Headquartered in Singapore , World Sport Group was a sports marketing , event management and media company in Asia, with a roster of golf , association football and cricket events. World Sport Group manages almost 600 days of sports events annually, across more than 30 countries in the region. In 2015 it was merged into the Lagardère Sports and Entertainment division of Lagardère Group (which was the parent company from 2008 to 2020), renamed as Lagardère Sports Asia .
21-848: World Sport Group was the exclusive marketing partner of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), and a major stake-holder in Asian golf as organizers of the Barclays Singapore Open and the ASEAN Tour . The Group also managed global cricket player Sachin Tendulkar and had formed a partnership with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for
42-475: A 78.60% stake of a company called World Sport Group Investments , which owned a 90% stake of World Sport Group Holdings. Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation ( AFC ) is the governing body of association football , beach soccer , and futsal in most countries and territories in Asia . The AFC was formed in 1954. It has 47 members. The Asian Ladies Football Confederation (ALFC)
63-525: A listed company now known as Parallel Media Group plc . After the founder re-acquired World Sport Group from the public company in 2002, BVI incorporated World Sport Group Holdings became the holding company. World Sport Group was sold for the second time in 2008 to Lagardère Group , becoming Lagardère Sports Asia in 2015. The World Sport Group Limited (via World Sport Group (Jersey) Limited ) and Parallel Media Group International Limited were acquired by Orchard Furniture plc in 2001. Orchard Furniture
84-465: A partnership agreement with brand communications firm Sponsorship 360. On 8 August 2016 Lagardère Sports acquired New York City-based brand communications firm Rooftop2 Productions. On 1 June 2017, it was announced that Lagardère Sports had sold the naming rights of Juventus Stadium to Allianz for 2017–18 to 2022–23 seasons. Lagardère Sports' predecessor Sportfive purchased the naming rights (and other concession) in 2008 for €75 million and
105-602: A sports, entertainment and lifestyle hub in Singapore that was due for completion in 2011. With the sale of Lagardère Sports to H.I.G. Capital , World Sport Group assets are now managed by revived Sportfive . Events formerly supported by the World Sports Group included: World Sport Group was founded in Hong Kong in 1992 as AFC Marketing Limited as a media broker for the Asian Football Confederation . (AFC Marketing itself
126-583: Is an entertainment agency subsidiary of Lagardère Group . The subsidiary was formed as Lagardère Sports and Entertainment by the merger of several brands under the group, including Sportfive ; World Sport Group ; IEC in Sports; Sports Marketing and Management; and Lagardère Unlimited Inc. After partial sale of Lagardère Sports in 2020 and subsequent full sale in 2021, the remaining division became Lagardère Live Entertainment. In 2007, Lagardère Group, via an intermediate holding company Lagardère Sports , acquired
147-820: Is the AFC Women's Champions League which was launched in the 2024–25 season. The second-tier men's tournament is the AFC Champions League Two , while the third-tier tournament is the AFC Challenge League , which were both revamped and rebranded in 2024. AFC runs an annual Asian futsal club tournament, the AFC Futsal Club Championship for futsal club competition. FIFA Men's World Ranking FIFA Women's World Ranking World Football Elo Ratings for AFC members: The AFC Club Competitions Ranking ranks its member associations by results in
168-644: The Northern Mariana Islands ), South (five countries on the Indian Subcontinent plus Maldives and Sri Lanka ), South East (ten ASEAN countries plus Australia and East Timor ), and West (twelve Arab countries ). Afghanistan , Burma (Myanmar) , the Republic of China , Hong Kong , India , Indonesia , Israel , Japan , Pakistan , the Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , and Vietnam were
189-636: The AFC competitions. Rankings are calculated by AFC. Listed here are the top 30 countries. Rankings are calculated by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW). a number between brackets is the rank of the previous week. (*)= Provisional ranking (played at least 10 matches). For each tournament, the flag of the host country and the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown. * Australia qualified for FIFA WC for six times, two as OFC member and four as AFC member. Notes: Lagard%C3%A8re Sports and Entertainment Lagardère Live Entertainment
210-966: The Asian qualifying tournament for the FIFA World Cup and for football at the Summer Olympics . The top-ranked AFC tournament for men's association football clubs is the AFC Champions League Elite . The competition is an amalgamation of the Asian Club Championship , the Asian Cup Winners' Cup and the Asian Super Cup and gathers the top teams from the highest-ranked nations in Asia (the number of teams depend on that country's ranking and can be upgraded or downgraded). The top-ranked AFC tournament for women's association football clubs
231-482: The brand and the subsidiary from the public company on 13 November 2002. In 2004 Dentsu acquired a 30% stake in World Sport Group Holdings , the parent company of World Sport Group. Although, 20% stake was sold by Dentsu in 2007–08 financial year that ended on 31 March. On 18 May 2008 Lagardère Group, via its subsidiary Lagardère Sports acquired approx. 70% stake of World Sport Group Holdings by acquiring
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#1732904889728252-451: The entire share capital of International Events and Communication in Sports (IEC in Sports) and in 2008 acquired about 70% of the stake of World Sport Group Holdings . Lagardère Group also owned Sportfive S.A. since 2006. In 2010, Lagardère Sports became Lagardère Unlimited . In 2015 Lagardère Unlimited was renamed Lagardère Sports and Entertainment , and the entertainment subdivision
273-525: The founding members. National teams: Esports Clubs: Defunct National teams: Clubs: AFC runs the AFC Asian Cup and the AFC Women's Asian Cup , which are held every 4 years. AFC organises the AFC Futsal Asian Cup , AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup , AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup , various age-level international association football, youth futsal tournaments and
294-729: The ground and title naming rights for the Indian National Team's domestic matches. In partnership with Sony Corporation , the Group was awarded the global media rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Twenty20 cricket competition. The 10-year deal was valued at over US$ 1.6 billion. The Group was also a member of the Singapore Sports Hub Consortium , the group that won the bid in 2018 to build, operate and manage
315-554: The holding company of the group was British Virgin Islands incorporated The World Sport Group Limited . In the eve of acquisition and listing into Alternative Investment Market , the Jersey incorporated World Sport Group (Jersey) Limited became the intermediate holding company of the group. From 2001 to 2002 World Sport Group was the subsidiary of World Sport Group plc (along with fellow sport broker Parallel Media Group International Limited),
336-629: The price of the broadcasting rights for the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers 2014 (Asia Region) , meaning home fans in South Korea could not watch their international team. Also, expatriate Iranian fans could not watch the match in Europe or the Americas. The company also formed a joint venture with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the AFC Asian Cup in 2011. It also runs a media channel for
357-433: Was also renamed into World Sport Group plc in the same year but known as Parallel Media Group plc after 2002. World Sport Group plc was owned by chairman David Ciclitira for 21.11% stake, as well as Park House Holdings for 27.41% stake as at 31 December 2001. Park House Holdings was owned by the founder and high officials of The World Sport Group Limited , Seamus O'Brien and Anthony Morgan. Park House Holdings re-acquired
378-1159: Was dissolved by striking-off in 2006) At that time the director of the company was Seamus Hamilton O'Brien and Jack Kazunori Sakazaki; the shareholders were British Virgin Islands incorporated Park House Holdings Limited (40%), Nina Finance Corporation (40%) and Oakstaff Investments Limited (20%). It then expended into other fields such as golf (as Asian PGA Tour Limited), for Asian Tour ), basketball (as ABC Promotions Limited), cricket (as WSG Nimbus Pte Limited), TV rights (as Asia Sport Television Limited) and publishing (as WSG (Asia) Limited). In Australia, World Sport Group operated WSG (Oceania) Pty Ltd., PGA Tour Enterprises Pty Ltd. (a joint venture), Sports Marketing and Management Pty Ltd., Javelin Pty Ltd.; in Europe: WSG Europe Ltd., Ladies European Tour Enterprises Ltd. (a joint venture), Sports Marketing and Management (UK) Ltd., Global Cricket Corporation Pte Ltd.; in America as WSG Americas Inc. and Tour de las Americas Ltd. (joint venture). Circa 2000
399-424: Was due to start in 2011–12 season. In 2021, Lagardère Sports was fully divested (as revived Sportfive ) to H.I.G. Capital . H.I.G. Capital already owned 75% of Lagardère Sports since 2020. Lagardère Sports Asia , formerly known as World Sport Group , was acquired by Lagardère in 2008 and renamed (and reorganized its subsidiary structure) in 2015. World Sport Group angered many Asian football fans by increasing
420-552: Was renamed from "Lagardère Unlimited Live Entertainment" to "Lagardère Live Entertainment". All the sports agencies previously under Lagardère Unlimited were renamed to use the brand "Lagardère Sports". In 2015 Lagardère Live Entertainment acquired société d'exploitation du Bataclan, the organization that operates the Bataclan Theater , one of the sites of the November 2015 Paris attacks . On 19 January 2016 Lagardère Sports signed
441-522: Was the section of AFC that managed women's association football in Asia. The group was independently founded in April 1968 in a meeting involving Taiwan , British Hong Kong , Malaysia and Singapore . In 1986, ALFC merged with AFC. Notes The AFC has 47 member associations split into five subregions : Central (four Soviet Central Asian countries plus Afghanistan and Iran ), East (eight East Asian nations and two Micronesian territories: Guam and
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