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Touchline • Issue 15 • 35
Scottish Premier League clubs have
unanimously agreed on a package of
measures that would deliver a merged
league body in time for next season.
The single governing organisation would
oversee the 12-10-10-10 divisional
structure that is presently in place. But
there would be greater financial redistribution to the second
tier.
The SPL also wants to introduce play-offs involving the team
finishing 11th and teams second, third and fourth in the league
below.
The proposals include a “pyramid for the entire game”, which
would allow access to the senior ranks to clubs currently
operating outside the top 42.
The 2014 FIBA 3x3 World Championships
will take place in Russia’s capital city of
Moscow. The tournament will be held
over the course of five days in June
2014.
The Russian Basketball Federation (RBF),
one of Europe’s pioneers in developing
3x3, will host the second edition of the tournament that was
first held in Athens, Greece in 2012.
The 2014 FIBA 3x3 World Championships will follow a similar
competition format to that used in the inaugural event, with
men’s and women’s tournaments as well as individual contests.
In 2012, 48 teams (24 men’s and 24 women’s) from 32 countries
competed in the Greek capital.
Russia’s teams finished in the top 10 at the 2012 FIBA 3x3
World Championships, with the men’s side coming in fifth and
the women’s ninth.
The FIBA 3x3 World Championships are organised every two
years, while the FIBA U18 3x3 World Championships are held on
an annual basis - except the year of the Youth Olympic Games. As
such, 2013 will see the FIBA 3x3 U18 World Championships take
place in Jakarta, Indonesia from 26-29 September.
Singapore has won the right to host the
showpiece Women’s Tennis Association
Championships from next year in a record
five-year agreement. They beat rival bids
from China’s Tianjin and Monterrey in
Mexico for the season finale, which next
year will boast a purse of US$6.5 million,
its largest yet.
The arrival of the tournament, the biggest in the Asia-Pacific
region after the Australian Open grand slam, comes with Asian
tennis still expanding on the back of Li Na’s historic French
Open win in 2011.
“This is the largest and most significant WTA Championships
partnership in our history,” Stacey Allaster, chairwoman and chief
executive of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), said. “It’s a
record breaker.”
The season-ending event features the top eight women’s players
and from next year, the eight leading women’s doubles pairs.
Former winners include current champion Serena Williams,
Martina Navratilova and Maria Sharapova.
It is also a major addition to the portfolio of sports events
in Singapore, alongside its Formula One Grand Prix and
international golf tournaments.
Two football supporters have been shot
dead by rival fans in Brazil. The incident
happened in Brazil’s north east, near the
Arena Castelao World Cup stadium in
Fortaleza.
Reports suggest two men who supported
Ceara were shot in the head by two
Fortaleza fans in a vehicle.
It is the latest in a series of issues that have led to questions
about the nation’s ability to stage the 2014 World Cup and
2016 Olympic Games. As well as delays to the rebuilding of the
Maracana Stadium, Rio 2016 venue, the Joao Havelange Stadium,
has been closed indefinitely.
Brazil is leading the ranking for the number of football-related
deaths.
The Arena Castelao has been undergoing security tests ahead
of its hosting of the Confederations Cup in June, prior to next
year’s World Cup.
BRAZIL
SINGAPORE
RUSSIA
SCOTLAND