United Kingdom

FIFA, world soccer?s governing body, appears to be back-tracking over a confidential report which ranked England's bid to stage the 2006 World Cup below that of rivals Germany and South Africa.

The ICC has sold the television, sponsorship, licensing, merchandise and internet rights to the next two Cricket World Cups for $550million, according to a report in The Times newspaper.

The chief executive of rugby?s Super League has quit.

Video-on-demand (VOD) specialist Yes is to launch a new dedicated sports channel in the UK.

The King commission into match-fixing faces a crucial week in which it will hear the testimony of former South African captain Hansie Cronje, the man at the centre of the storm.

The official website of Euro2000 is preparing for almost inevitable 'denial of service' attacks by hackers during the course of the upcoming Tournament according to project's engineers.

A threatened strike by Belgian police is unlikely to have a major effect on security at next month's Euro 2000 tournament, a police union said on Friday.

Asian club football is set for a complete overhaul within the next 12 months with the establishment of what will effectively be a super-league.

The team heading the England 2006 World Cup bid visit the Bahamas this week as part of its plan to win the support of the three CONCACAF votes.

Internetsoccer.com has added SoccerRecruiting.com and FootballPages.com to its network offering. The acquisitions are intended to extend the company?s reach to both the European fan and the college athlete.

A new annual international sports awards ceremony will be inaugurated in Monaco on May 25. The Laureus Sports Awards, will be hosted by stars of the entertainment world such as Jeff Bridges, Ashley Judd and Dylan McDermott and will broadcast to a hoped-for global audience of 1 billion viewers.

Europe could be about to follow the US with a new wave of privately financed sports stadia ? according to Charles Aster, partner at Coudert Brothers, speaking at the SportBusiness 2000 conference in London.

Manchester United?s club television channel ? MUTV ? has been launched in Scandinavia, giving fans in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland the ability to subscribe to the digital broadcast.

Euro 2000 organisers have freed up well over 50,000 tickets for this summer's championships and plan to sell them from Thursday.

English Premier League soccer club Liverpool is set to float on the stock market in the next two seasons with a price tag of about #400 million ($640m) according to a newspaper report in the UK?s The Times.

English Premier League club Arsenal looks set to be the next British football club in line to join forces with a media company, according to British newspaper reports.