Australia

Australia will reduce their National Soccer League (NSL) from 16 clubs to 12 next season, Soccer Australia (SA) announced on Monday.

Australian soccer teams the Brisbane Strikers and Canberra Cosmos have vowed to take legal action over their axing from the National Soccer League.

The British and Irish Lions Tour of Australia will make its U.S. television network debut on Fox Sports World beginning with the June 8 match against Western Australia.

Australian quarantine officials said on Wednesday they were on full alert for the arrival of thousands of British and Irish rugby union fans who could carry foot-and-mouth disease into Australia.

Australian broadcaster Seven Network has defended its decision to only show delayed coverage of the first two-hour sessions of this summer’s Ashes contests between England and Australia, stating that it could not justify screening the cricket in an early evening timeslot.

Australian spinner Shane Warne has ended his high profile association with Nike and signed a cricket boot deal worth more than US$500,000 with European company Mitre.

A new regional Australian sports and recreation body, Sports Industry Queensland (SIQ), has been set up to give sports industry professionals in the State of Queensland a better chance of competing for international and domestic business.

Cricket fans will be able to listen to live commentary on the internet for the current one-day international cricket series involving England, Pakistan and Australia.

The future of the Olympic Games looks set to pass into the hands of a Belgian surgeon-cum-yachtsman who has earned a reputation for a calm touch in a storm.

The biggest names from last year's Sydney Olympics are back in Australia for the Goodwill Games with the event's organisers hoping Maurice Greene, Marion Jones and Ian Thorpe can save the event from oblivion.

England's top rugby union players, clubs and the Rugby Football Union (RFU) "are all going to live and die together", the RFU's chief executive Francis Baron said at Twickenham today when he outlined the terms of a new eight-year agreement for the sport.

The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) in Australia will use UK financial software house SunSystems to manage its revenue streams which total over £36 million ($100m).

Four Australian state soccer federations have called for an emergency general meeting to vote in a new board for Soccer Australia (SA), according to state broadcaster ABC.

War veterans complained on Friday that the new "Diggers" nickname given to Australia's world championship team in Edmonton, Canada, was inappropriate.

A row has broken out over the sale of Sir Donald Bradman memorabilia, the value of which has soared since the Australian cricket legend died in February, aged 92.

An investigation into the death of a marshal during the Australian Grand Prix last March is likely to clear local organisers, Formula One sources said on Monday.