Greece

French President Jacques Chirac, promoting the Paris bid to stage the 2008 Olympic Games, has told Russian Olympic officials that the organisation of the Games would be problem-free if they were held in the French capital.

Hyundai signs $14m sponsorship deal with Athens 2004

Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis urged Athens 2004 Olympic Games organisers (ATHOC) on Wednesday to keep working hard to make the event a success.

Greece expects a record Paralympics participation in 2004 after ironing out problems with the International Paralympics Committee (IPC), officials said on Wednesday.

After a campaign which will be remembered for human rights demonstrations and a few ill-chosen words about cannibalism, Olympic chiefs will decide the venue of the 2008 Summer Games this week at what is expected to be an historic meeting.

New York's international network, many hotels and plans to build new sports arenas amounted to a strong bid to stage the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, a United States Olympic Committee (USOC) panel said.

The Olympic Games have become so big they risk pressuring host cities into building big facilities that become "white elephants" once the athletes have packed up their medals and gone home, the new head of International Olympics has said.

Weakness in the US economy, further aggravated by the attacks in the United States, does not seem to be cutting into corporate support for the upcoming Olympics in Utah, a spokeswoman for the group that enlists sponsors has said.

The Organising Committee for the 2004 Olympic Games hope to make 100bn drachmas ($326m) from the licensing of the new Athens 2004 logo, according to a Financial Times registered source.

Greek Olympic officials say work for the 2004 Olympic Games is on track and it will meet all IOC deadlines.

Spain has revealed how much it will pay its Olympic sportsmen in the lead-up to Athens 2004.

The Greek FA (EPO) has called on the Greek government to throw their backing behind a joint bid with Turkey to stage the European soccer championship in 2008.

Alan Sugar's 10-year reign as the owner of Tottenham Hotspur ended on Wednesday when media group ENIC completed its purchase of his 26.9 percent holding, worth around 22 million pounds ($31.84 million).

The possibility of entering British men's and women's soccer teams in the 2004 Athens Olympics has been the subject of high-level talks between British Olympic chiefs and the English FA.

Athens 2004 Olympics organisers (ATHOC) formalised an agreement on Wednesday with International Sports Broadcasting (ISB).

A leading executive with Olympic TOP sponsors Coca-Cola has called on the IOC and NBC to jointly design a new model for leveraging the advertising power of new media.