Italy

English soccer club Chelsea is in talks with Italian club Lazio about setting up a rival to the G14 group of top European clubs.

France stayed ahead of Brazil atop of the FIFA world soccer rankings for a third straight month, while Germany climbed three places to fifth.

Sportal, the UK-based sports internet company, will today make last-ditch attempts to save itself from administration.

Lazio shares leapt more than seven percent on Monday after its victory over rival soccer team Juventus at the weekend, while league leaders AS Roma looked as flat on the bourse as they did on the pitch.

The English Football Association has unveiled plans for the nation?s first National Football Centre, inspired by the French Academy at Clairefontaine, near Paris.

The Belgian FA has said it was handing over its investigation into an alleged bribery scandal involving a Yugoslav agent and first division leaders Club Bruges to soccer's world governing body FIFA.

Eleven soccer clubs from five of Europe's smaller nations are to keep alive the prospect of a breakaway "Euroleague" in the face of UEFA's failure to address their concerns.

Manchester United has been crowned the richest soccer club in the world for a third consecutive year.

AC Milan have dismissed a report suggesting they have been offered a cash "bonus" of #1.6 million ($2.28 million) by Barcelona to win their final Champions League Group H match against Leeds United on Wednesday.

The European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti has met with the heads of Real Madrid, AC Milan, Ajax Amsterdam, Bayern Munich and Manchester United in Brussels to discuss the proposed changes to the transfer system.

Leading Swedish clubs AIK Stockholm, IFK Gothenburg and Helsingborg might be interested in playing in a new European league if governing body UEFA backs the idea.

The Extreme Sports Channel has signed a deal with Eurosport for the broadcast of the Tissot / UCI Mountain Bike World Cup 2000.

Germany's top television channel, RTL has bought the coveted free-to-air rights to Champions League soccer from September for the next three seasons.

Italian Serie A soccer club Udinese Calcio has said that for the first half of their financial year to end-December 1999 they posted pre-tax profit of 84.5 billion lire ($39 million) against a previous 37.4 billion.

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson will fight in Helsinki in August against an unnamed opponent.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder thinks money has become too big in modern soccer.