Nigeria

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has confirmed the Kazakhstan Football Association has resigned from the regional body.

Boxing promoter Don King has offered $12.5 million to the Lennox Lewis camp to stage a world heavyweight title rematch with Hasim Rahman.

Nigeria's sports ministry has set up a committee to mobilise "financial and moral support" for its national soccer team in a bid to win the 2000 African Cup of Nations.

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.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) will visit Ghana and Nigeria early next month for a final look at stadium and television facilities for the African Nations Cup finals. The CAF inspection team's visit comes after concern was raised by several television broadcasters last month over the state of preparations for filming the 16-team finals, which start on January 22.

Morocco's 2006 World Cup campaign boss said during a lobbying visit to Nigeria that Africa should make only a single bid to host the tournament.Morocco and South Africa are among five nations bidding to host the 2006 finals along with Brazil, England and Germany."FIFA may find it easier to reject Africa's bid if both Morocco and South Africa insist on presenting their bids, citing lack of unity," Driss Benhima, head of the Morocco 2006 bid committee, told reporters.Benhima said the Confederation of African Football had to evolve a fair method of choosing either Morocco or South Africa. CAF are due to discuss the issue at their next Congress in Accra, Ghana in February.

Tickets for African Nations' Cup matches in Nigeria will sell for as little as 100 naira (one dollar) each to draw big crowds, organisers have said.

Said CSA president Jim Fleming: "We have requested this information from FIFA with a view towards submitting a bid for the 2003 World Youth Championship

Former World Cup hero, Sir Bobby Charlton, championing England's campaign to host the 2006 World Cup, has appealed to Africans to support England if two bids from their own continent are unsuccessful.

Press reports from Nigeria say the country's sports ministry has failed to persuade players on the national soccer team to collect a t$2,500 dollars bonus for winning their match against Tunisia.

Co-hosts Nigeria have doubled the prices of tickets for the remanining matches of their national team in the African Nations Cup.

Romanian national coach Anghel Iordanescu has accused the country's soccer authorities of endangering the country's World Cup chances by denying him funds, facilities and competitive warm-up matches.

A bruising three-month battle for the FIFA presidency reaches a climax on Monday when Sepp Blatter and Lennart Johansson contest the biggest job in soccer.

Outbreaks of hooliganism by English and German fans in France should not affect those nations' bids to stage the 2006 World Cup finals, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said.

The World Cup failed to boost advertising revenue for Britain?s ITV network which saw June figures fall some #8 million ($12m).

Nigeria's organising committee for next year's world youth soccer tournament said on Sunday they were confident FIFA would be satisfied by the country's preparations after an inspection this week.