Disparity in income generated in Europe leaves southern hemisphere countries hoping for some form of shared revenue from internationalsIt has been another British summer when the jet stream has moved too far to the south and, as the European club seasons start, climate change is being felt with the southern hemisphere shivering in a chill wind.Australia’s capitulation in Sydney a week ago, when they conceded a record number of points to the All Blacks, would ordinarily have led to strident demands for Michael Cheika to be sacked as head coach. Even if there was little excuse for some abject defending, especially after how the Lions took on the World Cup holders in the summer, there is an appreciation that Australia’s...
The World Taekwondo Federation has finally rebranded but it is far from the only sporting entity to cause controversy with an initialism or abbreviationThe World Taekwondo Federation did the inevitable last weekend, changing its name to escape the “negative connotations” of its initialism.World Taekwondo, as it is now officially known, first considered changing its name in 2015 but decided to give it another 18 months before accepting that the ubiquitous online abbreviation was going nowhere. The new slogan? It is “Taekwondo For All”. Thanks for asking. Related: Forget dancing horses, surfing and BMX – the Olympic Games need eSports Continue reading...
The IOC has the choice of Paris or Los Angeles to host the 2024 Olympic Games and both have relatively sensible proposalsWith the contest for the right to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games down to the last two contestants and nearing a final verdict, there may be several good reasons for giving Paris the right to stage the 2024 Olympics while postponing the return of the Games to Los Angeles until four years later. The most compelling of them must surely be that such a decision would put the Olympics out of the reach of Donald Trump’s sticky little fingers.The two-term limit of the recently inaugurated US president will end in 2025 – unless, that is, Trump decides...
The IOC may find fewer cities eager to host the Games with experts agreeing that staging the event is economically damaging despite a larger revenue cakeThese days even the Olympics is going on the 5:2 diet. Less than 18 months ago, the politicians and panjandrums of Hamburg, Rome, Budapest, Paris and Los Angeles all craved the right to host the 2024 Games. Now, following Budapest’s withdrawal last week, only Paris and Los Angeles remain. But it is merely reflective of a bidding process that is getting worryingly slimmer.Twelve cities fought over the 2004 Olympics. Yet only two were in the running for the 2022 Winter Olympics. And now here we are again. Even LA, one of the last pair standing...
LA’s mayor may have accused Donald Trump of ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ – but one man’s flames of hatred is another’s flames of desireBack in 1994, IOC member Dick Pound declared the only way Salt Lake City’s bid for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games would lose to Quebec City was because Utah’s capital had “no more rabbits to pull out of the hat”. Yup, I know – bless Dick for thinking that’s how Olympic bids are won.Working on more conventional lines, however, the Salt Lake City bid president and his senior vice-president shipped $1,200 worth of rabbits (trivia buffs may care to know that amounted to 12 rabbits) to Pound. Dick and his wife declined to accept the rabbits,...