Media

Europe's leading soccer leagues have taken on world governing body FIFA about releasing players for the controversial Confederations' Cup in January.

A Chinese domestic soccer match is to be transmitted live on the internet for the first time, an official of Shanghai Webtv Co Ltd said on Wednesday.

Fomula One racing promoter Bernie Ecclestone plans to push ahead with a $2.0 billion Eurobond issue sale this week.

Businessman Rod McGeoch, who spearheaded Sydney's bid to host the 2000 Olympic Games, has resigned from the board of the Games' organising committee.

Future winners of the European Champions' League could collect up to 70 million Swiss francs ($52.0 million) in prize money, according to figures released by European soccer's ruling body UEFA on Friday.

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.

The English Rugby Football Union (RFU) have played down speculation that England could be expelled from the Five Nations championship in a row over television revenue.

The Seven Network in Australia has revealed it has sold half of the eight $14 million two-year Sydney Olympic telecast sponsorship packages on offer, with demand potentially outstripping supply.

French terrestrial television station TF1 and pay television group Canal Plus have declined to comment on a report they were talking about sharing European football broadcasting rights.

The future of pay-TV in Italy appears hopelessly out of focus following the breakdown of talks between Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Europe and Telecom Italia.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter will meet European soccer chiefs this week to discuss his suggestion to hold the World Cup every two years.

South African media firm Primedia said it would pay 40 million rand ($6.6 million) for a major foothold in one of the country's top soccer clubs, continuing a global trend for media/sport tie-ups.

SportsLine, the US internet sports information service, which runs web-site such as CBS SportsLine, soccernet and Golfweb, is to develop a $50milion European subsidiary in partnership with Intel, MediaOne and Reuters.

The world soccer body FIFA and South Korean car maker Hyundai Motor Co have announced a commercial partnership in the run-up to the 2002 World Cup finals to be co-hosted by South Korea and Japan.

A Tennessee jury has debated punitive damages against Sports Illustrated after awarding boxer Randall "Tex" Cobb $8.5 million in his libel suit against the magazine, which reported that he fixed a 1992 fight with another boxer.

This was the year the NBA took "a big hit," Commissioner David Stern noted at his annual state of the league news conference.