Monday Memo - Bid Books; Ballon d'Or; Handball Champs

2020 Bid Books Due

Monday is the deadline for Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid to submit their candidature files for the 2020 Olympics.

The three bids will all send prominent teams to IOC headquarters in Lausanne for a ceremonial handover of the so-called bid books.

Tokyo 2020 tells Around the Rings details of its bid will first be released to the public at a Jan. 8 press conference in Tokyo.

Madrid will also host a press event Jan. 8 in the Spanish capital, where about 300 domestic and international media are expected.

Istanbul says details surrounding the bid book’s availability to the public and any related press events are forthcoming.

FIFA Ballon d’Or

Lionel Messi of Argentina looks to win a record fourth FIFA Ballon d’Or this week while Brazil’s Marta seeks her sixth Women’s World Player of the Year.

Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Andres Iniesta of Spain are the other men’s finalists.

On the women’s side, Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach of USA’s gold-medal winning Olympics squad are the other nominees.

Coach of the Year, Goal of the Year, the FIFA Presidential Award and the FIFA Fair Play Award will also be announced Monday at the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala, streamed live from Zurich on FIFA.com.

Handball World Champs

The year’s first world championship for an Olympic sport?

It’s handball, it’s in Spain and it’s just for men.

Group play begins Friday in Granollers, Barcelona, Seville, Zaragoza, Madrid and Guadalajara with the finals to follow Jan. 27 in Barcelona.

Written by Matthew Grayson.

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.