Scandinavia

No more international club soccer matches will be held in Stockholm because of the high police costs of manning them, Swedish Football Association president Lars-Ake Lagrell said.

MTG, the Scandinavian media company, has bought 17% of the share capital of Stockholm-based soccer club Djurgaarden, worth SKr7m ($781,000), according to news sources.

Stockholm?s Olympic Stadium will host its first speedway meeting for nearly thirty years when the Speedway Grand Prix hits the Swedish capital on Saturday 29 September 2001.

UEFA has ordered the Moldova soccer federation (MSF) to close down the main stadium in the capital of the tiny, impoverished ex-Soviet republic for safety reasons.

Seeking to stabilise opinion on the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee's co-ordination commission, Swiss lawyer Marc Hodler, whose allegations of bribery against his colleagues triggered the biggest Olympic scandal in history, has said the hiring of IMG to recruit more 2002 Winter Games sponsors will help the Salt Lake City games to recover.

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

Kellogg's and the National Basketball Association have signed a multi-year sponsorship agreement.

English soccer club Leeds United has joined forces with two of Scandinavia?s largest retail distributors in a bid to increase brand awareness and maximise marketing opportunities worldwide.

Fox Kids Europe, the pan-European children?s entertainment company, and interactive sports content provider Sportal have signed a long-term agreement to launch dedicated children?s sports sites.

NHL International, in conjunction with ESPN International, will distribute the 2000 NHL

The U.S. women's World Cup winning soccer team will boycott the Australia Cup next month because of unresolved contract negotiations. Instead, The U.S. Soccer Federation will send young players to the four-nation tournament.

Olympic leaders said on Friday they would be holding immediate talks on whether Salt Lake City broke Olympic rules in its campaign to win the race to stage the 2002 Winter Games.

Sweden?s answer to Rupert Murdoch, Jan Stenbeck, has bought a 17 per cent stake in soccer team Djurgarden. Stenbeck's company, Modern Times Group (MTG), owns several media companies, including the free commuter newspaper Metro which was introduced in the UK two years ago.

Internet TV company Kamera is to broadcast the ATP Scania Stockholm Open online next week.

The World Cup short-course swimming series has been cut from 12 meetings to 10 and will offer more prize money.

FIFA has ordered Portugal's Benfica to deliver immediately a bank guarantee to Norway's Rosenborg Trondheim to honour a transfer agreement for striker Sigurd Rushfeldt, the Norwegian Football Association has said.