Europe

Portugese soccer club Benfica and sports marketing agency Global Sportnet have signed an exclusive marketing deal for the club?s television rights to home matches.

Newcastle United's St. James' Park will host England's World Cup qualifier against Albania, the FA has said.

Seven candidates are in the running for one of tennis' key jobs, as the International Tennis Federation votes for a new president next week.

Sports channel Eurosport is setting up a separate sales team to handle advertising and sponsorship sales of events and youth programming, under the YOZ (Youth Only Zone) banner.

Pay-per-view television company U>direct, which earlier this year covered England?s World Cup qualifying match away against Finland, is understood to be bidding for the re-structured pay-per-view rights to England?s Premier League.

The Azerbaijan soccer league has been suspended indefinitely after 11 of the 12 top flight clubs refused to play at the weekend when the season was set to resume after the winter break.

Warsaw is ready to campaign for the 2016 Summer Olympics - more than seven years before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) starts considering official bids.

PR company Bell Pottinger Communications has a new role in sport.

The French capital announced it was bidding for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

Eidos plc, developers and publishers of entertainment software, have signed an exclusive six year agreement with International Sports Multimedia (ISM) to publish computer and video games based on a license from the International Olympic Committee.

International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch has been grilled about corruption in the Olympic movement by a US Congressional panel which challenged him to back up his promise of sweeping changes with action.

The Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitas has failed to persuade Olympic shooting champion Michael Diamond to surrender his Australian citizenship for a Greek one in time for the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004.

Movie star Hugh Grant and former England star Gary Lineker were among the star names at a special send-off to the FIFA team inspecting England's chances of hosting the 2006 World Cup.

The International Olympic Committee has finally received some good news after a week of negative headlines - it looks set to secure a valuable tax-break courtesy of the Swiss government.

Four Greek construction consortia have been awarded contracts to build athlete's housing for the 2004 Games in Athens, after offering an average discount of nine per cent for the 100 billion drachma ($261 million) project.

The Champions League could revert to one group stage followed by knock-out rounds and the UEFA Cup might adopt a similar format as a result of a UEFA meeting in Switzerland.