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The Beckham Brand

The former England football captain, David Beckham, will today start a new job - as the richest footballer in history. but most of that money will come from business activities not fotballing performances. This report from Andy Farrant: Listen to the story While Beckham the footballer is worth millions of dollars, Beckham as a commercial brand is worth tens of millions. His basic salary as a player for his new club is a comparatively modest six million dollars a year. The rest is made up from advertising contracts, sponsorship deals and profit sharing. While there's no doubt that Los Angeles Galaxy has bought 32 year old Beckham the footballer to raise its profile and that of Major League Soccer in general, it's also invested in Beckham the brand. His previous club, Real Madrid, can testify to the success of that brand. The Spanish club made six hundred million dollars in marketing and commercial activities in the four years he played there, an increase in profits of one hundred and thirty seven per cent. Already, his new American club has attracted an extra twenty million dollars in sponsorship. But the big question is can the Beckham brand be successfully exported from Europe to America? He's better known in Europe, Africa and Asia than in the United States where football, or soccer as it's called, is a poor relation to basketball, baseball and American football. And a recent survey among Americans reveals that David Beckham is more famous for being married to a member of the Spice Girl pop group than for his footballing exploits. Andy Farrant, BBC Sports News Reporter Listen to the words

The new Seven Wonders

The new Seven Wonders

The ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru The results of a worldwide vote to choose the New Seven Wonders of the World have been announced at a ceremony in Lisbon. In contrast to the wonders of the ancient world, the new list emerged from an exercise in which tens of millions of votes were cast by people around the world. This report from Alison Roberts: Listen to the story The seven wonders chosen in a global poll in which a hundred-million votes were said to have been cast online, by phone and by text message were announced one by one in random order towards the end of a glitzy ceremony in Lisbon. First came the Great Wall of China, said to be the only monument visible from space. Its certificate was handed offer to Chinese officials by Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. Next up was Petra, the stone-carved ancient city in Jordan, whose royal family led a campaign for it. Rio de Janeiro's Statue of Christ the Redeemer also made the cut after an appeal by Brazil's president for his compatriots to vote. There were two other winners from the Americas - Machu Picchu in Peru and Chichen Itza in Mexico - representatives of ancient civilisations unknown to Antipater of Sidon, the Greek writer who drew up the original list of wonders two-thousand-two-hundred years ago. The last two wonders were Rome's Colosseum, described in its introduction as a symbol of joy and suffering, and the Taj Mahal. That was announced by Bollywood star Bipasha Basu who, along with Oscar-winning actors Ben Kingsley and Hilary Swank presented the ceremony. The Pyramids at Giza, the only wonder on the original list still standing, had been made an honorary candidate, guaranteed a mention. But Egyptian officials shunned the whole initiative anyway as too commercial. At the ceremony's close, its Swiss organiser, Bernard Weber, announced his next initiative - a global poll on the seven natural wonders of the world. Alison Roberts, BBC, Lisbon Listen to the words