France

The eight quarter-finalists from the 1999 World Cup will be granted automatic qualification for the 2003 tournament in Australia and New Zealand, the International Rugby Board said on Friday.

Germany is considering bidding for the Olympic Games and will unveil details of its plans next week, the German Olympic Committee (NOK) has said.

European Rugby Cup Ltd (ERC) has signed a five-year partnership deal with the Paris-based sports marketing agency Havas Advertising Sports.

The race to host the Olympic Games in 2008 has now begun in earnest following the announcement of the shortlist by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

There is only a 50-50 chance of obtaining a reliable test for the banned drug EPO ahead of the Sydney Olympics, according to International Olympic Committee (IOC) medical commission chief Patrick Schamasch.

The Television Corporation has acquired independent Venner TV Ltd (VTV), producers of Channel 4?s coverage in the UK of the Tour de France and a host of other sporting programmes.

English soccer chiefs were planning to hold an urgent meeting with European governing body UEFA today in a bid to stop a new generation of hooligans from destroying their Euro 2000 campaign and seriously undermining their 2006 World Cup bid.

French commercial TV station TF1 and pay-TV channel Canal Plus have acquired stakes in sports channels Eurosport International and Eurosport France from Disney Corp cable TV sports network ESPN.

England and France have emerged as the front runners in the bid to hosts the Rugby World Cup in 2007.

Jean-Claude Killy has said he would quit as president of the company that organises the Tour de France at the end of the year.

The 2000 NBA All-Star Game, taking place in the San Francisco Bay Area, February 11- 13, will be shown in 205 countries, with a potential audience of 750million households.

Formula One has announced a new $48million `entry fee' for new teams.

PSINet , the Internet solutions provider and full sponsor of Euro 2000, expects up to 150 million hits per day next summer from visitors to the official Euro 2000 site - a figure which would break records for daily site usage. World Cup France '98 recorded 70 million hits per day compared to less than a million hits per day for Euro 96.

A judge in soccer-mad Argentina has suspended play in the national league because of recent outbreaks of violence.

UEFA president Lennart Johansson has said football would not progress if he lost the FIFA presidency vote to Sepp Blatter on June 8.

Sepp Blatter's bid to become FIFA president was given a significant boost on Friday when England declared it would vote for him in Monday's election.