Netherlands

Australia's oldest living Olympic athlete, who competed in the 1928 Amsterdam Games, opened the village for the Sydney Olympics as the first of an eventual 10,000 competitors moved in on Saturday.

UK pay-TV digital service Sky Sports has signed three new exclusive soccer deals.

The official website of Euro2000 is preparing for almost inevitable 'denial of service' attacks by hackers during the course of the upcoming Tournament according to project's engineers.

Euro 2000 organisers have freed up well over 50,000 tickets for this summer's championships and plan to sell them from Thursday.

Rangers have dismissed a plan by arch-rivals Celtic that they should both quit Scottish football to join a proposed European league involving top clubs from the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal.

The Dutch government has said on Wednesday it would allow extra flights to land at Schiphol airport for the European Cup Final to be held in Amsterdam next week.

Europe's leading soccer leagues have taken on world governing body FIFA about releasing players for the controversial Confederations' Cup in January.

Organiser of soccer?s Euro 2000 championships has revealed preparations are on schedule and that stadiums would be ready a year in advance of the kick-off.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has said the world governing body's member associations must be unanimous when sanctioning players guilty of doping.

A top dressage tournament has been cancelled after outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease on two farms in the Netherlands, organisers have said.

Extreme Sports Channel, the adventure and adrenaline sports service, is to broadcast in Russia.

Former state-owned telecommunications company eircom plc is the new official sponsor of Ireland's national soccer team, the Football Association of Ireland has confirmed.

Italy's Foreign Ministry summoned the Dutch ambassador to Italy on Monday to deplore the treatment of Italian journalists detained by police at Sunday's Euro 2000 soccer championships final in Rotterdam.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said a venue switch for the Euro 2000 match between England and Germany from the small Belgian stadium of Charleroi should be considered to minimise the risk of crowd trouble.

UEFA?s official EURO 2000 website will be launched tomorrow at a special ceremony in the King Baudouin stadium in Brussels.

A simulated riot and fire drill intended as a test of security procedures for next year's European soccer championship had to be cut short at the weekend after a group of real hooligans turned up. The police, ambulance and fire services had invited about 800 volunteers to simulate a mass exit from a pretend fire in Rotterdam's De Kuip stadium and disturbances outside the ground.