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Arsenal takeover by
American businessman
American businessman Stan Kroenke has
increased his stake in Arsenal Football
Club to 62.89%, and has agreed to make
an offer for the rest of the club.
Kroenke first bought shares in Arsenal in
2007 and a full takeover has now been
triggered after Kroenke Sports Enterprises
acquired the stakes of Danny Fiszman
and Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, who
owned 16.1% and 15.9% respectively.
Arsenal’s shares have been priced at
£11,750 and the club has been valued at
£731m – however, with the club carrying
debts of £147m, the club’s real worth can
be put at close to £900m.
The 63 year-old’s company, Kroenke
Sports Enterprises, also controls the
NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the NHL’s
Colorado Avalanche, NFL’s St Louis
Rams, and Major League Soccer side the
Colorado Rapids.
Sport England reduces funds
The board of Sport England has decided
to reduce the funding available to
England Basketball by £1.2m, after the
board decided that England Basketball’s
plans had not adequately addressed
the challenge of increasing participation
beyond the governing body’s current
audiences.
England Basketball’s four-year funding
had been structured to encourage a
greater commitment, and improved
approach, to increasing participation in
the sport, with the maximum award of
£1.2m available only if England Basketball
was able to produce a robust strategy for
growing the whole sport.
Sport England’s chief executive Jennie
Price, said: ‘England Basketball has
not demonstrated the necessary focus
on improving its plans for increasing
participation, despite continued support
and encouragement to do so. This was
an important factor in our decision’.
Subject to performance, funding will now
remain at its current level of £1.35m per
year, until March 2013.
RFU Toughens Stance
on Overseas Players
The Rugby Football Union has issued a
sound warning to English players plying
their trade overseas that they run the risk
of not being selected for the national team
after the Rugby World Cup in 2011.
England currently have three members of
their senior elite squad in JonnyWilkinson,
James Haskell and Tom Palmer all playing
club rugby in the French championship.
But RFU chief executive John Steele
warned them and any others playing
abroad that they would only be selected
for the team under ‘exceptional
circumstances’.
The strong statement is due to the RFU’s
belief that to win the World Cup on home
soil in 2015, the players have to be in
England.
ICC Backs Strong
Corruption Stance
International Cricket Council (ICC) chief
executive Haroon Lorgat has stated
that the bans handed to three Pakistan
players found guilty of corruption is a
strong stance to protect the image of the
sport.
Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and
Mohammad Aamer have been handed
lengthy bans by the ICC’s anti-corruption
tribunal for so-called ‘spot-fixing’ –
deliberately bowling no-balls – in a Test
match against England last year.
Butt was banned for 10 years, with five
years suspended, while Asif and Aamer
were handed bans of seven years each
with two and five years suspended,
respectively.
‘We are satisfied at the tribunal’s decision,
which was taken on solid evidence, and
we hope with this decision that the image
of the game will improve,’ Lorgat told a
press conference in Doha.
In a separate development, British
prosecutors charged the three players
as well as agent Mazhar Majeed, the
alleged mastermind behind the scheme,
with corruption offences and summoned
them to appear at a London court on 17th
March.
Goal line technology
tests show technology is
“not good enough”
The International Football Association
Board (IFAB) has announced that tests
on various goal-line technology systems
will continue for another year, with the
possibility of using the technology at the
2014 World Cup in Brazil.
According to Jerome Valcke, the
governing body’s secretary general,
only two companies have come close to
meeting FIFA’s standards in relation to
the technology.
Valcke said: ‘Even as an empty goal,
just throwing the ball through to the goal,
only two companies reached 98% and
94%. There’s not one company who has
reached 100%. It means that either it’s a
technical problem, or it’s not good enough
to be used for a 90-minute game. That’s
where we have to be very careful’.
FIFA however, are calling for 100%
accuracy, and remained unconvinced
following the testing of ten systems in
Zurich last month.
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