The detailed programme for Play the Game 2022 in Odense, Denmark, is now ready and you can still register with discount for the event that takes place at a crucial point in international sports politics.

More than 30 stadia in Africa are currently deemed unfit by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and many countries are forced to play national matches abroad. Steve Menary provides an overview of the challenges arising from unfit stadiums in both Africa and the Caribbean region.

For the first time in seven years, Play the Game will hold its international conference on its Danish home turf. Danish sports bodies have responded with broad support

While launching the first programme overview for Play the Game 2022 in June, the organisers stress that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has provoked shifts in the priorities of the conference.

Despite calls to limit financial support from companies with links to the Russian or Belarussian state, Russian betting companies continue to operate and sponsor football clubs in Europe, Africa, and South America. Steve Menary describes the Russian betting market, its sponsorship deals, and the problems of instituting a boycott.

Thanks to support from the Danish Union of Journalists, the Norwegian Union of Journalists and Danish sports organisations, Play the Game offers a limited number of conference grants for media professionals, academic researchers, and others from less privileged countries.

The Sport & Society Research Network offers academic researchers attending the 2022 Play the Game conference a discount on the registration price for their 2022 annual conference that will take place at Aarhus University in Denmark on 30 June and 1 July.

53 authors from 17 different countries have contributed to a special issue of the magazine ‘Sports & Politics’ about the life and journalism of Andrew Jennings who passed away earlier this year. At the same time, the magazine provides a fascinating insight into the rise of journalism about sports politics over the past 30 years.

Investigative reporter Jens Weinreich has reviewed how more than 100 international sports organisations have responded to Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. Both the IOC and the majority of federations still provide cover for Russian sport officials and national federations.

The IOC and the Olympic federations are obliged to do much more to punish Russia and its warmonger, Vladimir Putin, argues investigative reporter Jens Weinreich and provides a long list of examples. He calls for a comprehensive independent criminal investigation of the longstanding deep connection of the Olympic institutions with the Kremlin within the framework of the EU.

The Olympic Games thrive on high-performing children – some of them so young that they are not even allowed to compete in the Youth Olympic Games. Jens Weinreich discusses why it is so hard for Olympic sports federations to set age limits and shows how it leaves child athletes vulnerable to authoritarian states chasing medals and sport glory.

While it was not the same big extravaganza as in 2008, the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was still highly politicised and delivered national as well as political messages, writes Stanis Elsborg, senior analyst at Play the Game.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in sport is so widespread that most fields in professional sport are already embracing it. But Alberto Carrio Sampedro warns that the unrestrained rise of AI can also undermine the basic rights of athletes.

The decision by a number of countries to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing diplomatically has once again highlighted the political nature of the Olympics. In this analysis, Stanis Elsborg, senior analyst at Play the Game, shows how China and Russia used the international criticism prior to their hosting of the 2008 and 2014 Olympics politically in the opening ceremonies for the events.

Over 20 academic experts have contributed to the free book “Good Governance in Sport. Critical Reflections” published by Routledge in 2021. The editors Arnout Geeraert and Frank van Eekeren asked Jens Sejer Andersen from Play the Game to write the foreword. Here is an extract.

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, Olympic power broker, has been sentenced to prison in a criminal court. Investigative reporter Jens Weinreich has observed the Kuwaiti Sheikh for many years and has been threatened by the Sheikh’s aides several times. He describes the methods that brought Ahmad to power and assesses the implications of the conviction for the Sheikh and the Olympic system. Not much is likely to change.

What does the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and space politics have to do with each other? Quite a lot and it demonstrates China’s ability to mix sport and politics in their national self-promotion, writes senior analyst Stanis Elsborg.

Under what circumstances is it possible to imagine that one or more national football associations boycott the World Cup in Qatar? Matthias Fett lays out three scenarios and their consequences for FIFA and the associations and reaches the conclusion that the most likely boycott would happen in the US.