Europe

Despite heavy investment into state-of-the-art wave gardens, surfing’s dreams of getting into The Greatest Show on Earth will depend on Mother Nature. Christian Radnedge reports.

Amid the chaos of Italian football, there is opportunity for those organisations that follow the rules.

Spanish LaLiga football club Atlético Madrid has recorded a net profit of €13.1m ($14.9m) for the 2014-15 season.

Suspended Fifa president Sepp Blatter has suggested that an agreement was in place for the 2018 World Cup to be awarded to Russia before a vote on the destination for the national team football tournament took place.

The canton of Graubünden is set to push forward with a proposed bid for the 2026 Olympics, forming a second Swiss tilt at the winter Games.

The president of Rugby Europe, the continent’s governing body for rugby union, has called on the Six Nations national team tournament to consider re-structuring its format to include emerging nations such as Georgia and Romania.

London Irish is set to break new ground for the Premiership, the top division of rugby union in England, by taking a home game to New York on March 12.

LaLiga, the organising body of the top two divisions of Spanish football, has revealed that it is to debut a new fan experience initiative in Doha, Qatar.

Franz Beckenbauer, who led Germany’s local organising committee for football’s 2006 World Cup in the country, has admitted that a transfer of €6.7m ($7.4m) to the sport’s global governing body Fifa in 2005 was a mistake.

Gymnastics and golf have been added to the programme for the inaugural European Sports Championships in three years’ time, it has been announced.

Spanish LaLiga champion Barcelona has confirmed record turnover of €608m ($691.3m) for its 2014-15 financial year, but has delayed a decision on its shirt sponsorship situation that was initially due to be made on Sunday.

Premiership Rugby, the governing body of the top division of club rugby union in England, has rejected reports that clubs in the competition are breaking salary cap regulations, despite confirming it had pursued “certain issues” with some teams over the wage limit in the 2014-15 season.

Wolfgang Niersbach, the president of the German Football Association (DFB), has said he cannot explain fully why a payment of €6.7m ($7.5m) was made to the sport’s governing body Fifa a year before Germany hosted the 2006 World Cup.

The International Triathlon Union (ITU) has named the Austrian town of Zeltweg  as host of its 2016 winter Triathlon World Championships.

American football league the NFL has today (Thursday) extended its agreement to play regular-season games at Wembley Stadium for an additional five years, meaning that at least four games per year will be played in London from 2018.

The European Athletics governing body has reported “strong” interest from countries that are keen to host the European Athletics Championships in 2022, despite a second edition of a new multi-sport event having not yet been confirmed.