Eastern Europe

German sportswear manufacturer Adidas has signed Tomáš Berdych to become its new men’s tennis figurehead, while Kei Nishikori has agreed a lucrative extension to his partnership with Japanese clothing company Uniqlo.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) mixed martial arts organisation has today (Friday) announced that it will stage events in Croatia and the Netherlands for the first time this year.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has awarded its 2016 World Race Walking Team Championships to Rome and confirmed Bydgoszcz as the new host city of this year’s World U20 Championships, after stripping the two events from Russia.

Bydgoszcz appears set to host athletics’ 2016 World U20 Junior Championships after the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) confirmed the Polish city as the only candidate to have submitted a formal bid to stage the event.

Romania will stage its first-ever professional snooker tournament next year after details of a new world ranking event in the country were announced by World Snooker, the sport's global governing body.

The Fiba Europe division of basketball’s global governing body has confirmed Finland, Israel, Romania and Turkey as co-hosts of the EuroBasket 2017 national team tournament and announced hosts for a series of youth events.

The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) has outlined plans for the restructuring of its beach volleyball events programme, while Poland has been confirmed as the host country for next year’s Volleyball World League Finals.

The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) has adopted a new co-hosting model for its Volleyball Men’s World Championship by awarding the 2018 edition of the national team event to Italy and Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian capital of Sofia has been named host city of the 2017 Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships and the 2018 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships, while the 2018 Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships will take place in Antwerp, Belgium.

International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president Sebastian Coe has praised the support of national associations after confirming that the world governing body has received seven letters of interest in staging two events that were stripped from Russia.

Budapest will press ahead with its bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games after the Hungarian capital’s city council rejected a proposal from an opposition council member to hold a referendum on whether or not the city should seek to stage the multi-sport showpiece.

The Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) has claimed 16 European countries have agreed to back Budapest’s bid for the 2024 Olympic Games.

The International Handball Federation (IHF) has awarded its 2021 Men’s World Championship to Egypt, while the 2023 edition of the national team competition will be co-hosted by Poland and Sweden.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) has announced that the 2019 edition of its men's Softball World Championship will take place in the Czech Republic cities of Prague and Havlickuv Brod, with the women's event being staged in Chiba, Japan.

Motorcycling’s Speedway World Championships has extended its agreement with Gorzów, Poland, one of its host cities.

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has confirmed that six cities from three continents have lodged bids to host the 2018 edition of its World Championships.