Europe

Shares in London Stock Market-listed Sportech Plc, owners of betting and gaming firm Littlewoods Leisure, rose yesterday as it announced a deal for Littlewoods to be the exclusive sponsor of ITV's interactive football coverage.

The organisers of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games have given the Greek national Olympic body, the Hellenic Olympic Committee $3million (B

The popularity of the FA Cup is expected to be revived after the Football Association announced plans to play all four FA Cup quarter-finals on the same day.

The former president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Juan Antonio Samaranch, is due to be released from a Spanish hospital later this week.

Unilever – which includes amongst its brands Flora, long-time sponsor of the London Marathon - has appointed the sponsorship strategy consultancy Redmandarin to lead the development of best practice sponsorship guidelines for use by all its regions and brands worldwide.

The government reviews of England’s beleaguered Wembley Stadium and the national athletics stadium at Picketts Lock, both being assessed by former Prison Service director Patrick Carter, will not be available until this Friday and next week respectively.

UK broadband entertainment specialists Sportev said that 36 percent of those who visited its interactive video service paid to watch England beat Australia in the fourth Ashes Test at Headingley on Monday on its pay-per-view (PPV) highlights service.

FIFA President Sebb Blatter has opened a new headquarter in Croatia for the Croatian Football Association.

Canadian marketing company Galaxy Sports has acquired an exclusive license from Umbro Worldwide to sell, market and distribute Umbro branded products to retailers in the United States in a five years deal starting January 1 2002.

CricInfo.com, the digital cricket information company, yesterday confirmed its billionth page view in 2001 – the first time that the site has passed this landmark in a calendar year.

The president of Russian premier division soccer side Fakel Voronezh has resigned following the death of a woman during the half-time interval of a 5-0 defeat by Spartak Moscow last weekend, club officials have confirmed.

BBC Radio Five Live has signed a deal to provide live coverage of all Manchester United’s European home games for the next two years, starting from this season.

Directors of Alternative Investment Market (AIM)-listed sports marketing and management company Proactive Sports Group have purchased 320,000 shares in the company today, spending a total of nearly £75,000 ($108,000/B

Australia's top soccer players are threatening to boycott a World Cup warm-up match against France because of unpaid bonuses.

Greece and Cyprus have agreed to send two satellites into space to advance telecommunications in the region and assist in transmission of the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The New England Patriots have awarded Pepsi the exclusive soft drink pouring rights at CMGI Field as part of a new ten-year partnership agreement.