the previous level. Source: Sports Media, 19th December 2006

* For the fifth year running, Brazil have been crowned FIFA’s Team of the Year, edging Italy for the award. Despite a disappointing World Cup for Brazil, other teams in the running failed to capitalise. Gaining almost 500 points and leaping from 12th into 2nd place according to FIFA’s new method of calculation, Italy well deserve the title, Best Mover of the Year. France (4th) and Germany (6th) have reappeared among the world ranking, which measures the number of points gained over the past 12 months. Other big movers include Nigeria (9th, 350 extra points) and Qatar (58th, 309 extra points). Source: Football Insider, 19th December 2006

* Real Madrid’s Fabio Cannavaro has won the 2006 FIFA World Player of the Year award at the FIFA World Player Gala ceremony in Zurich. Cannavaro captained Italy to World Cup glory this year and had never previously been nominated for FIFA's top individual honour. He is the first defender to land the award, and only the second Italian. Roberto Baggio won in 1993. Zinedine Zidane finished second in the voting ahead of Ronaldinho. Source: Football Insider, 19th December 2006

* People primarily watch TV via mobiles in the home, preferably with their morning coffee, in the kitchen or in bed. This was the conclusion of mobile TV consumer conducted by Telia in Stockholm during the autumn. Two-thirds of total mobile TV watching takes place in the home, followed by on the way to work, school, practice or when waiting for someone. Majority of users mainly watch mobile TV in the morning between 7:00 and 8:00AM and in the evening between 5:00PM and 10:00PM. On average, users watch 30 minutes at a time. Source: Advanced Television, 20th December 2006

* Yamgo has partnered with X-treme Video, Europe’s leading extreme sports publisher. The partnership provides global rights to extreme sports videos in 20 different sports and long-term access to high-quality content for producing mobile video. The agreement broadens Yamgo’s Mobile TV rights catalogue and secures its position as leading provider of interactive mobile TV content. Yamgo will repurpose content to create compelling a Mobile TV experience, available through 75 mobile distribution channels, including Orange, Vodafone and T-mobile. Source: Web Wire, 19th December 2006


MORE NEWS

Elsewhere/Rights: Free TV to Use or Lose Big Sport

COMMERCIAL free-to-air television networks will be on notice to broadcast major sporting events or lose them to their rivals in pay television under changes to be unveiled today to Australia's anti-siphoning rules. Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan will complete the final significant reshaping of the media landscape of 2006 by announcing new "use-it-or-lose-it" rules that will make it harder for free-to-air TV networks to lock up major sporting events.

The Age believes that today's announcement will not remove any events on the anti-siphoning list but will introduce a range of conditions that, if not followed, will mean events can be broadcast on pay-television networks. The minister's decision appears to give something to both commercial free-to-air and pay-TV networks, which have waged fierce, expensive lobbying and public relations campaigns all year to secure their stakes in the lucrative sports broadcasting market.

The free-to-air networks have stressed their role as providers of sport to all Australians, while the pay-TV networks have argued free-to-air networks have treated viewers with contempt by showing sporting events, such as the Bledisloe Cup rugby, late at night or not at all. Pay-TV networks seek out premium events as they are a strong subscription driver.

The anti-siphoning list was originally designed to ensure that ordinary Australians would have free television access to major sporting events such as the AFL grand final, the Melbourne Cup and the Olympics. The 1300-event anti-siphoning list includes many events that are not major and many that are not broadcast on free-to-air television. It is these events that the pay-television networks want to broadcast. Source: The Age Australia, 20th December 2006

Elsewhere/General: IPTV Doubles in 2006

New analysis from Point Topic shows that IPTV subscriber numbers doubled during the 12 months to 30 June 2006. The total number of people worldwide paying for TV services supplied via Internet Protocol increased from just under 1.5 million to almost 3 million. Europe is the most important region for IPTV, with the strongest growth in subscriber numbers during the period.

There have also been a large number of service launches. This growth reflects the developed and competitive pay-TV market in many European countries. Hong Kong’s PCCW remains the largest IPTV operator, with 444,000 paying IPTV subscribers, and a total of 654,000 TV connections (not all TV services require a paying subscription). France Telecom had over 300,000 paying customers, whilst Telefónica in Spain grew strongly to 267,000 TV subscribers. Source: Advanced Television, 20th December 2006

Elsewhere/General: Boxing Returns After 37 Years

The first professional boxing event in Sweden since 1969 is slated to take place next month in Gothenburg. Pro boxing was banned for 37 years until Sweden’s new government opened the door again and the company New Sweden is putting together the first promotion at Gothenburg’s Scandinavium arena, where a sell-out crowd of about 12,000 looks possible to welcome boxing back in the home town of the late Ingmar Johansson, Sweden’s world heavyweight champ of pre-Muhammad Ali days.

That boxing has changed dramatically in four decades will be highlighted by one of the Swedish star attractions being recruited for the debut event - female fighter Åsa Sandell, who fought Ali’s daughter, Laila Ali, last year (and lost in five rounds). The promoters are also trying to lure Sweden’s Armand Krajnc, former WBO middleweight champ, out of retirement.

Stockholm-based agency IEC In Sports has been appointed to handle television sales, both domestic and international. The final card will probably feature about 10 bouts. New Sweden is talking to American and European fighters about taking part in the event, which the company sees as the first in a new era of Swedish promotions. Source: Sports Media, 19th December 2006


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

FIFA Reputation Tarnished After Ruling (Interesting read!)

December was not a good month for FIFA — the lordly, all-embracing organization that rules the global game of soccer. At FIFA's headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, they are used to being treated with awed respect. They expect to get their own way, and they usually do. Apparently, nobody told a U.S. district judge, Loretta Preska, about FIFA's sanctity. After presiding over a case in which MasterCard sued FIFA for breach of contract, Preska issued her judgment in favor of MasterCard, awarded them costs, and absolutely flayed FIFA for the way it conducted negotiations with MasterCard.

MasterCard has been FIFA's exclusive financial services sponsor for the past five World Cups. It's been an apparently satisfactory arrangement for both parties, with Pelé bringing his immense personal charm as the Master-Card World Cup spokesman. The current contract expired with this summer's tournament in Germany. A new contract was under negotiation at the beginning of this year, in accordance with MasterCard's contractual first-refusal rights (or "first right to acquire" as FIFA prefers to name it).

But while FIFA was dealing with MasterCard, it was also talking to Visa. "FIFA's negotiators," says Judge Preska, "lied repeatedly to MasterCard" by not telling them they were speaking with Visa, and they "lied to Visa" when they repeatedly assured Visa that MasterCard had no first-refusal rights. Judge Preska confronts FIFA with its own "fair play" slogan, calling these negotiations "anything but fair play." Her report is a masterpiece — so clear, so concise, and so light on the legalese that it makes irresistible reading.

Briefly: FIFA marketing director Jerome Valcke and his associates negotiated with MasterCard and got everything they wanted — $180 million in cash, for an 8-year deal covering the World Cups to be staged in 2010 and 2014. Approval for the deal was voted by the three required FIFA committees, and a final contract was drawn up, signed by MasterCard, and couriered to FIFA. But it was never signed by FIFA. Unknown to MasterCard were FIFA's parallel negotiations with Visa, who — in Judge Preska's words — were being given "blow-by-blow descriptions of the status of the FIFA- MasterCard negotiations."

At the moment when FIFA appeared ready to clinch a deal with MasterCard, Valcke called Visa and told them that, if they upped their $150 million offer by $30 million (i.e. to match Master-Card's bid) they, and not MasterCard, would be FIFA's new financial services partner. Visa agreed. The Visa offer was then presented to the FIFA committee meeting and — in Judge Preska's words — "further to Mr Valcke's prior assurance ... that ‘Visa would be the partner,' Messrs. Valcke and [FIFA President Sepp] Blatter . . . then engineered that result at the FIFA board meeting." The Visa offer was actually presented as consisting of $195 million. The extra $15 million was termed "marketing in kind."

There followed the curious affair of differently dated contracts. Two copies of the Visa deal were signed by Blatter and Visa International president Christopher Rodrigues on April 6, 2006. Both contracts were produced for the court: Visa's version bore the April 6 date, but the FIFA copy was dated April 3. The FIFA version also carried a "signature that, to the untrained eye, appears noticeably different from the signature on the Visa-produced version of the contract." FIFA offered no explanation for the discrepancy.

Well before these suggestions of skulduggery, the FIFA marketing department staff was clearly aware that things had gotten out of hand. Evidence from internal e-mails shows an anxiety to find a convincing reason to offer MasterCard for the rejection of its offer. One associate, Stefan Schuster ponders "how we (as FIFA) can still be seen as having at least some business ethics", and how to "make the whole f***-up look better for FIFA." Another associate, Robert Lampman sees nothing but trouble: "Guys ... having read all these exchanges upon wake up here it seems like a dream ... a nightmare that is! ... this is going to be very ugly."

Although under warning from MasterCard that legal action was pending, and they should not announce their deal, FIFA and Visa went ahead anyway, with a press conference on April 10.

FIFA reacted to the verdict on the same day: It would appeal the verdict in the Swiss courts and "fully expects to prevail." It also added: "FIFA remains convinced that at all times it acted in good faith." A statement that lost credibility only five days later, when FIFA summarily fired all four marketing negotiators — Valcke, Tom Houseman, Schuster, and Lampman — and admitted that "Even though the judgment has proved to be very biased in favor of MasterCard, the fact cannot be overlooked that FIFA's negotiations breached its business principles. FIFA cannot possibly accept such conduct among its own employees."

With that statement, FIFA is admitting the guilt of its employees, and greatly reducing the chances of a successful appeal. The revelations in Judge Preska's report are indeed devastating. FIFA clearly knows that it has a massive task ahead to ensure all of its many sponsors, present and future, that fair play reigns in Zurich. Paul Gardner comments on The New York Sun, 19th December 2006