Events

The BBC has pulled its flagship Saturday sports show Grandstand from its schedules this weekend as a result of intense competition from its rival free-to-air channels.

Bobby Robson, the Newcastle United - and former England - manager, has been named non-executive director of a Sunday newspaper publisher devoted to non?league football, reports the Financial Times.

Fox Sports International has launched a new all-sports channel for Central and Eastern Europe.

The Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) may raise $A85m in ticket sales to events it had described as "sold out".

Two soccer fans were shot and wounded on their way to a soccer game in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday after supporters of an opposing team besieged their bus, a local news service reported.

Rights fees for the major sports properties are set to keep on rising ? according to a panel of experts at the SportBusiness 2000 conference.

Smaller Premier League clubs were ? railroaded? into signing some aspects of yesterday?s broadcast tender agreement, according to a report in The Guardian newspaper.

D.C United has attracted an offer from US cable company Discovery Communications to become a major sponsor of the MLS club in a one-year $150,000 (#95,000) deal, reports the soccer industry newsletter, the Soccer Investor Weekly Bulletin.

Broadband television portal Yes Television has signed an exclusive sports video on demand content agreement with Trans World International (TWI).

FIFA has praised South Africa's pitch for the 2006 World Cup as a technical team began a six-day tour find out how enthusiastic the country was about hosting the competition.

Leading US radio company Clear Channel Communications Inc is to buy SFX Entertainment Inc., the US entertainment and sports group for $4.4 billion in stock and debt in a bid to winmore business from advertisers.

Europe?s first ever live online race meeting is to take place this weekend when three races will be beamed live via the web from England.

The German Football Federation (DFB) and top Bundesliga clubs are bidding to launch their own pay-TV channel for the live broadcast of matches, according to the soccer industry newsletter, The Soccer Investor Weekly Bulletin, based on a report in the Suddeutsche Zeitung.

Australia has put forward Perth as its choice to host the IAAF?s 2005 World Championship. Perth, like bidding rivals London, does not yet have a suitable venue. But, while London has the promise of government backing, the Perth challenge has no such guarantees.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been vindicated by the country's top court when it reversed an earlier defeat for the government in a controversial case over rugby.

Senior motorsport executives in the States have announced the formation of a new sanctioning body whose primary focus will be the organisation of professional road racing throughout North America.