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2013 Year In Review

Year In Review: Qatar's 2022 World Cup Saga, Tokyo's 2020 Olympic Bid Top Asian Headlines

The SBD Global staff compiled the top sports business stories for '13 by region to be published in the final four Global editions of the year. Here are the top stories from Asia and Australia.

TOKYO LANDS 2020 GAMES: In the run-up to the 2020 Olympics bid vote, Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul marketed their unique strengths to the IOC and the world. Tokyo promoted its strong financial backing and government support, Madrid showcased its existing infrastructure and Istanbul leveraged its unique position as a bridge between Europe and Asia. Despite concerns over radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant as a result of the '11 tsunami, Tokyo, which hosted the '64 Olympics, won the right to host a second time.

HOT AND COLD WORLD CUP: Moving the 2022 Qatar World Cup to winter became a hot topic after concerns were raised regarding the country’s soaring summer heat. Talk of a date change for the world’s largest sporting event brought negative reactions from both the English Premier League, which feared a conflict with its season, and U.S. broadcaster Fox, which had paid $1B to air the World Cup during the summers of '18 and '22. In November, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said that the event would be moved to November-December to avoid any overlap with the 2022 Winter Olympics in February.

IPL SPOT-FIXING: A spot-fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League saw Board of Control for Cricket in India President N. Srinivasan temporarily step down after his son-in-law, Chennai Super Kings Owner Gurunath Meiyappan, became a person of interest in the case. After Meiyappan was cleared due to a lack of evidence, Srinivasan resumed his duties as BCCI president. The scandal resulted in Rajasthan Royals players S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan receiving life bans for their involvement.

INDIA'S OLYMPIC SAGA: The Indian Olympic Association amended its constitution in an attempt to end a year-long ban from the IOC over its elections of tainted officials. While the IOA’s new constitution bars charge-sheeted individuals from being elected, the IOC asked for clarification on a new provision that allows the IOA to refer matters to its internal Ethics Commission before the ban could be lifted.

AUSTRALIAN DOPING SCANDAL: At the beginning of the year, Australian Football League club Essendon and National Rugby League side Cronulla were both implicated in the Australian Crime Commission’s report involving players’ use of illegal peptides. The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority’s ongoing investigation resulted in the resignation of both Essendon and Cronulla execs. Essendon was fined A$2M for its involvement in the scandal, with Cronulla reportedly paying its A$1M fine in installments of A$200,000 over a 5-year period.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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