Eastern Europe

The UEFA executive committee will hold a meeting next week in the Czech Republic – with its business plan for 2002 top of the agenda.

Legia Warsaw, one of Poland's top soccer clubs, may become the first soccer team in post-communist eastern Europe to go public, its majority owner said yesterday.

According to unofficial figures, UK broadcaster the BBC scooped an average TV audience of 10.3 million for its coverage of the soccer match between England and Greece in a World Cup qualifier last Wednesday.

A British punter has won £27,000 ($37,960) after betting £240 ($338) on Croatia's Goran Ivanisevic to win Wimbledon at odds of 150-1.

English based multi soccer club owner Enic has denied selling its 33 percent stake in Greek outfit AEK Athens. A club statement said that Enic had sold the stake to Greek company Ippoventure SA.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has dismissed rumours that London may have to abandon its plans to host the 2005 World Championships.

Bulgaria will have a play-off system for its premier league next season in a bid to prevent match fixing, the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) announced yesterday.

Macedonia's premier league will be reduced from 14 teams to 12 next season in an attempt to improve the country's soccer, a national football union official said on Thursday.

UK broadcaster Channel 4 has agreed to commission a special programme focusing on triathlon’s European Cup competition.

The Extreme Sports Channel has extended its coverage beyond Europe after it signed a deal with pay-TV platform Showtime in the Middle East and Africa.

French soccer club Paris St-Germain has been fined 15,000 Swiss francs ($9,280/B

Swiss soccer institution, the Wankdorf stadium, has closed its doors for the final time.

A new crowd-pleasing motor-racing Grand Prix series featuring cars racing in the livery of Europe’s top soccer clubs is aiming to reach one billion viewers in its first season, sportbusiness.com can reveal.

Hungary has decided to make a solo bid for the 2008 European Championships after unsuccessful talks with potential co-hosts Croatia, youth and sports Minister Tamas Deutsch said.

Satellite TV interests in Poland are expected to merge in order to accelerate profitability in eastern Europe's strongest television market.

Soccer fans in the former communist East Germany still love to remind their western neighbours of the only time that East and West Germany played each other, in the 1974 World Cup.