Ukraine

UK commercial broadcaster Channel 5 has signed a deal with Leeds United for all the Premier League soccer club's UEFA Cup home matches.

Platini, who had a glittering playing career leading France to victory in the 1984 European Championships and also later managed the side, is hoping to gain a seat on both bodies during elections at the UEFA Congress in Stockholm on April 25.

UK broadcaster Channel 5 claimed success with its coverage of Germany’s vital World Cup qualifier with the Ukraine this week.

Dynamo Tbilisi, the former top Soviet side now mired in debt and facing possible extinction, has been put in the hands of Georgia's Interior Ministry.

French League president Gerard Bourgoin promised that tough action would be taken in the wake of the false passports scandal that has rocked the sport -- and that teams will be docked points if found guilty.

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.

Manchester United, the world?s best supported club team, will be playing for big bucks in Wednesday?s Uefa Champions? League.

Holders Real Madrid will find out their first opponents in the 2000/2001 Champions League on

Russian soccer was "a disaster" at home and abroad in 1999, the long serving president of the Russian Football Union has said.

Hrigory Surkis, the powerful boss of champions Dynamo Kiev, has been elected president of the Ukrainian Football Federation (UFF).

Ruvim Aronov, president of the Ukrainian premier division side Tavria Simferopol, has been charged with extortion, a police spokesman in the city in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula said.

Last season's Ukrainian league runners up Shakhtar Donetsk criticised rivals Dynamo Kiev for attempting to seize too much power in Ukrainian soccer.

The Russian Football Union (RFS) has signed a long-term sponsorship deal with Coca Cola Co in a move that should give a much needed shot in the arm to the financially-strapped Russian game.

President of the Ukrainian Football Federation (UFF) Valery Pustovoitenko will not seek re-election when his term expires next week.

Vyacheslav Koloskov faces a serious challenge from an unlikely source when he stands for re-election as president of the Russian Football Union on December 8.

Italian sport swear company, Lotto Sport Italia, has signed up AC Milan and Ukraine striker Andriy Shevchenko on a three-year deal..