In Portland, Allan Brettman cites a Xinhua news service report as indicating that Nike China Marketing Dir LI TONG "gave a nearly $30,000 bribe to a Chinese soccer official for helping Nike win a title sponsorship with the Chinese Super League." Court documents indicate that the bribe is "one of several that former Chinese Football Association (CFA) chief XIE YALONG has taken." The news agency reported that Xie has been "charged with taking over 1.7 million yuan (approximately $273,000) in bribes as a northeastern Chinese court opened the second round of trials on soccer corruption Tuesday" (Portland OREGONIAN, 4/25).
BURNING QUESTION: BLOOMBERG NEWS' Beth Jinks noted the first live question IBM CEO VIRGINIA ROMETTY faced at yesterday’s shareholder meeting was if Augusta National "had admitted her as a member." A shareholder asked at the meeting, "I’m certainly very happy about our CEO and [would] be anxious to know if she’s a member of Augusta? No response is required." Rometty "didn’t answer while the room was filled with laughter." IBM Chair SAM PALMISANO said, "We were all curious as to when that would come up. But thank you again. Can I have another question please?" (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 4/24).
TABLE FOR 100: Time magazine last night held its annual celebration for its "100 Most Influential People" of the year. Patriots head coach BILL BELICHICK attended, while SI Group Editor TERRY MCDONELL sat with NFL Giants WR VICTOR CRUZ and U.S. Secretary of State HILLARY CLINTON sat with Knicks G JEREMY LIN (N.Y. POST, 4/25).
LIFE IMITATES ART: CBS golf analyst GARY MCCORD appeared on Monday's episode of Golf Channel’s “FEHERTY,” and host David Feherty said “not a lot of people know this,” but the film “TIN CUP” was "based basically on your life.” McCord said his agent sent him the script, and as he read it, he said, “I’m going, ‘Wait a minute. I did this, I did this, I did this.’" Feherty noted McCord and fellow CBS analyst PETER KOSTIS taught actor KEVIN COSTNER “how to play” golf for his lead role in the film. McCord: “We just kind of got him to where he looked like he could play” ("Feherty," Golf Channel, 4/23).
NAMES: MULTICHANNEL NEWS released its "40 Under Forty" list of business execs. The list includes CBS Sports Exec VP & Network President DAVID BERSON, ESPNU and ESPNHS VP ROSALYN DURANT and ESPN Films Exec Producer CONNOR SCHELL (MULTICHANNEL.com, 4/23)....Former NFLer JEAN FUGETT JR. has created the Fugett Sports Group in order to acquire various sports properties, including teams. Fugett said that he is "in the process of recruiting investors and performing 'due diligence for a number of teams' he declined to identify" (BALTIMORE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 4/20 issue)....NFL Cardinals DE CALAIS CAMPBELL announced yesterday that he has signed with advertising and PR firm Centurion Strategies (Centurion)....NFL Network analyst DEION SANDERS has been charged with misdemeanor simple assault and his estranged wife, PILAR, was also arrested following an altercation at their Dallas home (AP, 4/24)....Former NFLer and MLBer BO JACKSON, former MLBer KEN GRIFFEY JR. and Basketball HOFer SCOTTIE PIPPEN have begun their five-day, 300-mile ride across Alabama to raise money for tornado relief in the state. Cyclist LANCE ARMSTRONG and former U.S. skier PICABO STREET will also participate (ESPN.com, 4/24)....The Kentucky Derby Festival announced that Univ. of Kentucky men's basketball coach JOHN CALIPARI and his coaching staff will serve as honorary grand marshals of the 57th annual Republic Bank Derby Festival Pegasus Parade on May 3 (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 4/25)....Dodgers co-Owner STAN KASTEN sat next to Dodgers Special Assistant TOMMY LASORDA during last night's Braves-Dodgers game (Long Beach PRESS-TELEGRAM, 4/25).
