Russia

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

Dozens of Moscow soccer hooligans were arrested on Sunday after clashes with police at a Russian premier division match between Zenit St Petersburg and Torpedo Moscow.

Russian soccer officials are becoming increasingly disturbed by allegations of attempted bribery and intimidation of referees.

Cash-strapped Lokomotiv St Petersburg could become the second first division side to drop out of the Russian soccer championship.

Russians have commemorated the 20th anniversary of the opening of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, seen in the country as an unqualified success despite a debilitating boycott by Western countries.

The Russian Football Union is asking the government to bankroll its bid to host the European soccer championship in 2008.

FIBA, forced to revamp its new flagship SuproLeague basketball tournament after a mass breakaway by clubs, has made the draw for next season.

The Russian soccer league has said that the top of the table clash between champions and premier division leaders Spartak Moscow and their city rivals Lokomotiv Moscow had been postponed a day for security reasons.

Sports-loving mayor Yuri Luzhkov has said he wants Moscow to stage the 2012 Olympics.

Norman May, the man who stirred a nation with his radio commentary of Australia winning a swimming relay gold at Moscow in 1980, is to be awarded the Olympic Order by the International Olympic Committee.

Russian soccer champions Spartak Moscow have signed Lukoil, the country's biggest oil company, as their major sponsor, a Lukoil spokesman has confirmed.

IOC Coordination Committee chairman, Jacques Rogee, has given SOCOG a glowing endorsement for their work in the lead up to the Sydney Olympic Games 2000.

IOC leader Jacques Rogge has tried to douse concern about organisational problems within the 2000 Olympics, by saying Sydney had no real worries compared to some predecessors as host city.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has dismissed claims New York should be automatically handed the 2012 Olympic Games in the wake of the suicide plane attacks in America.

IOC president Jacques Rogge has dismissed claims New York should be automatically handed the 2012 Olympic Games in the wake of the suicide plane attacks in America.

A decision on whether London will bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games will not be known until after next summer’s Commonwealth Games in Manchester.