Greece

Athoc 2004, the organising body for the Athens Olympics, is setting up an online management information system to cover more than 130 games-related projects being launched this year.

British Olympic chiefs will meet government ministers today to decide whether London can launch a bid to bring the Olympic Games back to Britain for the first time since 1948.

The Athens Olympics will give a 2.5 percent fillip to Greece's gross national product in 2004, the year the games return to their ancestral roots, organising committee (ATHOC) head Gianna Angelopoulou said.

A former senior 2004 Athens Games official has accused the organising committee (ATHOC) of cultivating "virtual reality instead of substance and essence" and its president Gianna Angelopoulos of inertia.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) team visiting Athens on November 22-24 will be examining progress in organising the 2004 Games. For the full details see the FEATURES section of sportbusiness.com.

Olympic tennis could suffer in 2004 because of a scheduling clash with the U.S. Open, Larry Scott, head of the ATP Tour, has said.

The woman running a race against the clock to stage the 2004 Olympics in Athens has dismissed talk that the city could lose the Games and said the Greek capital would lay on a sporting show to rival Sydney's success.

The Extreme Sports Channel has signed a deal with United Sport to broadcast Wake Up!

NBC expects to sell nearly $1 billion in advertising for the Sydney 2000 Olympics this summer, and has already sold more advertising than the record sum from the Atlanta Games in 1996.

The Greek government?s Culture Minister Theodoros Pangalos, whose ministry oversees Olympic preparations, has admitted that the organizers of the 2004 Games have fallen behind schedule.

U.S. insurance group John Hancock has agreed to renew its Olympic sponsorship for a further four years, despite its president's forceful criticism last year of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

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.

Five years after its bitter defeat to Sydney in the race for the 2000 Olympics, China looks ready to bid for 2008.

The most important case since the Bosman ruling in the European Court of Justice revolutionised players rights will be made in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne next week.

Greek Cypriot sportsmen are fuming at the decision of their Greek cousins to stage a joint-bid with arch-rivals Turkey to host the Euro 2008 tournament.

UK Athletics has set up a sports science committee for #1m ($1.4m) to give top athletes the best possible back-up at the next Olympic Games in Athens in 2004.