Eastern Europe

German agency UFA Sports has signed long-term marketing partnerships with its local Bundesliga basketball team Hamburg Towers and Polish Ekstraklasa football club Wisla Krakow.

Jacek Majchrowski, the Mayor of Krakow, has announced that he will hold a referendum on whether the Polish city should bid to host the 2022 winter Olympic Games.

The Russian Football Union (RFU) has confirmed it plans to bring the two Crimean clubs playing in the Ukrainian Premier League over to the Russian league system.

Fiba Europe, the governing body for basketball in Europe, has removed the 2014 U-18 European Championship men’s Division B competition from Donetsk, Ukraine, but has insisted that it still hopes the EuroBasket 2015 tournament will take place in the country.

The European division of the International Basketball Federation, Fiba, has denied that Ukraine has given up the hosting rights to EuroBasket 2015 even though tournament director Markiyan Lubkivsky admitted yesterday (Wednesday) that he “cannot imagine” how to host the national team event next year.

Ukraine has given up hosting rights to the 2015 EuroBasket national team basketball competition because of the political and financial situation in the country, according to tournament director Markiyan Lubkivsky.

The Fédération Française de Basketball (FFBB), the sport’s governing body in France, has submitted an offer to replace crisis-hit Ukraine as the host country of the EuroBasket 2015 national team tournament.

The Havas Sports & Entertainment agency has struck a strategic partnership with integrated communications agency eventures to enter the Romanian market.

Sergej Gontcharov, the chief executive of Lviv’s bid to host the 2022 winter Olympic Games, has admitted that the current political upheaval in Ukraine means the city’s campaign to land the event is “very uncertain.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed that the applicant cities of Krakow, Oslo, Almaty, Lviv and Beijing all met today’s deadline for submission of their application files to host the 2022 winter Games.

Valeriy Sushkevich, president of the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee, has announced that his team will compete at the Sochi 2014 winter Paralympic Games but has warned that it could still withdraw from the event if host nation Russia invades his home country.

Bucharest in Romania has been selected as the host city of the International Basketball Federation’s (Fiba) inaugural 3x3 European Championships.

The Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation has cancelled a tournament sanctioned by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) that was due to take place on February 25 due to the political situation in the country.

Sailing’s World Match Racing Tour has announced the schedule for its 2014 Match Racing World Championship, with a new event set to debut in Sopot, Poland.

Ukrainian Olympic Committee president Sergei Bubka has maintained the political turmoil in the country will not derail Lviv’s bid for the 2022 winter Olympic Games.

The organising committee of Russia and Ukraine’s proposed United Football League (UFL) have announced the formation of a new four-team tournament in what many will view as a means of testing the water for the controversial league project.