Events

Germany has added weight to its bid to stage the 2006 World Cup finals by naming Franz Beckenbauer as head of their application.

An official involved in Manchester's two failed Olympic bids has said some International Olympic Committee (IOC) members tried to make money out of visits to the northern English city.

Isolationist North Korea has never been officially approached about the possibility of hosting matches during the 2002 World Cup, a top Pyongyang sports official has said.

French digital satellite TV service Television par Satellite (TPS) said on Wednesday that it will launch an interactive soccer news channel from December 19.

A formidable army of supporters lined up to back England's World Cup 2006 bid, are claiming that the resignation of F.A. chief executive Graham Kelly would not hurt the nation's chances.

Organisers of the 2002 Winter Olympics were hit by an avalanche of criticism at home following charges that International Olympic Committee members' votes were bought during Salt Lake City's successful bid to host the Games.

Reinforcing its image as South Florida's pre-eminent sports carrier, Barry Diller's local programming station WAMI-TV has bought a six-year exclusive broadcast rights to baseball's Florida Marlins.

The UK's third biggest cable operator, NTL, has bought a 6.3% stake in the Premier League soccer club Newcastle United with an option to take control of the company in a deal which would value it at #160m.

The extent of football?s booming popularity among Britains armchair fans is confirmed by the release of television ratings that show 29 of the top 30 sporting events in 1998 were football matches.

Live coverage of raging battles in Washington and Iraq resulted in predictable viewership boosts for broadcasters but it was CBS that ended up beating the competition with its broadcast of an equally historic NFL showdown.

TV networks in the States are continuing to count the cost of the cancellation of weeks of NBA games and are now trying to find suitable programmes to fill their depleted schedules.

Golf?s 1999 PGA Tour season will be by far the most lucrative ever, with 47 official tour events offering a total purse of $131.7 million.

The president of the International Cricket Council (ICC), India's Jagmohan Dalmiya, will not attend a key meeting of the ICC's executive board in New Zealand this weekend.

Shares in Britain's Wembley Plc soared by 17 percent today after the owners of the home of English soccer received a preliminary bid approach.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is prepared to throw open its Lausanne headquarters and display all gifts received from Olympic bidding cities.

Bobby Charlton and Franz Beckenbauer, famous Wembley foes 33 years ago, go into battle for more World Cup honours this week as the race to stage the tournament in 2006 intensifies.