Friday, 28th September 2007

HEADLINE NEWS

Badminton Holds Thomas and Uber Cup Bid Contest after All

The Badminton World Federation has announced a bidding contest to host the Thomas and Uber Cups in 2010, despite earlier apparently saying that the two biennial international competitions, for men and women respectively, would take place in Malaysia. Bid documents are available on the federation’s website at www.internationalbadminton.org, and member associations are asked to submit expressions of interest to Datuk Punch Gunalan, the federation’s executive deputy president, by Sunday.

The federation today assured Sportcal.com that no host had yet been chosen, even though its vice-president Robin Bryant was quoted in June as saying that Malaysia would be the host for both competitions, with Kuala Lumpur staging the men’s event and Ipoh the venue for the women’s competition. The tournaments were to be held in separate cities for the first time since 1984 in a bid to boost the profile of the women’s game, Bryant was quoted as saying. Those interested in bidding must submit their final bid documentation to the federation by November 25. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007

WWE Expands Global Operations

In an effort to tap into its strong worldwide appeal, World Wrestling Entertainment has revealed plans to expand its operations into London, Shanghai, Tokyo, São Paulo, Toronto and Sydney. The regional office in London will be led by Andrew Whitaker as the president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Carl DeMarco will continue to focus on expansion through the Toronto office as the president of Canada, Latin America and China. Jonathan Sully will establish WWE’s headquarters in Sydney, Australia, as the president of Asia Pacific.

“Whitaker, DeMarco and Sully will oversee integrated sales, marketing and digital initiatives as well as focus on new and emerging markets,” said Shane McMahon, the executive VP of global media at WWE. “This new structure will allow us to more quickly exploit business opportunities and leverage the strength of the WWE brand.” Source: Worldscreen, 27th Sep 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* The FIH, field hockey’s world governing body, has awarded this year’s Champions Trophy to Malaysia, after the tournament was recently moved from Pakistan because of security concerns. The event will be staged at the national hockey stadium Bukit Jalil, in Kuala Lumpur, the venue for the men’s 2002 World Cup. FIH president Els van Breda Vriesman said: ‘We are happy that the Malaysia Hockey Confederation was able to accept the responsibility to host this important event. The FIH confirmed that, as expected, the tournament would also be expanded from six to eight teams to include hosts Malaysia and Great Britain, which was chosen from a list of reserve countries. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007

* The Indian Hockey Federation has denied reports that top Indian hockey players have threatened to go on hunger strike in protest at the alleged preferential treatment awarded to the country’s cricketers, in the wake of India’s victory in the inaugural World Twenty20 in South Africa. It had been reported that the hockey players were to protest against a $2-million reward that the Board of Control for Cricket in India has offered its players, while they are also being awarded cash rewards and other incentives by state governments. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007

* Red Bull is reviewing four PR agencies in a closed-door pitch, as it prepares to promote its Formula One racing teams for next year’s race. Darryl Lim, brand manager of Red Bull Singapore said, “The team will help us manage communications for the brand in Singapore, though the initial focus is on next year’s Formula One event.” Red Bull exclusively owns two F1 racing teams, Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso. However Lim added that the agency will assist in other Red Bull events, which largely focus on extreme sports. Source: Brand Republic, 27th Sep 2007

* German public-service broadcasters, ARD and ZDF, are close to a deal with Infront Sports and Media for the television rights for skiing’s FIS World Cup events in Germany. SportA, the representative agency of ARD and ZDF, will agree a deal in the ‘next two to three weeks,’ Alfons Hörmann, the president of the DSV, the German skiing association, said. In May, Infront Sports and Media agreed a four-year deal with DSV, agreeing to pay between €12 million ($17 million) and €15 million a year to the DSV to distribute the media rights to FIS World Cup events held in Germany. ARD and ZDF were the host broadcasters during the 2006-07 FIS World Cup events in Germany. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007

* Sportfive refuted a German news report that Thomas Röttgermann, managing director of its German operation and executive vice president of the Sportfive Group, is to follow managing director, Robert Müller von Vultejus in leaving the agency. News of the highly-regarded Müller von Vultejus’ decision to step down at the end of the year came earlier this month, just three days after the appointment of Richard Worth as Sportfive’s new chief executive. However, there was no suggestion that Müller von Vultejus’ departure was linked to Worth’s appointment but more the result of events such as the takeover by Lagardère and the structural reorganisation that ensued. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007

* The plaudits for this year’s World Twenty20 in South Africa, the first world championship in short-format cricket, have raised hopes that the sport can extend its international footprint, but the governing body is only just setting off on the long road to the Olympic Games. The 14-day Twenty20 showpiece ended in dramatic fashion on Monday with India defeating traditional rivals Pakistan by five runs in the last over of the final in Johannesburg. The on-field and commercial success of the competition, which involved 12 national teams and 27 matches, has stimulated interest in Twenty20, particularly in cricket’s Asian power base where there had been scepticism of the high-tempo, big-hitting format. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007

* Superleague Formula, the motor racing championship featuring football club brands, has announced a new round of financing. New investors in the championship include a Spanish and private investors from Asia. AC Milan, PSV Eindhoven, FC Porto, Olympiacos, Borussia Dortmund, RSC Anderlecht and Flamengo have already licensed their brand to the Barcelona-based organisers. Planning is underway to launch a further five clubs in the next two months. The championship expects feature 20 leading clubs in the series that will use single-seater racing cars built by Elan Motorsports Technologies. The new engine has been purpose-built by Menard Competition Technologies. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007


MORE NEWS

India/Broadcaster: Neo Sports Claims Biggest-ever Line-up of Broadcast Sponsors

Neo Sports today claimed to have signed ‘the largest-ever line-up of broadcast sponsors in the history of sports broadcasting in India,’ beginning with its coverage on Saturday of the Future Cup series of one-day international cricket matches between India and Australia. The line-up of broadcast sponsors includes the Future Group, the diversified Indian business group, which, Neo Sports claimed, ‘may well be the largest ever multi-year broadcast sponsorship deal signed in the history of Indian television.

Future is also the title sponsor of the series. Other broadcast sponsors of Neo Sports’ coverage are Hero Honda, Reliance Mobile and Pidilite (co-presenting) and LG, Intel, Perfetti and S Kumars (associate). Neo Sports, India’s first full-time cricket channel, is available in an estimated 50 per cent of Indian cable and satellite homes and expects to reach 65 per cent next month.

Meanwhile, Nimbus announced a deal to provide exclusive live coverage of the seven one-day international and one Twenty20 matches that make up the series to Fox Sports, the Australian pay-television network. Nimbus acquired the global rights for India’s home matches from the Board of Control for Cricket in India for four years until March 2010. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: French Clubs Talk Up Value of Ligue 1 Rights

Leading officials from French soccer clubs have defended the value of the top-tier Ligue 1 in the face of renewed warnings from Canal Plus, the pay-television broadcaster, that it will not pay over the odds for a new contract. Jean-Bernard Levy, the chairman of Vivendi, the media group that owns Canal Plus, said this week that cuts had to be made to content acquisitions, including a reduction in the €600 million-($850.2 million-) a year fee paid currently for Ligue 1 rights. Levy also warned that Vivendi would ‘make the seller understand he must sign up with us. Otherwise, the seller risks the competition not being broadcast at all.’

But Jean-Michel Aulas, Pape Diouf and Gervais Martel, the presidents of Lyon, Marseille and Lens respectively, reacted to Canal Plus’ stance by defending the value of the league, with Aulas saying the rights from the 2008-09 season onwards should be worth at least €750 million. Diouf echoed Aulas’ thoughts, telling the official league website that a drop in price was ‘unforeseeable’ and that the loss of Ligue 1 would have dramatic consequences for Canal Plus. He said,’ When you subscribe to Canal Plus, it’s for the football first of all and secondly for the films. Without Ligue 1, Canal Plus is Canal minus.’

Martel described the €600 million as a ‘fair price’ as the number of subscribers had increased noticeably, and also said that nobody had forced Canal Plus to pay that amount. He continued, ‘There is no reason for French football to be weakened because of strategic reasons on the part of our main client.’ The league and its member clubs have been concerned about a possible drop in rights value since Canal Plus' merger with rival TPS reduced competition for the rights. The league even attempted to extend the next rights contract from three years to five to attract new bidders, a plan rejected by France's competition watchdog.

Aulas, Diouf and Martel came together to defend the standard of play in the league, often criticised for a lack of star names and for failing to match the appeal of the top European leagues in England and Spain. Diouf said, ‘Our league is as valuable as any other in Europe’ while Aulas claimed that a match between Manchester United and Chelsea attracts a much lower audience than a mid-table clash in the French league. Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007

Elsewhere/Business: Team Marketing to Monitor EM.Sport Media's Moves

Team Marketing, the Switzerland-based agency, has stressed its independence and said that it ‘is monitoring’ plans by EM.Sport Media, the German media group that acquired a 36.4-per-cent stake in Team’s owner, Highlight Communications. EM.Sport Media, the owner of the German sports channel DSF, is set to develop a strategic partnership with Highlight Communications, possibly fusing the two companies under the leadership of a revtalised Leo Kirch, the German media entrepreneur, to create a broadcasting group specialising in sports rights, among other areas.

Team Marketing, which is majority-owned (80 per cent) by Highlight Communications, with the other 20 per cent belonging to Uefa, European soccer’s governing body, today maintained that it would continue to operate independently despite the proposed change of Highlight’s ownership structure and reports of EM.Sport Media's ambitious business plans. Team, whose main commercial activity is the distribution of broadcast and sponsorship rights for European soccer’s top-tier Uefa Champions League and second-tier Uefa Cup, told Sportcal.com that operations were ‘very much business as usual.’ Source: Sportcal, 27th Sep 2007


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

Millions turned on by Twenty20 vision
Simon Hughes comments on The Telegraph UK, 28th Sep 2007

Taking place at peak evening viewing time on the subcontinent, Monday's World Twenty20 final between India and Pakistan produced the mother of all television audiences. An estimated 400 million people watched India sneak home by five runs, a result that not only sent their success-starved supporters into paroxysms of ecstasy but also produced a broad smile on the face of Lalit Modi, vice-president of the Indian cricket board (BCCI). Modi is the brains behind his country's new venture, the Indian Premier League, a Twenty20 domestic tournament with an international climax, and his mobile was white hot with prospective sponsors following India's triumph.

For over a decade, TV executives have sought a viable alternative to football as the perfectly packaged sporting entertainment. With the IPL — a sort of cricketing Champions League, with an enticing £2.5 million for the winners — Modi thinks he may have found it.

"With four overseas players permitted in each of the eight franchised teams, it will have the best cricketers in the world competing for the biggest prize in the game," Modi said. "We have studied all the best sporting leagues in the world, from the English Premier League to the NBA and the NHL in America, and based our structure on the best elements of those. I believe the IPL could be as successful as any of them."

In essence, it is a throwback to the heady days of the Seventies and Eighties in England and the John Player League. With no international commitments, most of the world's best players congregated here to play county cricket alongside the great and the good of the English game and grounds were invariably packed on Sundays for the 40-over contests. It was high-octane entertainment — immense fun to play in and watch.

For a couple of months next spring, the Indians can replicate this environment, with the added bonus of a billion potential fans. With each of the $50m franchises having overseas players on their books, as well as all the big Indian names, the quality should be guaranteed. The chance of seeing Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag lining up for Mumbai alongside Brett Lee and Adam Gilchrist will have the Indian populous in a frenzy.

The announcement of the league was a timely initiative for Indian cricket which, until Monday, had badly needed a lift. Several years of underwhelming performances by the world's richest and most populous cricketing nation had resulted in the sport stagnating and being eclipsed in the television ratings by reality programmes. There are still legions of kids playing cricket on the streets and maidans of the subcontinent but they dream of appearing on lucrative game shows rather than opening the batting for India. Cricket badly needed an injection of foreign expertise and sophistication.

But can a Twenty20 league provide that? Despite the grumblings that it's not cricket but just a beach game, Twenty20 is more than a banal plate of chips. There is some taste and texture to the innings, new strokes have evolved to go with traditional ones and with run rates nudging 10 an over, beleaguered bowlers have had to learn how to cope, with variation and surprise compulsory. It is not an entirely fair contest between bat and ball, but one-day cricket rarely is. And just as the John Player League raised fielding standards 25 years ago, so Twenty20 has spawned new levels of commitment and athleticism. To win the first global trophy for domestic teams will require skill, speed and strength of a high order.

The international dimension of the IPL, whereby the winners of other countries' domestic Twenty20 tournaments will play, is a serious undertaking by a serious man. Modi is determined to galvanise Indian cricket without jeopardising the international game. "One of the IPL's charters requires players to honour their international commitments first," he said, presumably having never met Sir Alex Ferguson.

Modi claims to have more than 50 companies interested in bidding for the eight Indian franchises (including two Sri Lankan teams) and there are already 18 potential venues with floodlights. Now, the television companies are tripping over themselves to buy exclusive rights. Other countries will most likely use the league as a blueprint to galvanise their own domestic competitions. Like many, I still utterly prefer the subtler hues of Test matches to the black-and-white whirr of Twenty20, but there's no doubt its energy is resuscitating an ailing game.