BOA drop legal action against 2012 organisers as cash row is settled

The 'embarrassing' cash dispute that was threatening to overshadow the London 2012 Olympics has been resolved.

The British Olympic Association (BOA) have abandoned legal action against London 2012 organisers after being forced to accept defeat over the major issue of whether the cost of staging the Paralympics should be taken into account in calculating any surplus of the Games.

In return, as part of the settlement agreement signed by both parties, and the Games organising committee LOCOG will waive rights to royalties on two items of Team GB merchandise and will allow the BOA to buy extra Olympic Games tickets.

The dispute has called into question the handling of the situation by BOA chairman Colin Moynihan and chief executive Andy Hunt, who had been suspended from the London 2012 board after rejecting an IOC ruling and taking the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton said: 'I am glad this issue has been put behind us and we can all get on with delivering Games next year that will make this country proud. I would like to thank Andy (Hunt) and his team for creating the right environment for us to reach this settlement.'

The settlement confirms all previous financial arrangements between the two organisations with the only new details relating to the waiving of royalties and the extra tickets, which will be used by the BOA as part of their Team 2012 appeal and for a number of former athletes who have competed at the Olympics.

London 2012 will also 'pro-actively support' the BOA's efforts to secure sponsors and other commercial partners for the 2013-2016 period.

A statement said the agreement has been welcomed by the IOC and 'also brings to an end the request for arbitration that had been filed by the BOA with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to resolve a contractual dispute with LOCOG'.

Hunt added: 'We appreciate the spirit of partnership and cooperation that LOCOG brought to our discussions. With this matter now resolved, the BOA will be able to keep its attention focused entirely on our preparations to support Team GB at the Games.'

London 2012's board have agreed 'in principle' to lift the suspension against Moynihan and Hunt and will formally decide to do so before the next board meeting in May.

The BOA first suspended their legal action against London 2012 two weeks ago when fresh talks were opened.

It followed a period where they had come under intense pressure from the IOC and the Government over their stance.

Olympics minister Hugh Robertson called the dispute 'an embarrassment' and IOC president Jacques Rogge was understood to be furious that the BOA went ahead with a court submission after the international body had ruled against them.

The row centred on the money the BOA wanted from London 2012. They are due 20 per cent of any surplus after the Games but have claimed the cost of staging the Paralympics should not be taken into account when calculating that surplus.

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James DeGale eyes world title shot after clash with former friend George Groves

James DeGale is grateful opponent George Groves beat him when they were amateurs as he can take revenge and move one step closer to becoming world champion.

Olympic champion DeGale is putting his British super-middleweight title on the line to fight Commonwealth champion Groves at London’s O2 Arena on May 21, as the two former friends go toe-to-toe.

The pair attended the Dale Youth ABC in west London, where Groves beat DeGale in an amateur competition and the pair have since fallen out.

DeGale has stepped up the trash talking, saying he will beat Groves inside four rounds and hopes a title shot will follow soon after.

He said: ‘Do you know what, I’m glad ugly kid (Groves) won that fight all those years ago. If he hadn’t won, we wouldn’t be here now talking about this exciting fight, a match-up which takes me one step closer to becoming world champion.

‘The bottom line for Groves is that he’s chinny. And I promise I will expose that. He got knocked out as an amateur, he got dropped in training by Carl Froch in training and he was all over the place in his second to last fight with Kenny Anderson.

‘He’s the one who’s looking nervous at the moment. He looks scared in interviews, he’s been beaten by the size of the occasion already.

He continued: ‘I’m sticking by my prediction of winning inside four rounds. But that’s only if he comes to fight me. If he tries to get all technical, he’ll drag it out longer. But this fight is definitely not going the full 12 rounds.

‘Groves is fixated with emotion. He even claims this won’t, in a technical sense, be his hardest fight. Trust me, this fight will test everything.

DeGale and Groves will slug it out on the undercard of Nathan Cleverly’s world light-heavyweight title clash with Jurgen Brahmer, a night of boxing which will be broadcast on Sky Box Office.

And DeGale expressed his surprise that Amir Khan decided against having his fight with Paul McCloskey shown on Sky after the plug was pulled on the pay-per-view event and moved to the fringe channel Primetime.

‘I think moving away from Sky was the wrong idea, said DeGale. ‘The channel stuck by him after he was floored by Breidis Prescott so maybe he should have shown some loyalty to them.

‘But boxing isn’t just a sport, it’s a business and he did what he had to do.’

And with the London Olympics just over 15 months away, DeGale is excited at the prospect of revisiting the Games, but this time as a spectator, four years after he won gold in Beijing.

‘I can’t wait for the track and field events. They produce the most memorable moments at every Games so I’m hoping to be there for the sprint finals and hopefully catch some of the field events, too,’ said the Olympic middleweight champion. 

‘But its not just about being at the marquee events, I’m looking forward to just being part of it all and sharing the moment. Hopefully my gold medal will count for something when applying for tickets!’

To apply for London 2012 tickets visit tickets.london2012.com any time between now and 26 April 

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Wembley to host NFL showdown between Buccaneers and Bears... if new labour deal can be signed

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will host the Chicago Bears at Wembley Stadium in October if the NFL season goes ahead.

The league announced on Monday night that the Bucs will return to London for the second time in three years, having lost to the New England Patriots at Wembley in 2009, providing the current labour dispute is settled.

For the Bears, the game on October 23 will mark the 25th anniversary of having played a preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys at the stadium.

It is the fifth year in a row that the NFL will stage a regular-season game in London.

The league and its locked-out players have yet to reach a deal on a new labour agreement, meaning the 2011 season is in jeopardy. And if they don’t get a new deal in place by August 1, the game will instead be played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

However, talks between the two sides are on-going and those at the NFLUK headquarters in London were said to be 'quietly optimistic' that a deal will soon be done and the season will go ahead as planned.

The full 2011 NFL schedule will be announced at midnight on Tuesday (April 19). If past history is an indicator, the Bears and Bucs will likely have bye weeks scheduled for October 30, Week 8 of the season.

‘Our past four games in London have demonstrated the tremendous passion for NFL football that exists in the UK,’ said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. 

‘We hope by staging another extraordinary game at Wembley that we can continue to grow our existing fan base and attract even more new fans.’

The Buccaneers finished last season with a 10-6 record, led by one of the league’s most dynamic young rosters with seemingly unlimited potential.  Head coach Raheem Morris was named as Coach of the Year by fans voting in the NFLUK Awards.

The Buccaneers previously capped the 2002 season with a win in Super Bowl XXXVII, while the Tampa Bay region has also played host to four Super Bowls.

‘We are honoured to be selected to participate in the NFL International Series for a second time,’ said Buccaneers co-chairman Bryan Glazer. 

‘We are looking forward to promoting Tampa Bay’s emerging young team on the world stage. We have the longest-running fan club of any NFL team in the UK and look forward to seeing so many familiar faces from the Bucs UK fan club at the game.’

The Bears reached the NFC Championship Game last season before losing to NFC North rivals and eventual Super Bowl winners Green Bay.

One of the league’s most historic franchises, the nine-time NFL champions helped introduce the sport to a UK audience in the mid-1980s. 

As the reigning Super Bowl XX champions, the Bears played a preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys at Wembley on August 3, 1986, the first of the American Bowl series of games designed to introduce American football to fans around the world.

‘To return to London to play an NFL game – this is going to be fun,’ said Chicago Bears chairman Michael McCaskey. 

‘I remember how enthusiastic the fans were in 1986 when we played in Wembley Stadium and defeated the Dallas Cowboys. 

‘London fans were so welcoming and blended their traditions of singing soccer songs with the NFL-style of presenting games. Of course the Chicago Bears are very pleased to have been named the 'Team of the Year' by UK fans following the 2010 season. So we are looking forward to facing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in October and playing in person before our terrific fans in the UK and Europe.’

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: ‘Continuing London's love affair with the hugely popular stateside sport, we are proud to once again welcome two of America’s top NFL teams to the capital.

'With a growing local fanbase it is a fantastic opportunity for enthusiasts from London and beyond to experience the unique thrill of a live game in one of the most iconic sports venues around, Wembley Stadium.’

Live coverage in the UK will air on Sky Sports and BBC Radio, with highlights on BBC TV.

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2012 Paralympic countdown hits 500-day mark

With 500 days to go to the start of the 2012 Paralympics, already there is plenty of speculation that London will host the most spectacular Games ever seen.

Britain has a proud history in Paralympic sport, with the first event taking place in Stoke Mandeville Hospital in 1948 when hospitals where British war veterans with spinal injuries were being treated competed against each other.

The first modern Paralympics were staged in Rome in 1960 and Britain have always been among the most successful nations, finishing second in the medal table behind the hosts China in Beijing in 2008 with 102 medals, including 42 golds.

Second place is again a realistic target, with the likes of swimmers Ellie Simmonds and Sascha Kindred, cyclists Sarah Storey, Jody Cundy and Darren Kenny, wheelchair racer Dave Weir and the rest of the GB squad relishing the chance to shine on home soil.

They will line up alongside world superstars like swimmer Natalie du Toit, tennis star Esther Vergeer and sprint rivals Oscar Pistorius and Jerome Singleton for a feast of elite disability sport.

More than 4,200 athletes from around 150 countries will participate in 20 different sports at the Games from 29 August - 9 September 2012.

The Beijing Games attracted 3,951 athletes from 146 countries and a total of 279 world records were broken during the 12 days of competition, which were watched by a global television audience of 3.8bn people.

Great Britain was represented in 18 sports in Beijing and the sports that missed out last time - goalball and sitting volleyball - will be hopeful of inclusion this time around, with a decision on their participation to be made later this year.

ParalympicsGB performance director Penny Briscoe knows the GB squad will have added pressure on their shoulders when it comes to the 2012 Games.

"We have been open about our ambition of maintaining our second place in the medal table, but we also recognise that Paralympic sport is developing quickly and we face ever-increasing levels of competition, so there is no room for us to be complacent," she said.

Continue reading the main story 10 May: 2012 Paralympic Games ticket prices revealed23-28 May: Paralympic World Cup, Manchester1-8 July: World Sailing Championships, Weymouth3-10 July: IPC European Swimming Championships, Berlin10-17 July: World Archery Championships, Italy14-19 July: World Wheelchair Fencing Championships, Sheffield19-24 July: British Open tennis, Nottingham18 Aug: World Cup Boccia, Belfast28 Aug-4 Sept: World Rowing Championships, Slovenia1-5 Sept: Para-equestrian Dressage European Championships, Belgium5-12 Sept: Para-cycling road World Championships, Denmark6-18 Sept: European Wheelchair Basketball championships, Israel8 Sept: International Paralympic Day, Trafalgar Square9 Sept: 2012 Paralympic Games tickets go on sale19-30 Oct: European Table Tennis Championships, Croatia17-20 Nov: European VI Judo Championships, Crawley

"2012 is undoubtedly the biggest event we have ever prepared for, so we have taken all the work that we have done in previous Games and expanded on it to ensure that we can say on 29 August 2012 that our team is physically, psychologically, technically and tactically ready.

"We all know that this is a one-off opportunity to put Paralympic sport on the map in Britain."

The Games will be staged in many of the Olympic venues, including the Olympic Stadium (athletics), Aquatics Centre (swimming) and Velodrome (cycling), as well as the likes of Eton Dorney (rowing), Weymouth (sailing) and Greenwich Park (equestrian para-dressage).

The Olympic Park will also stage the five-a-side and seven-a-side football at the Olympic hockey centre and goalball at the Olympic handball arena, as well as wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball at the Olympic basketball arena, although some basketball will also be held at the North Greenwich Arena.

The ExCel exhibition centre in the Docklands will host boccia, judo, sitting volleyball, wheelchair fencing, table tennis and powerlifting.

The wheelchair tennis events will be staged at Eton Manor while the archery and shooting will both be held at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich.

The London 2012 Organising Committee (Locog) will announce the ticket prices for the Games on 10 May with tickets going on sale on 9 September until 30 September.

Organisers say that in London there will be around two million tickets available to buy and so far more than 750,000 people have signed up for tickets - the most ever 500 days out from the start of the Games.

In Beijing, a total of 1.82m tickets were sold with a further 1.62m tickets provided to children, education and community groups.

Since finishing second in Beijing, Britain's Paralympic athletes have not been allowed to rest on their laurels and despite the recent departure of chief executive Phil Lane, they have continued to amass top-level success.

UK Sport had set a target of 34-52 medals for GB teams at 2011 World Championships.

However, that target has already been beaten with the athletics team winning 38 medals (their target was 15-25) at their World Championships in New Zealand in January.

The track cycling team, who were among the star performers in Beijing in 2008, were set a target of 10-16 medals from their World Championships in Italy last month and improved on that with 18 medals, including nine golds.

They have another chance to add to their medal haul in September's Road World Championships, which will be another key event as they bid to earn qualifying places for next year's Games.

Still to come this summer, the archery team, including Paralympic and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Danielle Brown, will be hoping for medals at their World Championships in Italy.

Paralympic single sculls rowing champion Tom Aggar will be bidding to retain his World Championship title in Slovenia while the sailing squad face a busy period with two competitions over the 2012 course in Weymouth - the Sail for Gold regatta for Olympic and Paralympic classes, as well as their own Paralympic World Championships.

Eleven-time Paralympic gold medallist Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson told the BBC that she has high hopes for the London Games.

"Back when I started competing the word Paralympic wasn't used that much and my first Games in Seoul in 1988 there was very little media coverage," she said.

"But since then, each Games has seen the Paralympic movement advance and this time, athletes have the most amazing opportunities in terms of media profile, access to sponsorship and the chance to become a household name.

"For the guys who are aiming for 2012 they can almost feel it - they know almost how many training sessions are left and what they need to be doing and it is getting exciting.

"I believe London will be the best Paralympics we've ever seen but we also have to use the legacy of the Games to encourage more young disabled people to get involved in sport at all levels."

International Paralympic Committee president Sir Philip Craven, who represented GB at five Games from 1972-88, believes his home nation will stage a Games to remember.

"I always thought that the 2008 Beijing Paralympics would take some beating as they really did set the benchmark for future Games," he said.

"However, Locog has so far done a tremendous job going about things. On current form it would not surprise me if in just over 500 days' time at the closing ceremony of the Games I have to eat my words and say the same things about London as I did about Beijing four years ago.

"One thing that I think is an absolute certainty for next year is that the performance levels of athletes will once again be significantly raised.

"I think those who have never seen a Paralympic Games before will be surprised and taken aback at the sheer quality of performances from the athletes."

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Purvis wins World Cup gold medal

Scotland's Dan Purvis delighted the home fans with a gold medal performance at the Gymnastics World Cup event in Glasgow's Kelvin Hall.

The 20-year-old beat Germany's recently crowned European champion Phillip Boy into second place, with Spain's Rafael Martinez third,

"It was a bit of a shock to be honest," said Purvis, who trains in Southport.

"Coming back from the Europeans I just wanted to have fun but I managed some clean routines and came first."

But he added that he would not be resting on his laurels. "It'll be straight back to training on Monday," he continued.

"I've still got quite a few competitions coming up so my aim is to just keep fit and at the same time continue to compete well."

Gold in the women's competition went to Romanian teenager Amelia Racea, ahead of Venezuela's Jessica Lopez and another Romanian, Raluca Haidu.

Britain's Hannah Whelan had a mixed event but produced a strong final floor routine to finish fifth.

Gymnastics' international governing body introduced the revised World Cup format to showcase the world's top gymnasts in six events.

The Glasgow leg of the competition was one of four in which gymnasts will compete on every piece of apparatus - six for men, four for women - with one overall winner.

There are two other World Cup legs featuring individual apparatus finals only.

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