… and when the French state prosecutor and his colleagues started checking rumours on international sports corruption, most turned out true. But criminal investigations come with many practical hurdles, Jean-Yves Lourgouilloux told in an exposé to Play the Game 2017 in Eindhoven.

The Pyeongchang Winter Games have already become a propaganda win for North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un. And it has become a much needed PR victory for the IOC after all the trouble with Russian doping. But everything is not as it should be.

The first major sports political battle of the year will take place this week when parliamentarians from 47 European countries discuss external oversight of international sport. FIFA attacks a parliamentary report as “incomplete, missing or downright wrong”. In contrast, UEFA is jubilant. But the perspectives reach much beyond football.

Sport is characterised by contradictions, conflicts and hypocrisies that simultaneously speak to growing awareness, positive action and hope in terms of environmental awareness and sustainability, say researchers Brett Hutchins and Libby Lester in this comment piece that discusses how sport can take on a role in protecting and creating a world worth playing in.

After much hesitation, the IOC has taken a clear stance against the overwhelming evidence of systemic doping in Russia. Russia has greater projects in the making than the Winter Olympics, and the ball is rolling towards an uncomfortable FIFA.

The IOC is struggling with the decision on Russia. With all the information we have now, they have just one option: suspension of Russia.

Qatar and Russia. Corruption and doping. That is what everybody is talking about at Play the Game 2017 in Eindhoven. The latest developments in both doping and corruption investigations link the two countries closer and closer together. Are we seeing the contours of a collusion between Qatar and Russia in sports?

Opening address at the 10th international Play the Game conference, 26 November 2017 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands

Whistleblowing has become one of the hottest topics in discussions on sports integrity. Independent voices have been instrumental for disclosing problems of doping, corruption or other types of crime. But who should guarantee the necessary support and protection when whistleblowers are endangered?

"Why should we insist that sport and democracy must be linked?" asks Jens Sejer Andersen in this essay in which he discusses the fundamental ideas behind Play the Game.