Germany

Sports.com has launched three new country-specific Web sites, providing extensive, local coverage of all relevant sports in Germany, Italy and Spain in each country's language.

European soccer's showcase club competition, the Champions League, should be shorter, according to Bayern Munich commercial manager Uli Hoeness.

Germany's players will receive 150,000 marks ($77,160) each if they retain their crown at next year's European Championship finals, the German Football Federation (DFB) said on Tuesday.

Outbreaks of hooliganism by English and German fans in France should not affect those nations' bids to stage the 2006 World Cup finals, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said.

UEFA's executive committee look set to discuss radical new changes to the format of their three European club competitions later this month in a bid to combat the threat of a breakaway Super League.

Soccer matches should be played in three periods instead of two halves to make them more attractive for television, Bayern Munich vice-president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge suggested on Friday.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has promised his government would do all it could to support Germany's bid for the 2006 World Cup.

The NFL has committed itself to its international activity, as it prepares for a seventh season in Europe.

Nigeria withdrew their bid to host the World Cup Finals in 2006 to help South Africa win the right to stage the tournament, Nigerian sports minister Emeka Omeruah.

European athletics chiefs have agreed to stage a new indoor European Cup in 2001, an athletics source said recently.

South Africa will be the first of five countries to present their official bids to host the 2006 World Cup finals.

US investment group Liberty Media has moved to calm fears that its buy-out of six German cable television companies from Deutsche Telekom had stalled by announcing that a deal has been signed worth around $4.95 billion (?5.5bn).

The Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) is hoping to raise US$3 million (?3.29m) in sponsorship for the 2002 World Cup.

SportBusiness Group is expanding its global reach by opening offices in Munich, Germany.

Kirch, Germany?s second-biggest media company, has agreed to sell some broadcast rights for the 2002 and 2006 soccer World Cups to Germany?s two state-owned channels ARD and ZDF for a reported $115 million.

EM.TV & Merchandising AG has sold its 24.5 percent in the holding company that organises Formula One to its partner, the Kirch Group, for DM1.3bn ($590m).