Europe

The IMG Swiss division of the IMG agency has been appointed as the exclusive marketing partner of European action sports event Freestyle.ch.

The Badminton England national governing body has announced that the All England Open Badminton Championships will remain at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham until 2021.

The World Curling Federation (WCF) has announced that its 2016 World Men’s Championship will take place in the Swiss city of Basel.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hit back at critics of Sochi’s winter Olympics whose main concern was “competition in international politics,” adding the Games helped to “open Russia’s soul” to the world.

Bucharest in Romania has been selected as the host city of the International Basketball Federation’s (Fiba) inaugural 3x3 European Championships.

A takeover bid for English Super League club Bradford Bulls has collapsed, leading to the rugby league outfit being docked six points for breaching operational rules the second time in three seasons.

Organisers of the fifth Leaders Sport Network have announced that the event in Lisbon, Portugal has sold out.

German Bundesliga football club Bayern Munich has taken a big step in its bid to develop its global brand by announcing that its first overseas office will open in New York on April 1.

SportAccord Convention has announced that PwC will be a gold partner for this year’s event in Belek/Antalya, Turkey.

Spanish Liga football club Barcelona announced today (Monday) that it would pay the Spanish tax authorities €13.55m ($18.6m) as the dispute over last summer’s signing of Neymar rumbles on.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach hailed the “excellent” Sochi winter Olympic Games and the “amazing” transformation of the host city in Russia after the event drew to a close yesterday (Sunday).

Uefa president Michel Platini has again rejected criticism that the expansion of the European Championships to 24 teams for its 2016 edition in France will dilute the quality of the competition, while he has reiterated that the new ‘Week of Football’ concept will boost the attractiveness of national team football.

The Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation has cancelled a tournament sanctioned by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) that was due to take place on February 25 due to the political situation in the country.

The first half of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket tournament will be staged outside India after the country’s government said that it cannot provide security for the event owing to a clash with the general election.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Uefa, European football’s governing body, have signed a wide-ranging Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for mutual co-operation in the development of the game.

Top-level snooker will return to Preston for the first time in nine years after the sport’s global governing body chose to relocate its Players Championship Grand Final to the English city.