About Play the Game
Play the Game is an initiative run by the Danish Institute for Sports Studies (Idan), aiming at raising the ethical standards of sport and promoting democracy, transparency and freedom of expression in world sport.
Through its eleven international conferences since 1997, its website, news production, extensive network, and research initiatives, Play the Game has become a unique independent platform for raising and developing awareness on a number of issues related to modern sport.
Play the Game has been the first international public forum to address issues such as EPO use in elite sport, corruption in FIFA and other federations, match-fixing and illegal doping trade. Over the past years, Play the Game has kept a consistent focus on these issues as well as other pressing challenges such as sustainability of mega-events, systemic doping and strategies for promoting participation and volunteering in sport and physical activity.
The Danish Institute for Sports Studies (Idrættens Analyseinstitut - Idan) is an independent research centre set up by the Danish Ministry of Culture in 2004. The primary objectives of Idan is to initiate and develop a broad range of social science research projects in the field of sports, to analyse sports political initiatives, and to stimulate public debate about the most important issues in the sports sector.
Idan conducts its own research into key areas such as sports participation, volunteering, association life, sports facilities, sports politics, elite sport, innovation and entrepreneurship, and sports economy in Denmark, and the institute puts a strong emphasis on communication and interacting with the stakeholders in the sports sector. The institute is involved in several international comparative projects and networks with partners from many countries.
Play the Game is a much sought source of information by international media and has an advisory function in several transnational bodies. Since 2011, Play the Game has been an observer to EU Expert Groups on sports integrity matters since 2011. Moreover, Play the Game has been a regular participant to the EU Sport Forums since around 2004.
Since 2012, Play the Game has coordinated various EU supported research and communication projects with the participation of internationally leading universities, among others:
- The Action for Good Governance in Sport (AGGIS/2012-2013)
- The Sports Governance Observer (2015 and ongoing)
- The National Sports Governance Observer (2017 and ongoing, involving researchers in 30 countries)
- The National Anti-Doping Governance Observer (2019-21)
- Strengthening Athlete Power in Sport (SAPIS, 2020-23).
Outside the EU framework, Play the Game is a member of the Consultative Committee of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) under the Council of Europe, acting as its chair from 2016-2020, and Play the Game has given keynote addresses to the council’s conferences for sports ministers in Magglingen in 2014 and Budapest in 2016, calling for governmental engagement in the field of sports governance.
Play the Game is a member of the Permanent Consultative Council of the Intergovernmental Committee for Physical Education and Sport (CIGEPS) under UNESCO. The institution was a key contributor to the revision process of UNESCO’s International Charter on Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport in 2014-15. Last, but not least, Play the Game gave a keynote address on sports integrity under the global sports ministers’ conference MINEPS VI in Kazan in Russia, July 2017.
Over the past decade, representatives of Play the Game has given keynote addresses and lecturing in over 30 countries.
Play the Game is financed mainly by share of the revenues generated by the Danish state lottery and granted to its mother institution, the Danish Institute for Sports Studies. In 2020, the total state grant to Idan was 10 million Danish Kroner (1.33 million euros), of which Play the Game consumes an estimated 25 percent. Out of the 17 full-time positions at Idan, Play the Game employs the equivalent of 3-4 full-time positions annually. Play the Game and Idan comply with the accounting and administration standards of public institutions in Denmark.
The main offices of Play the Game and the Danish Institute for Sports Studies are located at Frederiksgade 78 B, 2., DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
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