The draw has been completed for the 2018 World Football Cup, to be staged in London between May 31 and June 9.

Total, the French oil company, has signed up as an official sponsor of the Badminton World Federation's (BWF) newly launched World Tour series.

The impressive growth in income generated by the Olympic Movement from five major programmes ground to a halt in the 2013-16 Olympic cycle, though growth is set to resume in the Pyeongchang 2018/Tokyo 2020 quadrennium.

It has been another supremely testing year for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but, as it draws to a close, the body can point to at least one modest achievement in the edgy field of social media: full gender parity on Twitter.

Etienne Thobois has been appointed director general of the Paris Organising Committee for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, it has been confirmed tonight.

The International Skating Union (ISU) is facing an uncertain commercial future, with testing markets for European TV rights and sponsorship adding to the question-marks arising from last week’s European Commission ruling on the federation’s eligibility rules.

Russia’s Bosco appears to have succeeded Nike of the United States as clothing supplier to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Football clubs which supply squad members for next year’s FIFA World Cup in Russia can look forward to massively increased payments of around $8,530 (£6,360/€7,180) per player per day, in recognition of their “contribution to the successful staging” of the tournament.

Cities may be reluctant to bid for the Olympic Games at the moment, but there is evidently no shortage of people keen to organise them.

A CHF4.85 million (£3.7 million/$4.95 million/€4.1 million) donation from President Alisher Usmanov has enabled the International Fencing Federation (FIE) to report a CHF4.36 million (£3.3 million/$4.45 million/€3.7 million) surplus for 2016.

The South African Sports Minister has joined in the war of words over the host selection process for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, drawing parallels between the "attempted undermining" of the current South African bid and the 2010 FIFA World Cup bidding process.

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has made a forthright intervention in the battle for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, insisting that the Irish bid was “still alive” and that “we won’t be pulling out”.

England wanted to stage a football World Cup in 2018 - and now it is to get its wish.

La Liga, the top Spanish football league, has decided to start investing significant sums in Spanish federations representing other sports.