Romania
Business

Romania's Defence Minister removed Colonel Cristian Gatu as head of Steaua Bucharest sport club on Tuesday in what could be a step towards loosening the military's grip of the country's two top teams.
Media

Romania's sports minister has said his country would send more than 200 competitors to the Sydney 2000 Games, contrary to previous doubts raised by the head of the Romanian Olympic Committee Ion Tiriac.

UEFA chief executive Gerhard Aigner has justified the threat to kick England out of Euro 2000, saying the hooligans posed "specific problems" related to drink and the large numbers who arrive without match tickets.
Business

France 98 has not delivered the goods for UK commercial TV netork ITV despite the apparent deluge of television advertising related to football, reports the London Sunday Telegraph.

European soccer body UEFA says it is to plough 35 million Swiss francs ($23.57 million) back into the sport this season.
Business

English soccer chiefs were planning to hold an urgent meeting with European governing body UEFA today in a bid to stop a new generation of hooligans from destroying their Euro 2000 campaign and seriously undermining their 2006 World Cup bid.
Media

England will not be barred from the World Cup finals despite the behaviour of its hooligan fans, FIFA said on Monday.
Business

European athletics chiefs have agreed to stage a new indoor European Cup in 2001, an athletics source said recently.

German border police have stopped 36 known troublemakers from travelling to Euro2000 since last week and had detained 116 others wanted for different crimes.
Stadia

Colombian leftist guerrillas toasted Brazil's and Mexico's World Cup victories and vowed to fight for the right of every Colombian to enjoy "happiness, fiesta and football."
Business

The main shareholder in Romania's National Bucharest has had his licence withdrawn by the country's soccer federation for failing to honour the contracts of 15 players, a club official has said.

A final allotment of 48,000 Euro 2000 tickets will go on sale today, although they are available only to supporters in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Media

UK broadcaster ITV Sport reports an audience of 21 million for its live transmission of England?s 2-1 World Cup defeat at the hands of Romania.
Business

The head of Romania's referees panel, dismissed this week by domestic soccer bosses over an attempted crackdown on dubious refereeing, has appealed to European governing body UEFA.
Media

The Extreme Group and UPCtv is to make joint venture the Extreme Sports Channel available in Romania and Bulgaria adding a total of potential 120,000 subscribers to its reach.

The World Cup failed to boost advertising revenue for Britain?s ITV network which saw June figures fall some #8 million ($12m).
Business

English Premier League side Leicester could pocket up to #7million from a new sponsorship deal with IT electronics manufacturer LG Electronics.
Media

More than half of Italian soccer fans say that commercialisation is behind the downturn in fortunes experienced by their country's football teams.