Italy

Italian pay-TV broadcaster Stream has launched its plans for coverage of the next soccer season saying it would offer a better and cheaper product than its sole rival Telepiu.

Italy's Antitrust competition regulator has told Telepiu it must stick to a law which limits any one pay-TV operator to a 60 percent slice of rights to broadcast Italian first division soccer matches.

Fans of Serie A club Lazio, bitter at the sale of Christian Vieri to title rivals Inter Milan, have been burning billboards featuring the Italian international striker.

Fiat Auto has signed a new deal to be the official sponsor of the Italaian national soccer team.

Income of the 92 English professional soccer clubs is to top #1 billion ($1.6 billion)in the millennium season ? according to a new report from professional services firm Deloitte and Touche.

Sports Marketing Surveys has opened a new office in Italy.

Real Madrid soccer club president Lorenzo Sanz will meet FIFA president Sepp Blatter in Zurich on Sunday to demand that Europe's top clubs get a share of television rights and sponsorship from players' international appearances.

INTERNATIONAL MATCH REVENUES

Italian first division soccer side Bologna plans to list on the bourse in Milan or London before the end of the year, club president Giuseppe Gazzoni said in an interview published on Monday.

Enic managing director Daniel Levy has responded to the Court of Arbitration for Sport's ruling on multi-club ownership.

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.

Swedish internet TV provider Kamera has bought the UK internet protocol (IP) rights to a package of Serie A match highlights from MP Web, the new media company of the Milan-based Media Partners group.
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The organisers of an anti-racism soccer tournament in Rome hailed it as a success on Tuesday but the event was marred by the glaring absence of hardcore Lazio fans, who boycotted the event.

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.

The IOC?s executive board will meet next month to receive reports on the progress of the 2002 and 2006 Winter Games.

European internet TV firm, Kamera, has signed a deal to bring Italian soccer action to the web.
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English soccer club Chelsea is in talks with Italian club Lazio about setting up a rival to the G14 group of top European clubs.

Joan Gaspart, president of Spanish soccer side Barcelona, has today vetoed efforts by the G-14 group of top European soccer clubs to expand the group?s club representation.