This summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing is being bushwhacked by politics as demonstrators use every chance to hijack the world’s biggest sporting event and highlight problems in Tibet. Many demonstrators would like to see Tibet participate in Beijing and the next Olympics in London in 2012 looks likely to get tied up in another political wrangle

In 2010, FIFA’s football World Cup will take place in Africa for the first time ever. All African nations have their hearts set on sending a team to South Africa, but over the past two weeks Kenya has come perilously close to losing the chance to qualify for the event after a group of  former football officials has tried to overthrow the leadership of the Kenyan Football Federation (KFF).

Each new day seems to bring a new twist to the drama of Kenyan football. Within the space of one short week, the High Court in Kenya has overturned the sports minister’s attempts to dissolve Kenya’s Football Federation (KFF) and the re-instated KFF officials have immediately moved to suspend the KFF president and fire the secretary general. Meanwhile the Munro Probe Committee does not appear to have begun its work.

South African athlete Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee, has successfully appealed against a ban imposed upon him by the International Association of Athletics Federations. The Court of Arbitration for Sport has ruled that there was insufficient scientific evidence available to ban Pistorius’s ‘Cheetah blades’ as technical aids, meaning he is eligible to compete against able-bodied athletes. However, his admission has stoked debate in paralympic sport over the appropriateness of Pistorius’s participation at the Olympics.

Malcolm Speed has been placed on ‘gardening leave’ for his remaining two months as chief executive of the International Cricket Council. His position became untenable after infighting within the organisation over how to proceed following an independent ICC audit of Zimbabwe Cricket found “severe financial irregularities” within the organisation.

Long term internal wrangling and tension inside the Badminton World Federation and its administration has for the time being come to an end. The now former vice president, Datuk Punch Gunalan of Malaysia, has been ousted from the federation after a vote of no confidence. Badminton leaders are optimistic that transparency and democracy will now find their way in the federation.

In 2014, the Russian resort of Sochi will host the Winter Olympics. But already this mega-event looks set to cost Russian taxpayers more money than the combined costs of the last three Winter Olympics, and up to 4,000 local residents face evictions with compensation far below current market values.

Principles of independent journalism won in the latest skirmish between sports federations and media organisations about the rights to cover sport events. The battle took place in the European Parliament where members voted on amendments to a report on the European Commission’s White Paper on Sport which could have introduced new intellectual property rights to sport events.