Singapore - The Asian Tour will welcome its newest Tour partner after an agreement with the Pan Pacific Hotels Group was sealed for its Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts brand to become the Official Hotel of the Asian Tour.

Pan Pacific Hotels Group owns and/or manages over 30 hotels, resorts and serviced suites with over 10,000 rooms in Asia and North America including those under development under the two Pan Pacific® and PARKROYAL® brands.

This partnership, which takes place with immediate effect, will see staff and officials from the Asian Tour as well as region’s top golfers hosted at Pan Pacific and PARKROYAL hotels and resorts across Asia.

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Soccerex is delighted to confirm that the Russia 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup Bid Committee has signed up to sponsor the networking cafe at both the Soccerex Asian Forum (28-29 July, Singapore) and the Soccerex Global Convention (20-24 November, Rio de Janeiro).

The Russian Bid Committee sponsored the cafe at each of the last two Soccerex events – the 2009 Global Convention and the inaugural Soccerex European Forum – and has chosen to extend their sponsorship to cover the remaining Soccerex events in 2010, in the build up to FIFA’s decision in December, regarding the location of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.

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BEIJING (PRNewswire-Asia) – Youku.com, China’s leading video site, announced that FIFA and CCTV have jointly authorized Youku.com with online broadcast rights to all FIFA 2010 matches. CCTV has also granted rights to Youku.com for on-demand broadcast of CCTV’s self-produced FIFA programs. With these agreements in hand, Youku now is positioned to offer the most complete range of World Cup broadcasts of any online video site in China.

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BEIJING (Reuters) – The Asian Tour is still keen to work with Chinese golf despite being dumped in favour of the new OneAsia Tour by the Chinese Golf Association (CGA) last year, according to tour chief Kyi Hla Han.

The CGA became a founder member of the controversial OneAsia before last season, breaking a long association with the Asian Tour, which fiercely opposes the new Asia-Pacific series. “We will continue to engage the CGA in dialogue. It cannot be denied China golf has benefited from the Asian Tour over the past few years,” Han told Friday’s China Daily.

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DOHA – AFC has appointed Qatar’s reputable television channel Al Kass and Al Dawri as the Host Broadcasters the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011.

Al Kass, who specialise in high-quality sports coverage in the West Asian region, will deliver host broadcast services for the continental showcase of football next year from January 7-29 for all the 32 matches.

For the first time in the AFC Asian Cup’s history, all the matches will be telecast in High Definition (HD), which reflects hosts Qatar’s aim to provide state-of-the-art facilities for the competition.

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Asia is rising as a force in world sport with new leagues, competitions and athletes emerging. But just who is the region’s most potent sports marketing force? John Davidson finds out.

Last month Bloomberg and BusinessWeek unveiled its annual ranking of the 100 most powerful athletes in sport. This list covers the earning potential for athletes both and on and off the field. Topping the 2010 rankings was unsurprisingly Tiger Woods, and the top 100 featured a lot of the usual suspects. Coming second was NBA star LeBron James, followed by golfer Phil Mickelson, baseballer Albert Pujols and American football star Peyton Manning. Other names that achieved a high spot in the US-centric rankings were Dwayne Wade, Michael Phelps, Shaquille O’Neal and Lance Armstrong, with David Beckham finishing 35^th.

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Kuala Lumpur – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) today named international direct selling company, QuestNet as Official Direct Selling Supporter of the AFC Champions League, the region’s top club competition.

“It gives me great pleasure to welcome QuestNet™ as a new partner of the AFC Champions League and into the fold of the Asian football family,” said AFC President, Mohamed bin Hammam.

“These are exciting times for club football as we continue to raise the level of professionalism within our game here in Asia. With the 2009 season setting records for both attendances and viewers, we are glad to have a partner like QuestNet™, who will further engage the football fans in this competition.”

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VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Investment in Asian skating a decade ago has paid off with more sponsorship and the rise of Olympic favourites like Kim Yuna, International Skating Union (ISU) president Ottavio Cinquanta told Reuters.

South Korea’s Kim and Japanese duo Miki Ando and Mao Asada are among the favourites for the women’s figure skating medals at the Vancouver Games, while Asians won seven of the eight golds in short track speedskating at the 2006 Turin Olympics.

Cinquanta said it was his idea to hold more top-level competitions in Asia and the result was that the continent’s skaters had raised their game.

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KUALA LUMPUR – Total Sports Asia (TSA), has entered into a partnership with the Euro Hockey League (EHL), to provide a new viewing platform for hockey fans in Asia through its sports broadband channel Total Sports TV

The exciting new collaboration will see Total Sports TV offering highlights of the remainder of the EHL season 2009/2010 matches also with an option for fans in Asia to view the matches live

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SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The Asian Tour’s 2010 schedule will offer some $40 million in prize money and feature at least five new events, as well as a new secondary circuit for emerging talent, the golf tour announced on Tuesday.

Executive Chairman Kyi Hla Han said in a statement the tour would launch new events in India and Malaysia and was finalising tournaments in Taiwan and Vietnam, underlining its regional appeal.

The total prize fund was expected to increase to $45 million from 2012, he added.

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