Japan

Bob Elphinston has been elected as the new president of basketball world governing body FIBA.

With more than 2 months to go before the opening of SPORTELMonaco 2006, exhibitors have committed to more than 85% of the expanded floor space in the Grimaldi Forum.

UEFA today launched a tender for the non-European broadcast rights for UEFA EURO 2008.

There is growing concern among broadcasters worldwide that the International Olympic Committee will give in to the demands of US network NBC to change the scheduling of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to suit US prime-time viewing it is exclusively reported in TV Sports Markets.

UEFA, European football’s governing body, said it would launch the tender process for the marketing of ex-European broadcasting rights for Euro 2008 on 10 August 2006.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) recognised the Athletic Federation of Serbia and the Athletic Federation of Montenegro as two separate Members after Montenegro withdrew from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

Germany and Italy have been warned that they may each lose one of their two Formula One grand prix races from 2007.

Spanish Primera Liga club Barcelona signed deals with three Chinese media companies and one Japanese company to help promote the European and Spanish champions in the Far East.

The FC)dC)ration Internationale de l’Automobile approved the calendar for the 2007 World Rally Championship, adding three new races in Ireland, Norway and Portugal. The new races replace those in Australia, Cyprus and Turkey. The FIA said in a statement that its World Motor Sport Council had approved a calendar which would continue to run on the existing January-November format instead of the proposed August-May switch. It said that it would decide whether to add further events to the calendar at its next World Motor Sport Council meeting.

The 2006 World Cup is generating record television audiences for football in the US.Before the quarter-finals US network ABC averaged 3.7 million viewers for each of its 10 matches while cable channels ESPN and ESPN2 averaged 1.8 million and 1.1 million viewers respectively per match and Spanish-language broadcaster Univision averaged 2.2 million viewers per match.

The adidas Group has agreed a deal to take control of the distribution and license rights for the Reebok brand in China.

FIFA has confirmed its official website for the World Cup has already surpassed the number of page views racked up for the entire 2002 tournament.

Sportswear giant adidas has signed a massive multi-million sponsorship deal with the Japan Football Association (JFA).

ESPN has reached a new multi-year agreement for European basketball’s top club competition – the Euroleague.

The race to become the candidate city for Japan for the 2016 Olympic Games has stepped up after Fukuoka confirmed it wanted to stage the event.

The Olympic Council of Asia and the Doha Asian Games Organising Committee have signed a partnership deal with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co.of Japan, makers of sports drink Pocari Sweat.