Long-held suspicions were confirmed in late March this year, when Chinese badminton coach Li Yongbo admitted to fixing one of the women’s singles semi-finals at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Nearly a year after the initial incident, the Danish women’s national football team are still waiting to find out who it was that spied on them in a Chinese hotel room at the 2007 Women’s World Cup. Despite protests by the Danish players, FIFA are refusing to investigate claiming the incident is not a sporting matter, while the IOC cites a lack of jurisdiction prevents its Ethics Commission from probing further.

In March this year, a Swiss court produced evidence that in the period from 1989 to 2001, the now defunct International Sport and Leisure company (ISL) paid officials from a number of sports federations 87.5 million euros to obtain profitable broadcasting rights. Yet, when the court’s verdict was published last week, six former ISL executives indicted in the case were cleared of most of the charges against them.

As one of the consequences of the Cold War from the end of World War II and up to 1989, the competition on the battlefield of sport became fiercer and fiercer, and at some point rumours started circulating in the west about female athletes, mainly from the eastern countries, who were not THAT female. Stories were told about specific athletes who never undressed together with other athletes, but came directly from their hotel, and went straight back for a shower, and of athletes who had a number of male features as for example a fast growing beard.

Via www.playthegameforopenjournalism.org the International Federation of Journalists and the world communication conference Play the Game launch a helpline and a website to support thousands of foreign journalists in Beijing.

Organisers of the unique international Magglingen Conference on Sport and Development have been forced to cancel the event after its key funder has pulled out. Director of Play the Game, Jens Sejer Andersen, calls it a major setback and encourages  international sports federations to come up with new funding as proof of their commitment to sport and development.

What critics found unlikely has now turned into fact: Ruben Acosta has decided to leave the presidency of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) at the end of the Beijing Olympics. He says he wants to make room for a new era, but his successor Wei Jizhong will mainly focus on “implementing and accomplishing all the projects already initiated by Dr. Acosta.”

Together with International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA) Play the Game has given its full support on cooperation with World Outgames 2009, a sports, culture and human rights event to be held in Copenhagen from July 25 to 2 August 2009.