Premier League sides forced to pay back millions of pounds in tax after crackdown on image rights deals The image rights settlement was a rare victory for HMRC in a campaign that has received sharp criticism, notably in the case of Redknapp, who was cleared of all charges following a five-year investigation costing up to £8million over around £80,000 of disputed tax. The image rights settlement came after intervention from the Premier League, which liaised between the taxman and its clubs in an attempt to avert a protracted dispute. Image rights allow a club to pay a portion of a player's wages in exchange for using their image to promote the club and their sponsors. Payments are made to a separate company, often based offshore, and taxed at a lower rate or not at all. They are attractive for both club and player, but HMRC insisted the system was being abused by clubs, particularly at the lower end of the league, allotting an unrealistic proportion of their payroll to image rights. The league agreed to mediate, helping bring as many as 15 clubs to a settlement with HMRC. The two sides agreed a cut-off date before which payments would not be contested, and agreed a banding system for clubs of differing profiles. Chelsea were among the clubs with the largest tax bill, revealing in their most recent accounts, published last week, that they had paid £6.4million "in relation to an industry-wide investigation into the taxation of payments under image rights." David Bernstein facing another test of his authority as FA chairman aving boosted his authority by stripping John Terry of the England captaincy and facing down Fabio Capello, the Football Association chairman David Bernstein faces a fresh test as he negotiates the final stages of football's response to the government on the issue of governance. Bernstein has held a series of meeting with the Premier League and Football League in recent weeks, with the make-up of the board central to any agreement by the end of the month. The government wants a reduction from the current 14 members, which means the national (amateur) and professional games giving up at least one of the five seats they each hold. An amicable outcome within the professional game will depend on the Football League agreeing to have one representative instead of its current two, or the Premier League accepting parity with its junior partner, giving up one of its three to leave the bodies with two seats each. BBC plan to hold sports awards at Olympic Velodrome is non-starter A BBC plan to host this year's Sports Personality of the Year ceremony at the London 2012 velodrome in December looks likely to be abandoned after organisers said the site would not be available so soon after the Games. The corporation approached the Olympic Park Legacy Company about using the velodrome for an event that will be dominated by British Olympians, but has been told it will be impossible to access because of £300million of transformation work required to prepare the site for legacy use. The OPLC would welcome SPotY in 2013 however. With the velodrome and other park venues out of bounds the BBC is looking for alternative Olympic venues, which could include the ExCeL centre and the O², neither of which is in the park. Alternatively the corporation may go back to an arena staging, with members of the public admitted, after last year's studio-based show in Salford. A return to Liverpool, where the 2008 post-Beijing awards were witnessed by 7,000 fans, is a possibility. Cricket enters the proceedings at Allen Stanford trial in Houston Allen Stanford's trial for defrauding investors of up to $7billion (£4.46billion) has until this week steered clear of his ill-fated liaison with English cricket, but it finally cropped up on Tuesday during evidence from the Stanford Group's former PR adviser Lula Rodriguez. Rodriguez told the court in Houston that the relationship with the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2008 was one of the first signs that all was not well in Stanford's financial empire. She said the first she knew of the $20million (£12.76million) project was after the infamous press conference at Lord's and there were doubts over whether the sponsorship was from Stanford's personal funds or the company. Rodriguez also gave the court her view of his ambition "to make cricket bigger than baseball." "I thought he was crazy," she said, to laughter from the jury. It will have had a hollow ring at Lord's. Shadow of Falklands hangs over Buenos Aires versus Glasgow bid for Youth Olympics Rising tensions between the United Kingdom and Argentina as the 30th anniversary of the Falklands conflict looms will add an extra dimension to the normally low-key campaigning for the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics, in which Buenos Aires is likely to be challenged by a bid from Glasgow. The Argentine capital has already declared its candidacy for the 2018 event, while the British Olympic Association says it is pondering a bid, with Glasgow the only city that has declared any interest. Should the BOA proceed the vexed issue of the Malvinas will provide a subtext to the race. Argentine chances will be boosted by the presence on their campaign team of Mike Lee, the former communications director of London's 2012 Olympics bid, whose Vero agency has since compiled a list of campaign victories, including the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics bid, and Qatar's 2022 World Cup bid. Rome's withdrawal from 2020 Games race is boost for Qatar Qatar's chances of adding the 2020 Olympics to the 2022 World Cup have received a significant boost with the withdrawal of Rome from the race. The Italian government pulled the plug on the bid at the last minute on Tuesday because of economic uncertainty, reducing the field to four. Madrid, Baku, Tokyo and Istanbul are the other candidates. Doha still has to satisfy the International Olympic Committee that it can overcome concerns over climate and athlete welfare before becoming an official candidate in May, but with Baku almost certain to be dropped its chances of making the shortlist have improved.