South-East Asia

The inaugural FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup kicked off in the land of Samba on Sunday.

Insurance giant Aviva Ltd is to inject $3million over three years from 2005 into badminton’s Singapore Open.

A split has opened up between International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge and summer Olympic sports chiefs over plans for their sports to face a vote to be part of the 2012 Games.

Some 7,000 volunteers for the Almeria 2005 Mediterranean Games being held from June 24 to July 3 will also become volunteers for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, should Madrid win the race to be elected host city.

Vietnam will stage an ATP-level professional men’s tennis tournament this year for the first time in history.

Soccer giant Real Madrid Club and Interactive Sports Television Ltd. (ISTV) have agreed to jointly develop and broadcast an interactive television programme to be launched in several of Asia’s soccer markets this autumn.

McDonald’s Corporation and the NBA are teaming up to bring basketball to hundreds of thousands of fans with NBA events and promotions in four continents.

Nick Leeson, the ‘rogue trader’ whose trading activities caused the collapse of the UK’s oldest merchant bank Barings in 1995 is to become the new commercial manager of a soccer club.

The start of this year’s SportAccord was marked by a flurry of media interest as the five cities bidding for the 2012 Olympic Games touched down for five days of frantic campaigning.

ICC President Ehsan Mani has supported a call from Adolf Ogi, the former President of Switzerland and current United Nations Special Advisor of the Secretary General on Sport for Development and Peace, for the international sports community to work together to address humanitarian issues.

Paris will have the first chance to impress IOC members in a round of presentations which will represent the final chance to influence voting on the host of the 2012 Olympic Games.

New York’s bid to stage the 2012 Olympic Games appears to be back on track following the city transportation authority’s decision to allow the New York Jets to build a stadium on Manhattan’s West Side.

Dato’ Paul Mony Samuel is set to become the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) deputy general secretary.

The Asian Football Confederation has endorsed Australia's switch from Oceania.

Editorial Director reviews the issues of the past seven days.

The Davis Cup by BNP Paribas first round ties on March 4-6 delivered strong television ratings and market shares around the world.