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Armstrong Vas Doha:  Social Media as a means of communication has proved to be an effective catalyst for change in many Arab countries this year. A new generation of techno-savvy Arab youth is keen to harness the immense potential of Social Media and integrate it into various fields, including sports. Meet Fadi Khater, a young man with plenty of ideas. Khater designed www.netizency.com which began operations this year. Khater’s aim is to help Qatar create a pool of passionate sports fans and promote the local sports events to the world utilising social channels. Netizency is a Qatari Company specializing in social brand building and is participating in the ongoing four-day Aspire4Sport 2011 business and sports exhibition. Powerful, does not begin to describe the impact Social Media has made on our world. Even in its relative infancy, it has already proved itself to be an effective tool in sports to boost fan interaction, forge connections between teams and leagues and their fans, ...

Former world number one goes vegetarian to fight autoimmune disease; dreams to get top spot in rankings BY ARMSTRONG VAS DOHA:  Former world number one Venus Williams has gone vegetarian as she bids for wins in 2012 season. The 31-year-old also said she has no immediate plans of retiring from the sport that has made her a household name in the world of tennis. The seven-time Grand Slam champion has changed her diet as she bids to ward off the autoimmune disease called Sjogren’s Syndromem a condition that causes fatigue and joint pain. The older of Williams’s sister was forced to pull out of her scheduled second-round match against rising German Sabine Lisicki at this year’s US Open on account of the autoimmune disease. “I changed my diet completely, so lots of vegetables. I am confident of lasting the full schedule, I am working to get back to shape. I am not stranger to sacrifice. The last few months have been hard on my health, but I have made drastic changes in my life style, I...

BY ARMSTRONG VAS Doha:  Brazil’s football great three-time FIFA Player of the Year award winner Ronaldo is not interested in a coaching role with any football club in the near future, including that of his former club Spanish giants Read Madrid. “Although I enjoy good relations with the president of Real Madrid I have no plans to be the director of the club or to be the manager or coach of the club,” the 35-year-old said yesterday. Ronaldo is in Doha promote the “Showball Tournament” which is to be held in April 2012. He did not spell out his future plans while speaking at Katara, The Cultural Village Foundation yesterday. The ace striker from Brazil played five seasons at Real Madrid during which he scored 83 goals in 127 matches. In a club career spanning 18 years, he also turned out for Inter-Milan and AC Milan. The Brazilian, who started his club career at Cruzeiro in 1993-94 season retired with Corinthians this year, after a string of serious injuries which troubled him throu...

Table Tennis Brings Nations Together - Ping Pong Diplomacy 2.0 Ten National Associations will participate in the Qatar Peace and Sport Cup - China, France, Japan, India, Korea, DPR Korea, USA, Russia, Pakistan, Qatar – to be staged on Tuesday 22nd November 2011 at the Qatar Sports Club in Doha. The tournament will be preceded by an Opening Ceremony at the Doha Ritz Carleton Hotel on Monday 21st November. Adham Sharara, ITTF President said: "This event may mark a new era for Ping Pong diplomacy, or in today's lingo 'Ping Pong Diplomacy version 2.0'. It has always been my dream that our sport is used in peace initiatives bringing together representatives from different countries and have them play 'together' side by side in an atmosphere of peace and understanding.   "I am very happy that all the participating countries have put peace and sport ahead of any political differences. This is the right way forward and we are witnessing history and a new e...

The First Peace and Sport Table Tennis Cup Set to Make History Table Tennis players from North Korea and South Korea, Pakistan and India will compete in mixed pairs in Doha, Qatar on 21 and 22 November. MONACO, 15 November 2011  – 40 years after “Ping-Pong Diplomacy” helped to restore diplomatic relations between USA and China during the Cold War, Table Tennis is about to make history again by uniting North Korea and South Korea, India and Pakistan through sport! Today, “Peace and Sport, l’Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport” proudly approved the provisional doubles pairings draws made by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) for the " Peace and Sport Table Tennis Cup ", a historic table tennis tournament conceived to encourage dialogue and reconciliation between nations, which will be held in Qatar on 21 - 22 November 2011. Provisional pairings for the 10 participating nations are as follows: 1. PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA  (China)   paired with ...

Fans relish their time with Brazilian team in Doha Brazil team visit Aspire4Sport exhibition Doha: There is no Kaka, nor Ronaldinho or Robinho, in the Brazilian squad which is in Doha to play Egypt in a friendly football match at Al Rayyan Stadium today at 8.00pm but that did not stop the football crazy fans in chasing the lesser known football stars among the team yesterday at Aspire Dome. The three have not been able to make it to Doha for different reasons. It is not always that you get a chance to meet your favourite football stars exchange greetings, pose for pictures and shake a hand or two, and football fans in Doha soaked in their moments of ecstasy. At Aspire Dome it was dream come true for many a fans who had the privilege to come closer to the Brazilian football team players.   The Selacao spend around twenty minutes at the venue of the four-day Aspire4Sport business conference and exhibition which is taking place at Aspire and which will end tomorrow. Officials of the ...

DOHA: Qatar’s World Cup operation will be as cool as promised: all those companies sent into commercial confusion by comments made on world football’s doorstep in Zurich this past week can relax writes KEIR RADNEDGE. Dan Meis, senior principal from one of the 2022 planning partners, had no hesitation in putting the record straight  during a design and architecture forum at Aspire4Sport in Doha. Qatar’s 2022 bid success had proved controversial enough last December for all the positive messages about bringing the World Cup to the Middle East for the first time, about its compact concept and the key promise of air-cooled stadia to combat the fierce summer heat. A stir was then raised at a conference in Zurich when John Barrow of architect Populous criticised stadium air-cooling because “it costs a fortune and is notoriously unsustainable in large volume.” Meis, also from Populous and on the ground in Qatar, could not have seen the issue from a more contrasting extreme. He said: “It ...

DOHA: Fan fests will become almost as big an international as the World Cup itself as the network of venues spreads beyond the host country to 20 or 30 of the biggest cities on earth. That prospect for a brave new world was held out at a forum on safety and security in Doha by Chris Eaton, Australian head of security for world federation FIFA. Eaton also raised a vision of biometric technology for ticketing security being operative by the time the World Cup finals come to Qatar in the Gulf by 2020. That would be bad news for ticket touts and for any FIFA insiders who – as some in the past – want to make some easy money on the side. On the likely fan fest explosion, Eaton told the Aspire4Sport conference: “Fan parks have become the second most important feature of the World Cup. They are now international and by 2022 there will be at least 20 international fans parks in iconic cities such as London, Paris, Rome, New York and so on.” But he warned: “In terms of security the fan par...

DOHA: Venus Williams believes women’s tennis can look to the east for a powerfully promising future  writes KEIR RADNEDGE. Williams had been asked about how her game stood up by comparison with men’s tennis with its domination by Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer. She said: “There are some great champions in men’s tennis but this year women’s tennis has shown there are some great stars. In China we have some great players coming through and a booming economy as well so we’ll see more young Chinese hopefuls come up. That shows the growth of diversity in women’s tennis.” Williams, 31, reviewing her career at Aspire4Sport, said one of her most memorable victories had been the first of her five at Wimbledon, described sister Serena as her most challenging opponent and said that she had no thoughts of retirement. “There is no better thing than to live your dream and that’s what I do on the court every day,” she said, “so I’m planning on going right back to where I was at the...

Doha : Any country which wants to host the World Cup needs to understand the sharp reality of what a partnership with FIFA means. That was the message just handed to Qatar 2022 and which might be useful – even at less than three years out – for Brazil 2014. Brazilian politicians, even so late in the day, are still trying to talk the legal preparations to a standstill. But such resistance to FIFA’s command of its own event is to misunderstand the relationship between the state and the world football federation. Chris Eaton, FIFA’s Australian head of security, set out the parameters during a forum at the Aspire4Sport conference in Doha. He said: “Thee months before a World Cup FIFA descends in earnest and your country is held hostage by FIFA for five months . . . but it’s your choice to host a World Cup and that is what comes with the hosting.” Eaton also noted that the demands of a World Cup often come as a surprise to host nations and it was essential for a country to make as much use...

– The physical fitness trainer for Brazil’s volleyball teams at the 1988 Olympics says the country will be ready for the 2014 World Cup and that Sepp Blatter and Jerome Valcke are happy with progress. Ricardo Trade speaks now with all the gravitas of his role as World Cup head of operations, a far cry from a team support post in Seoul 23 years ago. He claimed inside knowledge on how the president and secretary-general of world federation FIFA think in secret at a logistics forum during the Aspire4Sport conference. Blatter said earlier this year that, with the 2014 finals some two and a half years away, Brazil were further behind in preparations than South Africa had been at the same stage ahead of the last tournament in 2010. This past Tuesday Valcke flew to Brasilia to warn politicians that the country was running out of time. However Trade, one of three directors answering to controversial local organising president Ricardo Teixeira, suggested that both men had been scare-monger...

DOHA: Frank Williams is delighted that his Formula One team will be powered by Renault engines again next season after concluding the partnership with Cosworth. Williams are currently ninth in the manufacturers championship in the season which finishes in Brazil at the end of next week and the team’s owner expects them to help “step up our competitive position” next year. Renault engines also power champions Red Bull and Team Lotus which is due to be renamed Caterham, The company, which has a technical centre in Qatar where Williams himself was addressing the Aspire4Sport conference, was considered the ‘team of the 90s’ and its world champions have included Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell. Hill, who was world champion with a Renault-powered Williams, said: “Renault are one of those few companies who understand Formula One very well and made fantastic engines. I was lucky to be involved when I was and saw the consistent development with reliability which was fantastic. They’ve just won th...