$2.6M OK’d for Thai run at Cup

Thailand's aim of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup received a big boost when Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra approved a $2.6 million budget to prepare the team. The Thai Football Association of Thailand has estimated that the 2006 World Cup project will cost about $4.4 million, leaving it with a substantial shortfall. The association had reached a sponsorship deal with Thai Beer worth about $720,000, but the beer company has put off signing the contract because of a proposed ban on alcohol advertising on Thai television, even though it already has paid the association half the money.

WIMBLEDON THIRD: With Germany's top sports star, Michael Schumacher, driving a Ferrari instead of wielding a tennis racket, it is no surprise that Formula One finished miles ahead of the Wimbledon men's final in a head-on race on German TV on July 6. The surprise was that the Tour de France beat Wimbledon, too. Formula One's French GP (where Schumacher finished third) on RTL not only outdrew Wimbledon, but its audience of 9.77 million viewers dwarfed Wimbledon's 1.24 million. The French cycling classic on ZDF did nearly 60 percent better than Wimbledon's Roger Federer vs. Mark Philippoussis men's final Sunday afternoon. The last time a German man made the final was when Boris Becker lost to Pete Sampras in 1995.

AWARDS FOR SALE: Manchester United legend George Best is selling his English and European Footballer of the Year trophies, which he won in 1968. He said that he hopes to get $240,000 each for them and that he's selling them so he has "money to enjoy." Best, 57, known as a bon vivant, had a liver transplant last year. No word on how he'll do the selling.

— Jay Stuart