Africa

FIFA president Sepp Blatter again dismissed fears that the next World Cup could be moved from South Africa and said the 2010 hosts were further along at this point than Germany was four years ago.

Taj TV agreed a deal with US satellite TV provider DIRECTV to produce its new Cricket Plus Channel.

The FIFA Emergency Committee suspended the Kenya Football Federation (KFF), having determined that the agreements signed by the KFF in order to resolve the situation of Kenyan football have not been respected or only marginally implemented, and that fundamental principles such as the respect of sporting rules, the integrity of competitions, and FIFA’s Statutes, regulations and decisions have been regularly violated or ignored by members of the Kenyan football family.

Gauteng province, Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa has fought off stiff competition from several European and Middle East rivals to win the rights to host the world’s largest soccer exhibition, Soccerex, from 2007 to 2009.

The organising committee behind the 2010 FIFA World Cup says costs of staging the event have rocketed from 2.3bn rand ($303,670m) to 12bn rand ($1.58bn).

New partnerships with African universities are on the horizon for sports management courses after representatives of the International Center for Sports Studies (CIES), based in Switzerland, last week visited the University of South Africa (UNISA) in Pretoria and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in Port Elizabeth.

The International Rugby Board (IRB) said that a record number of countries have officially confirmed their intention to tender for the right to host the Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament in 2009.

The general secretary of the German football association (DFB) and one of the driving forces behind the success of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ Horst R. Schmidt, is take a consultancy role in the staging of the 2010 event in South Africa following an agreement reached with FIFA football’s governing body.

In the latest stage in the exploitation of its commercial and broadcast rights for 2007 – 2015 the International Cricket Council (ICC) said it would start meetings with broadcasters and agencies in Dubai today.

Civil rights initiative Afriforum has warned that proposed legislation could negatively affect South Africa's participation in the 2010 football World Cup.

South Africa has won the right to host the International Paralympic Committee's (IPC) Swimming World Championships in Durban in December.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) said that it would launch the next stage of its sale of media and sponsorship rights for its events, from late 2007 to 2015, this month.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup™ and related projects, as well as the new Code of Ethics, will be key points on the agenda for FIFA’s Executive Committee meeting to be held in Zurich on 15 September.

The Confederation of African Football chose Angola as the host of the 2010 African Cup of Nations finals.

As part of FIFA’s “Win in Africa with Africa” initiative, the International Center for Sports Studies (CIES), based in Neuchâtel (Switzerland), signed a partnership agreement with Dakar’s Cheikh Anta Diop University on 25 April 2006.

A $5m winner takes all 20/20 Super Star match in the West Indies, funded by billionaire cricket investor Allen Stanford, been cancelled because of a scheduling conflict.