Greece

Swatch Group has signed a long-term partnership agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in areas of timing, scoring and results-keeping.

Transport and accommodation standards must improve for Britain to have a chance of bidding successfully for the Olympic Games, UK government Culture Secretary Chris Smith has said.

Greek weightlifter Pyrros Dimas, one of only a trio of competitors to win three Olympic golds in the sport, was appointed to the 2004 Athens Games organising committee on Thursday.

The International Olympic Committee has confirmed the status of Beach Volleyball as a full Olympic discipline as from the Olympic Games of Athens in 2004.

Despite criticism of the format and age rules of the 2000 Olympic Games soccer tournament, FIFA and IOC officials have agreed to maintain the status quo for the 2004 Games in Athens.

President of the Greek Basketball Federation George Vassilakopoulos has warned that his country is heading for a national disaster because of the inadequacy of Athens 2004 Olympic Games organisers.

The executive board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will hold its first meeting of the year 2001 in Dakar, Senegal.

The Commercial Bank of Greece has said it has reached a preliminary agreement with the Athens suburb hosting much of the 2004 Olympic Games to finance up to 1.5 billion euros in real estate development.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature has said plans to build an Olympic rowing and canoeing centre for the 2004 Athens Games would threaten the environment and break European Union nature conservation laws.

The Athens Olympics will give a 2.5 percent fillip to Greece's gross national product in 2004, the year the games return to their ancestral roots, organising committee (ATHOC) head Gianna Angelopoulou said.

US sports marketing agency Millsport has hired John Tarkas as general manager of its Athens office.

Athens 2004 Olympics organisers (ATHOC) formalised an agreement on Wednesday with International Sports Broadcasting (ISB).

Investment company ENIC is on the verge of securing a #22m ($35m) deal to take over English Premier League soccer team Tottenham Hotspur.

Greece will build four press villages to accommodate journalists covering the Athens 2004 Olympics, organisers said on Tuesday.

Britain's leading triathletes, led by three-time world champion Simon Lessing, have called for the resignation of their national governing body's chairman because of fears that they will be barred from lucrative races in Europe in 2001 in the sport's first post-Olympic season.

sportbusiness.com has learned this morning that ENIC is hoping to announce the company?s expected buy-out of Sir Alan Sugar?s share-holding in Tottenham Hotspur Plc.deal today.