Italy

With the deadline for cancelling the season just three days away, NBA commissioner David Stern and Players Association chief Billy Hunter got together Monday to discuss a proposal from the players.

Italian jockeys, racehorse owners and stable hands have marched through Milan to demand government help to fight off a wave of competition from new lottery games that they say is creaming off their cash.

Italy's football league will divide television rights for its soccer matches between rival operators Stream and Telepiu, thwarting media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's bid to scoop the rights to all clubs.

The English Rugby Football Union (RFU) have played down speculation that England could be expelled from the Five Nations championship in a row over television revenue.

England, already facing sanctions from rugby union's governing body in a club versus country row, have been told to stop disrupting the Five Nations championship.

The Italian government are to prepare new rules limiting a single digital television broadcaster from owning more than 60 percent of rights to the total amount of football games, an Italian newspaper has reported.

Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema has said he favoured the entry of Italian business groups into a digital satellite pay-TV venture proposed by Australian-born media baron Rupert Murdoch.

1.DIRTY TRICKS SURFACE IN IOC SCANDAL

2.KENYA'S MUKORA QUITS IOC

3.SAMARANCH DEFIANT, TOO

4.2006 WINTER OLYMPIC BIDDERS FACE CONFUSION, NEW RULES

5.2012 BIDS

6.HOT FILE

The bidding process by cities hoping to host the Olympic games has been open to abuse for years and needs a radical revamp, the mayor of Cape Town, which failed to win the 2004 Games, has said.

The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) has elected Giovanni Petrucci as its new president.

Horse racing returns to Italy today after a strike lasting nearly a month.

Manchester United are officially the richest soccer club in the world - according to a major survey carried out by accountants Deloitte & Touche.

Leading Italian Serie A club Lazio, which was quoted on the Milan bourse last year, is set to pay a divided, according to its owner.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter is set for some tough talking when he meets representatives from Europe?s leading soccer clubs in Zurich in March.

The future of pay-TV in Italy appears hopelessly out of focus following the breakdown of talks between Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Europe and Telecom Italia.

Brazilian soccer club Flamengo is looking to corporate sponsors to help it fund an ambitious bid to lure Ronaldo back to his homeland.