Portugal

Three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker has dismissed the year-ending Masters Cup as a meaningless tournament.

Marat Safin's rise to the top of tennis has had a huge impact on the game in Russia.

Hamburg-based sports marketing agency Global Sportnet has signed a five-year contract with Italian Serie A soccer club Juventus FC.

All finalists at both world outdoor and indoor athletics championships will receive prize money from next year.

CSS Stellar, the British-owned sports and entertainment management group, has issued a prospectus for its forthcoming flotation on the Alternative Investment Market.

A Congressional commission investigating Brazilian soccer spread to Portugal on Wednesday as two of its members arrived in Lisbon in their search for the so-called mafia of fake passports.

Legendary Portuguese soccer club Benfica has uncovered a massive debt following a new assessment of the club?s financial position.

Portugal have rejected a proposal to play a friendly against a Catalan "national" team at Barcelona's Nou Camp because of the hostile reception given to Real Madrid?s Luis Figo by Barcelona fans, Spanish newspapers have reported.

European soccer's ruling body UEFA has "major concerns" over proposals by a number of clubs to abandon their national championships and set up their own league together.

The chairman of Scottish soccer champions Rangers, David Murray, has said he believes it inevitable Rangers ? and arch rivals Celtic ? will join up with the proposed Atlantic League.

Sydney will host the 2001 Masters Cup after Sao Paulo withdrew its offer to stage the lucrative season-ending tournament, tennis officials said.

World champions France have abandoned plans to play friendly internationals in South America early next year and will instead play two games in Europe.

North and South Korea may march together under the Olympic flag at the Sydney Olympics, and that could lead to powerful joint teams in international sporting arenas.

Holders Real Madrid will find out their first opponents in the 2000/2001 Champions League on

The newly-elected presidents of Real Madrid and Barcelona have met in an attempt to cool the bitter feud between the two giants of Spanish soccer.

Leading Swedish clubs AIK Stockholm, IFK Gothenburg and Helsingborg might be interested in playing in a new European league if governing body UEFA backs the idea.