MADRID (Reuters) – Madrid will focus on trying to help Spain’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup soccer finals after failing to win the vote for the 2016 Summer Olympics, mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon said on Saturday.

Madrid lost out to Rio de Janeiro in Friday’s final Olympic vote in Copenhagen but Spain is also bidding to stage the 2018 World Cup together with neighbours Portugal.

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MILAN (Reuters) – Italy is ready to bid for the 2020 Olympic Games after Madrid lost out to Rio de Janeiro in the race to host the 2016 edition, the Italian Olympic Committee said on Friday.

The Venice mayor immediately put his city’s name forward while Rome officials are also interested in a bid.

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COPENHAGEN – The International Olympic Committee members announced today the winner of the 2016 Olympic  Games. Rio de Janeiro were selected to host the 2016 Olympics after winning 66 votes to 32 for Madrid in the final round of voting.

Following are results of the ballots for the 2016 Olympic bid as published bynternational Olympic Committee.

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COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Tokyo were eliminated after the second round of voting for the 2016 Olympics host city.

Rio de Janeiro and Madrid go through to a final round of voting, after Chicago were eliminated in the first round, despite the unprecedented support given to the bid by President Barack Obama and the first lady.

Chicago had been considered the odds-on favourite to win the right to stage the 2016 Games, after Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to address an International Olympic Committee (IOC) session, yet his appearance was to no avail as the first round produced a shock result.

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Copenhagen, Denmark – The Chair and CEO of Tokyo 2016 today pledged that the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games at the heart of Japan’s capital will be the most athlete-focused ever staged.

Speaking in Copenhagen before appearing at a media briefing alongside a strong team of Olympians and Paralympians who support Tokyo 2016, Dr. Ichiro Kono said:

“Athletes are the most important part of the Tokyo 2016 Games. Our goal is to return the Games to athletes. We will give them the most compact and convenient stage ever, so they can concentrate on reaching their peak.”

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PSV plans to extend the Philips Stadium to a capacity of 45,000 spectators. The stadium’s current capacity is 35,000.

PSV’s management still has doubts about whether to extend the current stadium or to build a completely new one. “From an emotional perspective, we want to stay in the town. It’s only a ten-minute walk to the town centre. The ideal would be to celebrate our centenary in 2013 on this site”, commercial director Marcel van den Bunder told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.

“But if research shows that a stadium on the edge of the town offers economic and commercial benefits, we will have to consider it. We don’t want a 60 thousand-seater stadium that isn’t full every game. In terms of image and experience, it is better to have a full house at every game. All our home games in the Eredivisie are sold out”, concludes Van den Bunder.

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MILAN (Reuters) – Twelve cities will hold matches at Euro 2016 if Italy wins the right to host the expanded competition, the Italian soccer federation said.

Bari, Bologna, Cagliari, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Rome, Turin, Udine and Verona would all be used for the 2016 edition, which will be the first to include 24 teams.

Italy, which lost out on Euro 2012 to Poland and Ukraine, has several ageing stadiums but new grounds for Juventus in Turin and AS Roma in Rome are among those in the pipeline.

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COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Hosting the 2016 Olympics only two years after the soccer World Cup is held in Brazil will boost competitiveness among potential sponsors, the head of marketing for Rio de Janeiro’s Games bid said.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which will select the winning bid for the 2016 Olympics on Friday in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, has repeatedly expressed concerns the 2014 World Cup could cut into Rio’s sponsorship efforts.

The IOC also noted its sponsorship worries regarding Rio in their evaluation report published earlier this month.

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico, which has twice staged the World Cup, has withdrawn bids to hold the 2018 or 2022 tournaments, a senior Mexican Football Federation (Femexfut) official said.

“The decision is based on two factors, the world economic situation and the investment needs in (our own) infrastructure and (that of) third parties,” Femexfut general secretary Decio de Maria said.

The withdrawal of Mexico, which staged the World Cup in 1970 and 1986, left Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands, England, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Spain and Portugal, Qatar, Russia and the United States as candidates for the tournaments.

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Copenhagen, Denmark – Tokyo 2016 today promised to deliver ‘an unprecedented global legacy for humankind’ on behalf of the Olympic Movement, if it is awarded the right to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the heart of Japan’s dynamic capital city.

Speaking in Copenhagen, where the International Olympic Committee selects the Host City for the 2016 Games on 2 October 2009, Tokyo 2016 Chair and CEO, Dr. Ichiro Kono, said:

“Tokyo 2016’s 100-year legacy promise is one of the most important offers an Olympic bid has made to the world. By awarding Tokyo the 2016 Continue Reading