South America

Sunday night's World Cup final between France and Brazil set a new television audience record in host country France with an average of 23.626 million people watching, a spokesman for audience measurement body Mediametrie said on Monday.

Germany has added weight to its bid to stage the 2006 World Cup finals by naming Franz Beckenbauer as head of their application.

"Morocco is officially a candidate for the World Cup finals in 2006," Youth and Sports Minister Ahmed Moussaoui stated yesterday.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter recommended on Thursday that South Korea and Japan co-host the 2001 Confederations Cup to prepare for the following year's World Cup soccer finals in the two countries.

The British Government is looking for a new Sports Minister after Tony Banks decided to stand down in the latest Cabinet reshuffle.

Coca-Cola has signed Brazil?s legendary soccer superstar Pele in a two-year, $100million (?112.9)?plus advertising deal.
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Commercial UK broadcaster Channel 5 has won the rights to show exclusive live coverage of the FIFA Confederations Cup.

CART has rescheduled the release of its fourth-quarter and year-end financial results.

The French National Soccer League (LNF) has suspended St Etienne players Alex of Brazil and Maxim Levytsky from Ukraine pending an investigation into their passports.

SportsYA!, the internet portal serving Latin America, Spain and U.S. Hispanic markets, has secured $10 million capital investment in its latest round of financing from investors.

Moroccan officials said they felt betrayed on Thursday after falling out in the first round of voting to stage the 2006 World Cup ? and then faced further humiliation when their support for South Africa failed to bring the tournament to the continent.

England's bid to stage the 2006 World Cup finals appears to have been dealt a fatal blow by the violent behaviour of the hooligans who caused mayhem over the weekend in Belgium, according to senior FIFA figures.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has said the 2006 Word Cup finals should go to Africa if one of the continent's two bidding countries can meet all the conditions required to stage the event.

Organisers of the Brazilian Grand Prix risked having the race wiped from the 2001 calendar following the disruption in the qualifying sessions for this year's race, FIA president Max Mosley has said.

Colombians are furious over Ameriko, the multi-cultured mascot for this year's Copa America which the Andean nation hosts in July.

The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) is pushing on with the "world-first" indoor series against South Africa in Melbourne in August, despite concerns over the venue's playing surface.