Events

Bangkok Asian Games Organising Committee (Bagoc) chairman and deputy prime minister Bhichai Rattakul has requested chefs de mission from 43 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) not to withdraw their teams from the Bangkok Asiad.

Thailand will close all schools and colleges, suspend road works and deploy an army of policemen to prevent traffic jams during next month's Asian Games, the chairman of the organising committee said on Monday.

Madison Square Garden has outbid its rivals to stage the most anticipated fight of 1999 when Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis climb into the ring for a heavyweight unification bout on March 13.

Three days before Asia's biggest sporting event kicks off, harried Thai organisers are still battling bugs that threaten to turn the 13th Asian Games into a farce.

President Juan Antonio Samaranch has said the IOC would expel members from the organisation if they were found guilty of wrongdoing in the scandal over allegations that votes to win the games are for sale.

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

The International Olympic Committee has hinted it may step in to offer assistance to the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Games if there is any financial shortfall as a result of sponsors being put off by bribery allegations.

Fast food giant McDonald's has said it is pleased the International Olympic Committee responded quickly to address alleged corruption among its members and remains committed in its support of the Olympics.

Germany's Football Association still plan to visit Qatar next month following new FIFA guidelines aimed at avoiding any trace of scandal in the bid to stage the 2006 World Cup.

The default of tennis superstar Andre Agassi from the $350,000 Sybase Open on Wednesday for cursing near a linesman has led to calls that the ATP Tour's Code of Conduct be changed.

Britain's ONdigital is to televise matches from European soccer's Champions' League live next season as part of a partnership with the ITV commercial TV network.

The group of investors that won the bidding war to buy SkyDome Corp., home of baseball's Toronto Blue Jays, is having to dig deeper into their own pockets to pay the $80-million price tag.

Sports marketing heavyweights ISL have launched a new Tennis Division to handle the ATP Tour?s Super 9 tournaments and the ITF?s Fed Cup.

Seeking to stabilise opinion on the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee's co-ordination commission, Swiss lawyer Marc Hodler, whose allegations of bribery against his colleagues triggered the biggest Olympic scandal in history, has said the hiring of IMG to recruit more 2002 Winter Games sponsors will help the Salt Lake City games to recover.

Quepasa!com will sponsor Fox Sports World Espanol's network coverage of the Copa America '99 which begins on June 29.

UK broadcaster Sky Sports has won the exclusive live rights to the next two Ryder Cups between Europe and the United States.