Ireland

The dates have been set for the 2006 Ryder Cup which will be played at The K Club, Straffan, County Kildare, Ireland.

French pay-TV network Sport+ has won a broadcast rights deal with European Rugby Cup Limited for live coverage of this season's Heineken Cup.

The North American Sports Network (NASN), broadcaster of US college sports in Europe, has renewed its programming deal with CBS Broadcast International.

UK pay-TV platform BSkyB has dramatically sealed an exclusive TV deal for the European Rugby Cup properties, including the Heineken Cup, after tabling a last minute bid for the rights package, sportbusiness.com can reveal.

Sponsorship Intelligence (SI), the sponsorship research and consulting arm of ZenithOptimedia, has officially launched a dedicated online information service to help keep staff and clients informed of media and marketing developments from the Rugby World Cup in Australia.

UK commercial free-to-air broadcaster ITV has claimed that its line-up of sports content over the last weekend pulled in over 26 million viewers to the network.

Beer brand Budweiser has signed a deal with the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) to become title sponsor of the UK Open Darts Championship.

UEFA has signed the first batch of wireless rights for the 2003-2006 Champions League seasons.

UK pay-TV platform Sky has employed a new web technology to manage the sports content of its Sky Sports website.

Telecommunications firm BT has signed up as official title sponsor of the Northern Ireland Ladies Open on the Ladies European Tour.

The Jordan Formula One racing team is launching a SMS news service ahead of this month's British Grand Prix.

The continuing row over image rights in the build-up to this year's Rugby World Cup has intensified with England players refusing to sign their participation agreement.

Chaos continues to surround UK ice hockey after the governing body rejected a bid by eight teams to form a new ‘Elite League’ which would replace the existing Superleague.

UK ice hockey team the Belfast Giants have pulled out of next season’s European Continental Cup amid mounting debts.

London is hoping to bring the start of the 2006 Tour de France cycling race to its streets.

Jean-Pierre Lux has been elected for a record third term of office as chairman of European Rugby Cup Ltd.

The most valued properties among Irish sports fans will be the sole domain of free-to-air television after the country's government unveiled a listed events law.

Fran Rooney, formerly chief of Baltimore Technologies, is to take over as chief executive officer of the Football Association of Ireland.