BBC boss sent back to school

Updated: 19:01 EST, 7 October 2010

Dominic Coles, the BBC’s overlord of sports rights, has been sent on a Harvard University business management course costing more than £38,000 of licence payers’ money at a time of huge cuts across the organisation.

The two months Coles is spending in Boston on the Advanced Management Programme has coincided with the BBC losing the rights for the World Athletics Championships and failing to bid for the Ashes cricket highlights this winter.

It is understood that the BBC regularly send an executive on the expensive fast-track MBA-style Harvard course. But the timing of Coles’ trip when so many of his BBC colleagues face moving to Salford or losing their jobs, is inopportune, especially with the recent loss of an important athletics rights contract to Channel Four.

A BBC spokesperson said: ‘The development and training of staff is important at all levels. Dominic is doing the course in his capacity as chief operating officer for journalism. He only has a strategic overview of sports rights.’

The 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding battle turned nasty at the Leaders in Football conference with two senior FIFA ExCo members making explosive allegations.

Korea’s Mong Joon-Chung, who indicated he may challenge Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency next year, accused the United States in all but name of destabilising the Asian bid for 2022 by planting a story that China might challenge for the 2026 World Cup. He said: ‘This definitely deserves a yellow card or maybe a red.’ The Americans called Chung’s remarks: ‘Out of line and outrageous.’

Qatar’s Mohamed Bin Hammam said the best bids might not win the World Cup vote due to the lack of clear judging criteria and the different approach to marketing, effectively suggesting it will not be a level playing field in Zurich on December 2. Bin Hammam also gave the impression he would trade votes, which is against FIFA rules.

Brighton boss Gus Poyet was bemoaning that he has to get wet on the touchline whenever it rains because no manager can use an umbrella after the England experience of Steve ‘Wally with the Brolly’ McClaren. Poyet was joined on the panel at the Leaders in Football conference by current players Danny Murphy and Phil Neville - so refreshing considering how many suits dominate the sports conference season.

Holland and Belgium’s joint bid for the 2018 World Cup will not have been helped by Belgium FIFA ExCo member Michel D’Hooghe’s condemnation of his partner country’s savage World Cup final approach, saying tougher sanctions are needed to punish ‘criminal and brutal’ challenges. His campaign for fair play is backed up by his compilation video of 30 X-rated tackles.

Meanwhile, Manchester City’s chief executive Garry Cook was praising the club’s Dutch hatchet man Nigel de Jong, responsible for the career-threatening horror tackle on Newcastle’s Hatem Ben Arfa, for the regular unseen work he does for City’s community initiatives. Well that’s all right then.

THE Football League have gone on the front foot against the Premier League with an aggressive advertising campaign for this weekend’s fixtures. League One and League Two have the stage to themselves and the Football League have adopted the slogan: ‘It’s football to be proud of’ as opposed to the divas and excesses in the Premier League.

Blue is not the colour

Chelsea’s plan in 2005, as delivered by Peter Kenyon, was to paint the world blue. The success of that grand ambition can be gauged by a comment made by Ines van Gennip, head of marketing for Chelsea’s shirt sponsors Samsung. She said Chelsea remain unknown outside the UK.

Ian Ayre’s position as commercial director at Liverpool under the new Boston Red Sox regime might be complicated by his role in bringing a rival bidder from Singapore to the table at the last moment. Ayre had previously been in the Tom Hicks camp that undermined former Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry.