Nordics

UK broadcaster ITV has been warned that its soccer highlights show The Premiership must improve ratings by mid-November if it is to remain at the heart of peak time viewing.

Michel Platini – former French soccer captain and long-time favourite to head European governing body UEFA – has pulled out of the race to replace Lennart Johansson.

European soccer's governing body, UEFA, has five million Swiss francs ($3.08 million) available to compensate clubs who lost money as a result of their Champions League matches being postponed after the September 11 attacks in the United States, chief executive Gerhard Aigner said.

Danish soccer club Odense Boldklub has signed a five-year sponsorship deal with Carlsberg Danmark, a subsidiary of the international brewing group Carlsberg Breweries.

The Council of the European Athletic Association (EAA) has announced that Gothenburg in Sweden will be the host city for the 2006 European Championships.

Adidas, the world's leading soccer brand, has signed with the Argentinean Football Federation (AFA) to equip the Argentinean national team on the road to the World Cup finals in 2002.

The four-country Nordic bid for the 2008 European football championships has announced the venues it is proposing to host the tournament.

English Premier League soccer club Charlton Athletic will be the first team to test the Football Association’s new laser system to help assistant referees judge offside decisions more accurately.

Tele-Cine, the builders of secure TV and internet production facilities, has signed a long-term contract to provide transmission services for the digital TV channel gobarkingmad - a live, 24-hour greyhound racing channel where punters can see a race every five to eight minutes.

Jonas Persson scooped Sweden’s Stockholm and Gotland Entrepreneur of the Year award yesterday for his work as chief executive of licensing company IEC Sports.

The outcome of a test case hearing could determine the long-running dispute over whether the UK television rights to the 2002 soccer World Cup are awarded to terrestrial broadcasters – BBC and ITV – or if the rights owner, German media group Kirch, is allowed to sell them to a satellite or cable platform.

UK satellite broadcaster Sky Sports is to use split-screen technology for its pay-per-view coverage of the final soccer World Cup qualifying matches in England's group.

In the wake of the recent test case ruling involving the Independent Television Commission (ITC), 2002 World Cup TV rights holders the Kirch Gruppe could decide not to part with the rights, meaning UK viewers would be unable to watch the tournament to be held in Japan and South Korea.

The image of pay-per-view (PPV) sports television was tarnished today just weeks before the English Premier League launches its PPV soccer matches after PPV film and sport service u>direct abandoned its plans to broadcast tomorrow’s Intertoto Cup semi-final between Newcastle United and Munich 1860.

The Extreme Sports Channel has extended its coverage beyond Europe after it signed a deal with pay-TV platform Showtime in the Middle East and Africa.

Mercedes-Benz USA has signed an endorsement deal with LPGA professional Annika Sorenstam.