KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Asian soccer chief Mohamed Bin Hammam signed a $1 billion dollar rights deal with World Sports Group on Tuesday.

The deal, which dwarfs the total revenue earned by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) between 1992 and 2008, gives Singapore-based sports marketing, event management and media group WSG rights to AFC events up until 2020.

“What has been achieved for this contract is quite tremendous,” Bin Hammam told a select group of reporters in the Malaysian capital after the signing.

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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – English soccer’s huge international appeal is not down to marketing or smart business techniques but rather the quality of the game, according to former club chief Peter Kenyon.

Kenyon, former Chelsea and Manchester United chief executive, stressed to Asian soccer administrators at meetings in Malaysia that the quality of the sport will always be the key driver in growing support and appeal.

“One thing I would say is that quality is what the name of the game is,” Kenyon said.

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SYDNEY (Reuters) – The OneAsia Tour has appointed Singapore-based World Sport Group (WSG) to be its global marketing partner.

The fledgling Asia Pacific golf tour, which is expanding to 11 events next season from five this year and hopes to grow to 20 in 2011, said in a statement on Thursday the relationship was on a multi-year, multi-million dollar basis.

Formed by the PGA of Australia, China Golf Association, Korea Golf Tour and the Korea Golf Association earlier this year, the OneAsia Tour would one day become of a similar stature to the U.S. and European tours, WSG Chief Executive Seamus O’Brien said

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MALAYSIA – Total Sports Asia (TSA), has brokered an arrangement between Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs and Swiss luxury watch brand CYMA. In this arrangement initiated by Bates 141 (Hong Kong) and the CYMA brand, Mr. Giggs will endorse CYMA watches through a campaign created and executed by Bates across its key Asian markets into 2010. The deal covers the territories of Greater China, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

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HOUSTON (Reuters) – The 2010 LPGA Tour will consist of 24 tournaments, four fewer than this year, in 10 countries.

The season tees off in Thailand from Feb. 18-21 and stays in Asia a week later with an event in Singapore.

“We have made great strides in our long-term goal of building an intelligent and sustainable schedule for the LPGA Tour,” acting commissioner Marty Evans told a news conference on Wednesday at the season-ending LPGA Tour Championship.

“We look forward to a wonderful season finale this week and a bright future for the LPGA Tour in 2010 and beyond.”

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The GAC Group has signed a new agreement with ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) to extend its broadcast sponsorship of the world’s most popular domestic Cup competition, the FA Cup, for the next two seasons until 2011.

Commanding a viewership of some 47 million across Asia, the FA Cup is one of ESS’ premier football properties and is also delivered to audiences exclusively across ESS’ digital media platforms.

Ardent supporter
GAC Group Corporate Communications Director, Esther Oon-Bybjerg, says this contract renewal for further two seasons was primarily due to the successes that GAC gained from its earlier partnership with ESS.

“GAC is an ardent supporter of sports sponsorship and the English FA Cup is an excellent fit with GAC’s brand values. The soccer teams exude the qualities of teamwork, dexterity and professionalism, the same qualities that our GAC team gives to its customers across the range of services that we provide,” she adds. “We intend to maximise this new tie-up with ESS on the FA Cup broadcasts to further reinforce the GAC brand visibility and recognition across the Asian markets.”

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Guangzhou- Indian Olympic Chief Suresh Kalmadi was reelected unopposed for the third consecutive term in Guangzhou, dureing the Asian Athletic Association’s 18th general body meeting.

Mr. Kalmadi was first elected in 2000 at Jakarta since then he has introduced many development projects in Asian Athletics including Asian All Star meet, Asian Indoor Championship and Asian Grand Prix series.

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SINGAPORE – World Sport Group (WSG), the exclusive marketing and media partner of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), announced today that this year’s broadcast of the AFC Champions League (ACL) final will feature enhanced data graphics developed and implemented via STATS’ SportVU player tracking technology.

STATS is the official AFC Data Partner and a leading global provider of sports information. Its SportVU system is a player tracking device that utilizes sophisticated technology to collect X, Y positioning data of the ball and participants (players and referees) within the playing field in real time. All aspects of the data collection process are completely non-intrusive to game action.

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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – The balance of power in golf is shifting to Asia and Chinese players will one day dominate the top rankings, according to Jack Nicklaus.

While the United States has been hit hard by the global economic downturn, Asia has recovered more quickly and Florida-based Nicklaus, who has won a record 18 major titles, does just 0.3 percent of his work in his home country.

“The recession has not been as severe here as it has been in the States, 90 percent of my work, golf course design work now, is here in Asia,” Nicklaus, whose company has designed almost 350 courses worldwide, told Reuters in an interview.

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SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asia’s big appetite for soccer offers European clubs a fabulous opportunity for commercial growth but so far they have only flirted with the region’s one billion fans, said the head of consulting firm Football Asia.

While leading English clubs such as Manchester United and Liverpool had long viewed Asia as a goldmine, their efforts to tap that market barely scratched the surface of the potential revenue on offer, CEO Jon Collins said in an interview.

“For a long time European clubs have been looking at Asia and flirting with it. They see it as the Holy Grail, all these fans out here,” he added.

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