Italy

Sportal have added mid-table Serie A team Reggina to their portfolio of sports internet partners. The three year deal is to provide hosting and maintenance services to the club?s website. Other Italian football sides in the Sportal stable of websites are Juventus, AC Parma and AC Milan.

Brazilian soccer legend Pele has compared the international transfer of young players to the slave trade.

AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani has urged Italian soccer authorities to scrap restrictions on the number of non-European Union (EU) players in Serie A in the wake of a recent court ruling.

The Swedish prosecutor's office has reopened an inquiry into a suspected attempt to bribe the International Olympic Committee into choosing Stockholm for the 2004 summer games.

The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) has reported finding eight first and second division soccer players guilty of match-fixing.

Italian soccer giants AC Milan face a UEFA probe over claims they fielded an illegal immigrant in their Champions League clash against English side Leeds United.

Italian soccer sides AC Milan and Napoli have been fined a total of 45 million lire ($19,450) for crowd trouble at their weekend league matches.

English Premier League soccer club Leeds United on Friday scored a 75 percent lift in annual pre-tax profits, driven by record crowds last season at its Elland Road ground and success in European football.

LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant, the high-profile owner of Italian basketball club Olimpia Milano, has sold the stake he shared with his father after only 10 months

The SNAI Group, which has a 75 per cent share of Italy?s betting market, has finalised an agreement with PA Sport, a branch of the Press Association and leading provider of sport information to the UK betting industry.

A proposal to restrict the number of foreign players in Serie A has been rejected by the president of the Italian Football League.

Russian Olympic officials have warned that a shake-up is urgently needed if the country is to keep pace with other leading nations.

Italian Serie A soccer club Udinese aims to float on the Milan bourse by the end of the year and is relying on its track record for training up young players and selling them at a profit to attract investors.

Italian public broadcaster RAI and publisher RCS Editori have launched Sport Set, a television and multimedia sports services joint venture.

The European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti has met with the heads of Real Madrid, AC Milan, Ajax Amsterdam, Bayern Munich and Manchester United in Brussels to discuss the proposed changes to the transfer system.

Minardi chairman Gabriele Rumi says he has sold his 70 percent stake in the Italian Formula One team to the Pan American Sports Network International (PSN) cable and satellite company.