FERNANDO GARRIDO will be the new director of communications for La Liga side Sporting Gijón. Garrido replaces MANFREDO ÁLVAREZ (AS, 7/13). ... Discovery announced that LUIGI FILIPPO ECUBA joined as senior director of sport, and will report directly to Senior VP & COO Southern Europe ALESSANDRO ARAIMO. The appointment of Ecuba, who will be based at the Southern Europe Region HQ in Milan, is effective immediately. He will lead the sports strategy in Italy, Spain and Portugal. Ecuba is a journalist and manager with over 20 years' experience in TV. During the past four years he has been director of content proposition -- focusing on sport -- at Sky Deutschland's marketing and product strategy division. In the new sports department, LUCA CORSOLINI has been appointed as Olympic senior consultant for Italy. Corsolini worked for over 10 years at Sky Italia as journalist and Olympic content coordinator (Discovery). ... Minute Media, parent company of 90min and 12up, announced the appointment of MARK MCFARLANE as GM, Asia Pacific. McFarlane will be responsible for growing the company's publisher relationships, engagements with brands and agencies and broader business development and strategy throughout APAC. With McFarlane's appointment, Minute Media has also opened a Singapore office, in addition to its existing office in Manila. Prior to joining Minute Media, he held positions as partnerships & sales VP for Fox Sports and Eurosport commercial director. He started his career in sports with SOCOG during the 2000 Sydney Games (Minute Media). ... Media and entertainment professional ROGER BECK has been tapped to strengthen media solutions firm Elements' U.S. presence. Based in L.A., Beck will support Elements' reseller channel in the Americas by providing advice and specialized consultation to clients (Elements).
COACHES/MANAGERS: Ligue 2 side Tours announced that “FABIEN MERCADAL was named manager of the club.” Mercadal was manager of third-tier French National side Dunkerque “for the past three seasons.” Tours has been without a coach “since the departure of MARCO SIMONE” (L’ÉQUIPE, 7/13). ... Former Scottish Premiership side Celtic coach RONNY DEILA "has been named the new manager" of Norwegian Tippeligaen side Valerenga. The Norwegian coach "will return to take charge" of the club in January. Deila won two Scottish Premiership titles and the League Cup "during his time in Glasgow before being replaced by BRENDAN RODGERS this summer" (STV, 7/13).
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