A fief was the central element of feudalism. It consisted of heritable property or rights granted by an overlord to a vassal who held it in fealty in return for a form of feudal allegiance and service given by the personal ceremonies of homage and fealty; the fees were lands or revenue-producing real property held in feudal land tenure: these are known as fiefs or fiefdoms. However, not only land but anything of value could be held in fee, including governmental office, rights of exploitation such as hunting or fishing, monopolies in trade, tax farms. In ancient Rome a "benefice" was a gift of land for life as a reward for services rendered to the state. In medieval Latin European documents, a land grant in exchange for service continued to be called a beneficium; the term feudum, or feodum, began to replace beneficium in the documents. The first attested instance of this is from 984, although more primitive forms were seen up to one hundred years earlier; the origin of the feudum and why it replaced beneficium has not been well established, but there are multiple theories, described below.

The most held theory is put forth by Marc Bloch that it is related to the Frankish term *fehu-ôd, in which *fehu means "cattle" and -ôd means "goods", implying "a moveable object of value." When land replaced currency as the primary store of value, the Germanic word *fehu-ôd replaced the Latin word beneficium. This Germanic origin theory was shared by William Stubbs in the 19th century. A theory put forward by Archibald R. Lewis is that the origin of'fief' is not feudum, but rather foderum, the earliest attested use being in Astronomus's Vita Hludovici. In that text is a passage about Louis the Pious which says annona militaris quas vulgo foderum vocant, which can be translated as " military provender which they popularly call'fodder'."A theory by Alauddin Samarrai suggests an Arabic origin, from fuyū. Samarrai's theory is that early forms of'fief' include feo, feuz and others, the plurality of forms suggesting origins from a loanword. First use of these terms was in Languedoc, one of the least-Germanized areas of Europe, bordering Muslim Spain, where the earliest use of feuum as a replacement for beneficium can be dated to 899, the same year a Muslim base at Fraxinetum in Provence was established.

It is possible, Samarrai says, that French scribes, writing in Latin, attempted to transliterate the Arabic word fuyū, being used by the Muslims at the time, resulting in a plurality of forms - feo, feuz and others - from which feudum derived. Samarrai, however advises medieval and early modern Muslim scribes used etymologically "fanciful roots" in order to claim the most outlandish things to be of Arabian or Muslim origin. In the 10th and 11th centuries the Latin terms for fee could be used either to describe dependent tenure held by a man from his lord, as the term is used now by historians, or it could mean "property", it lacked a precise meaning until the middle of the 12th century, when it received formal definition from land lawyers. In English usage, the word "fee" is first attested around 1250–1300. In French, the term fief is found from the middle of the 13th century, derived from the 11th-century terms feu, fie; the odd appearance of the second f in the form fief may be due to influence from the verb fiever'to grant in fee'.

In French, one finds "seigneurie", which gives rise to the expression "seigneurial system" to describe feudalism. Vassalage did not imply the giving or receiving of landholdings, but by the 8th century the giving of a landholding was becoming standard; the granting of a landholding to a vassal did not relinquish the lord's property rights, but only the use of the lands and their income. In Francia, Charles Martel was the first to make large-scale and systematic use of the remuneration of vassals by the concession of the usufruct of lands for the life of the vassal, or, sometimes extending to the second or third generation. By the middle of the 10th century, fee had become hereditary; the eldest son of a deceased vassal would inherit, but first he had to do homage and fealty to the lord and pay a "relief" for the land. The fees of the 11th and the 12th century derived from two separate sources; the first was land carved out of the estates of the upper nobility. The second source was allodial land transformed into dependent tenures.

During the 10th century in northern France and the 11th century in France south of the Loire, local magnates either recruited or forced the owners of allodial holdings into dependent relationships and they were turned into fiefs. The process occurred in Germany, was still going on in the 13th century. In England, Henry II transformed them into important sources of royal patronage; the discontent of barons with royal claims to arbitrarily assessed "reliefs" and other feudal payments unde

Damjan Zlatnar is a Slovenian-born Serbian former athlete who specialized in the 110 metre hurdles and bobsledder. He competed for Slovenia at the 1999 World Indoor Championships, the 2001 World Championships the 2004 Olympic Games, the 2007 European Indoor Championships, the 2007 World Championships, the 2008 World Indoor Championships and the 2008 Olympic Games without reaching the final round, his personal best time is 13.56 seconds, achieved in June 2007 in Novo Mesto. Zlatnar switched nationality and competed for Serbia at the FIBT World Championships 2012 in Bobsleigh Two man, he is now an athletics coach, among others, Agata Zupin

The 1997–98 Scottish Premier Division season was the last season of Scottish Football League Premier Division football before the change to the Scottish Premier League. It began on 1 August 1997; the 1997–98 Scottish Premier Division season ended in success for Celtic who won the title by two points from nearest rivals Rangers, beating St Johnstone on the last day to clinch the title. Claiming the title would have given Rangers a record breaking 10 Scottish League Championship in a row. Heart of Midlothian ran Celtic and Rangers close to winning the title, led for large spells of the season before falling away towards the end of the season. Hibernian were relegated to the First Division after finishing bottom; as champions, Celtic qualified for the Champions League while Rangers were joined by Kilmarnock in qualifying for the UEFA Cup. Third-placed Heart of Midlothian qualified for the last-ever Cup Winners' Cup as Scottish Cup winners. Rangers were involved in some of the season's big transfers with Lorenzo Amoruso and Marco Negri arriving in multimillion-pound deals.

Paul Gascoigne left the club, heading for Middlesbrough in a £3.5m deal. Negri went on to become only the second player to score five goals in a Scottish Premier Division match, equalling Paul Sturrock's record by netting all five goals in a 5–1 win over Dundee United; the season began on 2 August with the first goal of the season scored by Dundee United's Kjell Olofsson as they drew 1–1 at newly promoted St Johnstone. The season ended on 9 May with Hibernian's Stevie Crawford netting a last-minute equaliser away to Kilmarnock to score the final goal of the season. Promoted from First Division to Premier League St JohnstoneRelegated from Premier Division to First Division Raith Rovers 23 August: Marco Negri equals Paul Sturrock's record with five goals in one match in the 5–1 win over Dundee United September: Darren Jackson undergoes surgery for hydrocephalus, returning to action within three months 9 May: Celtic win the title after a 2–0 home win over St Johnstone F. C During matches 1–18 each team plays every other team twice.

During matches 19–36 each team plays every other team a further two times. Source: Soccerbot