Woods, who won three of last year's four golfing majors, will compete for the honour alongside swimmers Pieter van den Hoogenband and Ian Thorpe, Formula One driver Michael Schumacher and Olympic rower Steve Redgrave. The accolade of World Sportswoman of the Year will be fought out between tennis player Venus Williams, golfer Karrie Webb, swimmer Inge de Bruijn, athletes Marion Jones and Cathy Freeman, while the nominees for World Team of the Year are the Australian cricket side, the New York Yankees baseballers, the French Men's national football team, the Cameroon Men's Olympic Football Team and Real Madrid.
Negotiations are to be taken up presently in Stuttgart to draw up the details of the support.
Deutsche Bank Private Banking has also been won as a new sponsor for Laureus. The sporting award is regarded very highly by the media. The premiere of the Laureus awards was watched by over a billion viewers in 130 countries worldwide last year. In Berlin, it was also announced to the numerous international and German media that soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer has been accepted as the 39th member of the World Sports Academy. This Academy is responsible for deciding which of the world athletes receive an award in the seven different categories.