MENA

Martina Hingis and Mary Pierce did not exactly blaze a trail for feminism when they played in the first women's tennis tournament in the Gulf region this week. But they were part of a quiet revolution taking place in the area.

UEFA Cup and European Super Cup winners Galatasaray and European champions Real Madrid will represent Europe at the second World Club Championship from July 29 to August 12 in Spain, FIFA said on Thursday.

Middle Eastern Emirate Airlines has announced it has teamed up with the Australian Cricket Board to sponsor the Australian World Cup team this year.

Online ticket company ts.com has scooped the award of `best application service provider? at a Euro-wide award ceremony.

Iran, the United States and Northern Ireland have been jointly awarded FIFA's 1998 Fair Play prize.

Octagon CSI, the television division of the Octagon Group, will unveil a number of new football programming opportunities at this year?s Sportel in Monaco.

English Premier League soccer players could register goals that are repeated on television as their own intellectual property, according to a report in The Observer newspaper.

Michael Jordan confirmed yesterday that the NBA Player's union is unified and will never accept a hard salary cap.

This was the year the NBA took "a big hit," Commissioner David Stern noted at his annual state of the league news conference.

Michael Jordan has been showing the youngsters how it is done in Washington Wizard workouts, but the 38-year-old team president is holding off on a decision about returning to the court for the NBA team.

Online sports media company SportsLine.com has bought some assets of MVP.com, the online retailer with ties to basketball star Michael Jordan and hockey star Wayne Gretzky, and tapped a USA Networks unit to operate its flagship internet sports service's online store.

Nike chairman and CEO Phil Knight has named Mindy Grossman as global vice president of apparel.

Basketball legend Michael Jordan will withdraw gradually from the product endorsement arena as he makes the transition from superstar athlete to businessman, several companies have said.

Malaysian sports officials were dumbfounded after the country lost its bid to host the 2006 Asian Games to Qatar.

South Korea's preparations for the co-hosting of the 2002 World Cup are well on track to be completed before the December 2001 deadline set by FIFA, according to event co-ordinator Peter Velappan.

The value of the Dubai World Cup has been increased by $1 million to $5 million - making it the world's richest horse race.