Germany
Events

The trial of four Germans accused of beating a French policeman almost to death at last year's World Cup finals will not affect Germany's bid to host the tournament in 2006, German Football Federation (DFB) President Egidius Braun has said.
Business

South African soccer officials, confident of the quality of their bid, have revealed why they think they should host the 2006 World Cup.
Events

International television rights company CSI Ltd has recently acquired the exclusive television rights for home matches of the English football clubs in the UEFA Cup and the European Pro Beach Soccer League.
Business

UFA Sport has made a 12-year equity investment in Italian Serie B club, Sampdoria. The deal is believed to be worth between $50m-$60m over 12 years
Business

UK-based Screenco have created a 21 metre wide LED banner at the 68,000-capacity stadium of German Bundesliga team FC Kaiserslautern using 21 Lighthouse LVP20 20mm pixel pitch modules.
How to Develop Effective Sponsorship Programmes: A new report from SportBusiness Group: Click here
Business

World Cup Skateboarding (WCS), the world skateboarding sanctioning body and tour organiser, has appointed action-sport marketing agency IMS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sportsworld Media Group plc to manage its commercial interests globally.
Business

Kirch Gruppe, the German media group run by movie mogul Leo Kirch, is to merge Kirch Media, its free-TV and rights business into the stock market listed television broadcaster ProSieben-SAT.1, to create German?s largest listed media company.

Octagon CSI, the television division of the Octagon Group, will unveil a number of new football programming opportunities at this year?s Sportel in Monaco.
Business

The England soccer team?s triumphant win over rivals Germany on Saturday has inspired a string of unnamed companies to approach UK soccer?s governing body the Football Association (FA) with sponsorship deals.
How to Develop Effective Sponsorship Programmes: A new report from SportBusiness Group: Click here
Media

KirchMedia has acquired a 25.5 percent stake in online sports portal Sport1 from German internet firm Axel Springer Verlag.
Business

US investment group Liberty Media has moved to calm fears that its buy-out of six German cable television companies from Deutsche Telekom had stalled by announcing that a deal has been signed worth around $4.95 billion (?5.5bn).
Business

Rival French satellite platforms Canal Satellite and TPS have begun informal talks regarding a merger of their operations as the consolidation of the global satellite sector continues.

England?s win over Germany on Saturday is a major boost for the World Cup?s multi-million pound licensing programme, according to Copyright Promotions Licensing Group (CPLG), the agency responsible for generating revenue from next year?s soccer tournament.
Stadia

sportbusiness.com can reveal the eight groups - each comprising of an architect and a construction company ? which have been short-listed to draw up design studies for the proposed new Munich Stadium.
Business

Digital sports content provider TEAMtalk Media Group plc has recorded an operating loss of #2.3million ($3.4m/?3.6m) for the three months to June 30 but still sees profitability on plan in 2003/04.
Stadia

Germany and Portugal are due to take part in a series of international friendlies in South Korea to open new stadiums for the 2002 World Cup.
Sponsorship & Marketing

Brewery giant Carlsberg is to capitalise on England?s crunch soccer match against Germany this weekend with a special promotion via cellphones.
Sport and Wireless: A new report from SportBusiness Group: Click here
Business

English soccer club Chelsea is in talks with Italian club Lazio about setting up a rival to the G14 group of top European clubs.