USA

Consulting company Accenture Plc has become the first major sponsor to end its association with Tiger Woods since his alleged extra-marital affairs.

Organisers of the Giro d'Italia have met with city authorities in Washington DC, USA, and tentatively agreed to host the opening stages of the famous cycling race in the city in 2012.

Advertisements featuring Tiger Woods have disappeared from primetime US television and cable channels following reports of his extramarital affairs, according to data from Nielsen.

US college Hofstra University has become the second college in a week to drop an expensive American Football programme.

The average salary of a player in Major League Baseball is $2.996 million according to the annual report of the players’ association.

Major League Baseball commissioner Allan ‘Bud’ Selig has decided to step down when his current contract runs out in 2012, according to the Chicago Tribune.

New York senator Charles Schumer is urging the NBA to stop adidas moving production of NBA kits to Thailand.

Nine rebel clubs from the second-tier football league in the United States and Canada will compete in a new North American Soccer League (NASL) from April next year, officials said yesterday.

Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber said yesterday that former England captain and Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham has an option to own a future 20th franchise.

The team bidding to bring the World Cup to the US in either 2018 or 2022 has signed up to take part in the Soccerex Global Convention.

The 80,000-seat Silverdome stadium in Pontiac, Michigan, which cost more than $55 million to build in 1975, has been sold at auction for $583,000 by the debt-ridden city authorities which own it.

Arena Football One (AF1), the indoor American Football league founded in 2009 to replace the indefinitely suspended Arena Football League (AFL), announced yesterday it has submitted a formal offer to purchase the assets of the AFL.

Seven football clubs previously part of US professional football league the United Soccer Leagues (USL) have broken away to form a new league and begun seeking recognition from football authorities.

Former Chelsea and Manchester United chief executive Peter Kenyon has joined athlete representation agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) Sports to lead its international growth.

Clothing brand Izod has signed a multi-year deal with the Indy Racing League (IRL), the sanctioning body for the IndyCar Series, to become title sponsor from the 2010 season.

Sportswear brand adidas ended a $3 million sponsorship of the University of Central Florida’s athletic department after a son of basketball star Michael Jordan played a match for the university wearing Nike shoes named after his father.

US golfer Ryan Moore, the 2004 US Amateur champion, has signed an unusual agreement with sponsor Scratch Golf that will see him take a stake in the company, with the opportunity to earn performance bonuses and additional payments.

The New York Yankees win in the MLB’s World Series was worth $59.6 million in direct spending to business in New York city.