Latin America

Tennis fans who had restricted viewing of the weekend's Davis Cup semifinal between Australia and Brazil from a temporary stand are to get their money back.

Brazilian domestic soccer could be wiped out for the rest of the year because of a complex legal battle involving Brasilia club Gama.

The World Cup short-course swimming series has been cut from 12 meetings to 10 and will offer more prize money.

Brazilian soccer chiefs will be left stunned after South Africa failed in its bid for the 2006 World Cup ? and then announced it would be mounting a campaign to stage the 2010 tournament.

Moroccan officials said they felt betrayed on Thursday after falling out in the first round of voting to stage the 2006 World Cup ? and then faced further humiliation when their support for South Africa failed to bring the tournament to the continent.

Soccer?s world club champions Corinthians of Brazil, are to play a pre-season friendly in Paris to be screened live across Latin America by the Pan American Sports network.

Germany has sensationally won the right to stage the FIFA 2006 World Cup ? bringing soccer?s most valuable property back to European shores.

South Africa looked poised to win Africa the most prestigious sporting event in the continent's history on Thursday - the 2006 World Cup finals?and Sportbusiness.com will bring you the news first.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela said on Tuesday that South Africa deserved to be the first African country to host the World Cup.

FIFA executive committee members will begin gathering in Zurich today for the meeting which will decide the host of the 2006 World Cup.

Soccer's world governing body FIFA said "no sanctions were foreseen" against Brazil for pulling out of the race to host the 2006 World Cup at the 11th hour.

As widely anticipated, Brazil has withdrawn from the race to host soccer?s 2006 World Cup.

Later this week the FIFA executive committee meet to vote on which country will host the 2006 World Cup.

German Football Federation (DFB) president Egidius Braun has been taken to hospital over the weekend, a DFB spokesman said.

Speculation is mounting that Brazil is on the verge of pulling out of the race for the World Cup ? with an announcement on its bid due later today from the president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF).

After taking bets for over two years on who will win the right to stage the World Cup 2006, UK betting firm William Hill have finally closed their book ? just days before the FIFA executive committee finally votes on who will stage the tournament.