Japan

Toyota has confirmed that the company will withdraw from the rallying world championship at the end of this season.

TWR has signed the Baan Company ? a global provider of enterprise business solutions ? as a new sponsor for its Formula One Grand Prix team.

TWR has signed the Baan Company ? a global provider of enterprise business solutions ? as a new sponsor for its Formula One Grand Prix team.

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone said the disqualification of Ferrari from Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix was "nonsense" and Eddie Irvine should be reinstated as championship leader.

NBA.com tips off the 1999-2000 season this week with a seven-hour, live simulcast of the debut of NBA.com TV, the league's new 24-hour television network.

The WTA Tour is close to completing a five-year title sponsorship contract worth more than $40 million with Sanex, a subsidiary of the Sara Lee Corp, according to a report in the US advertising and media magazine Brandweek.

Adidas-Salomon has announced a record profit in the third quarter of this year. Third-quarter pre-tax profit jumped 35% to DM427m - the highest figure for this period that the group has ever achieved.

South Africa's 2006 World Cup bid committee will concentrate on the "nuts and bolts" of staging the event in its campaign rather than an emotional appeal for Africa.

Nissan Motor Co, heavily in debt and recently embarked on a drastic restructuring plan, has said it would not compete in the Le Mans 24 hour endurance race in 2000.

South Korea's top football representative has said he would like to see North and South Korea field a united team for the 2002 World Cup.

Soccer's international governing body FIFA has unveiled a trio of computer-animated fantasy mascots for the next World Cup in what it said was a move to reflect the high-tech reputation of co-hosts Korea and Japan.

The draw for the 2002 World Cup, the biggest in the tournament's 69-year history, will involve 195 nations and be seen live on Tuesday by a television audience of about one billion people.

Critics of South Africa's bid to stage the 2006 World Cup are making too much fuss over the country's crime statistics, campaign officials have said.

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has signed an agreement giving Sky Television broadcasting rights over Ireland's home matches until 2002.

FIFA General Secretary Sepp Blatter appears to be backing away from his proposal for a soccer World Cup to be held every two years, twice as often as at present. In an editorial in the world soccer body's monthly FIFA News, issued in advance of publication early next month, he said the key issue facing the game was harmonising the international match calendar. Blatter, whose proposal in a newspaper interview a year ago caused a storm of criticism as well as winning some support, said he had primarily aimed at sparking debate on the calendar.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter says he has patched up his differences with European soccer chief Lennart Johansson.