Events

Sports fans will not be able to access moving pictures on the Internet during the Sydney 2000 Games, with International Olympic Committee members seeking to protect the rights of their broadcast sponsors.

An IOC report says preliminary results indicate that the XVIII Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, were broadcast in more countries than ever before and that the global cumulative audience is likely to equal Lillehammer's record??.

There is a rumour that will not go away - this year's Commonwealth Games will have to be shifted from Malaysia to Australia because of smog.

Rupert Murdoch's Fox Group has expanded its sports empire by pushing ahead with an agreement to take a stake in a new arena in Loa Angeles and options in the Los Angeles Lakers basketball and Kings hockey teams.

Italian club's prospectus will aim at investors rather than fans, according to Patrick Harverson of British newspaper The Financial Times.

Iranian women will soon be able to play football, one of the Islamic republic's most prominent sports officials has said.

The Formula-1 race organiser Hungaroring Sport(HS)Rt expects to post a loss because domestic broadcaster MTV cannot pay the rights fees, according to chairman Janos Bereny.

Hungary hopes to score a first on the Internet by broadcasting a soccer game live on the web later this month, a local sports newspaper reported.

Former Springbok captain Morne du Plessis has said he would be willing to succeed Louis Luyt as president of the South African Rugby Football Union (SARFU).

Springbok captain Gary Teichmann and the majority of South Africa's leading rugby union players have announced they were forming a players' association.

Sports management groups in Australia say that sponsorship dollars are harder to come by because they are being siphoned off to Olympic contracts, the Australian Financial review reports.

Australia is considering a bid to host the 2010 World Cup finals, Soccer Australia chairman David Hill said on Tuesday.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has become the latest to sign up as a rights holder for the KL Commonwealth Games.

Deloitte & Touche corporate Finance has been appointed as exclusive Corporate Advisor to the Natal Rugby Union (NRU).

The Dutch government has said on Wednesday it would allow extra flights to land at Schiphol airport for the European Cup Final to be held in Amsterdam next week.

The European Parliament has, as anticipated, voted in favour of draft European Union legislation which will lead to a ban on most tobacco advertising in three years' time.