Whistleblowers and top brass from international sport to meet at Play the Game 2011

It was a defining moment for world sport when recently an Honorary IOC-member and international sports president for the first time called for public engagement in the fight against corruption in sport.  Next October, at Play the Game 2011 in Cologne, you will get a chance to hear the Hungarian president of the International Weightlifting Federation, Tamás Aján, lay out his ideas about how sport can combat this growing challenges to its integrity.

Aján is one of an impressive line-up of international speakers who will exchange experiences and views on match fixing, bribery and other threats from the inside and outside of sport. IOC member and former WADA President Richard W. Pound, has once again confirmed his participation in the Play the Game debates, and he will be complemented by sport insiders like Ingrid Beutler, head of the Sports Integrity Unit of SportAccord, and outside experts like professor of international governance Hans Bruyninckx, Belgium, professor of sports administration Jean-Loup Chappelet from Lausanne and head of Transparency International Switzerland, Anne Schwöbel.

The German Minister of Interior, Hans-Peter Friedrich, will deliver a message to the participants, and also the General Director of WADA, David Howman, is in place to debate the anti-doping reforms that are to take place in the coming years.

The ever important journalistic side of sports coverage will be represented by sports journalism icons like Declan Hill, Jens Weinreich and Andrew Jennings who during the years have set new standards for research into corruption issues.

Mega-events and development
But Play the Game 2011 is about much more than doping and corruption. The impact of mega-events, growth in grassroots sport, the importance of sport in the Arab world, gender issues and technology in sport, are other important topics for the more than 300 sports officials, academics and journalists from the whole world expected to gather at the German Sport University Cologne in October.

The former football world champion for Brazil, Raí Souza Vieira da Oliveira, who is a driving force in civil society projects related to sport in Brazil, will speak about the legacy he expects from the upcoming World Cup and Olympic games in his home country.

The former president of the Chilean FA, Harold Mayne-Nicholls, will speak about football development, while the South American Games in Medellín 2010, who last week received the IOC Sport and Environment Award, will be represented by its director Alicia Vargas.

Focus on Arab countries
From Egypt, the blogger, comedian, journalist and a nationally renowned ultras football fan leader Mohamed G. Beshir will testify on the connection between sport and politics in the recent popular uprisings, and he will be joined by James M. Dorsey, a senior expert in Arab countries and a former correspondent for leading U.S. media.

“The programme of Play the Game 2011 is still in the making, and we are very optimistic that the quality and quantity of expert speakers will surpass the previous six conferences and break further ground in the sports debate,” says Jens Sejer Andersen, International Director of Play the Game and responsible for the programme planning.

Apart from exciting individual speakers, Play the Game 2011 will present the results of two highly interesting international surveys. A survey on the post-use of stadia constructed for mega-events will stimulate the debate about how to achieve financial and social sustainability while planning events. And the 2nd International Sports Press Survey will reveal figures on the sports coverage from newspapers in more than 20 countries.

Read more about Play the Game 2011 registration, themes and speakers here.