It takes a cool country to deal with the hottest issues in sport. Therefore Play the Game is happy to announce that for the first time, its world communication conference on sport and society will be held outside Denmark and go to Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland.

Swimmers, boxers, tri-athletes, rowers and many other athletes from Gibraltar can play their sports internationally. Football players can not. And despite a clear ruling to the contrary from the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the football federation in Gibraltar (GFA) does not expect to gain full membership of UEFA at the UEFA congress in January.

FIFA vice president Jack Warner’s son Daryan illegally resold World Cup tickets, says FIFA. Warner himself escapes sanctions because FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee could not find any proof that Warner knew about it. However, had the case been tried under FIFA’s new Code of Ethics, Warner might not have been able to get away with only a telling-off.

China has issued a new set of rules for foreign journalists who want to cover issues in China up to and during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. According to a spokesperson from the Foreign Ministry, foreign reporters will be allowed to travel anywhere in the country without prior permission from local authorities.

Park Yong-Sung who was suspended from the International Olympic Committee earlier this year after being convicted of fraud in South Korea could be involved in a last minute attempt to save his seat on the IOC. His name is on a list of convicts whom the South Korean president is said to consider for an amnesty.

The Chinese authorities are trying to limit the number of climbers on Mount Everest’s north side in Tibet. Officially the Chinese are preparing a trial run of the torch relay for the Olympic Games on the summit, but many speculate that the real reason is that Everest is close to Cho Oyu where Chinese army guards shot at Tibetan refugees in September.

In Kenya political pressure is mounting on Bob Munro, the Canadian-born chairman of Mathare United. A month ago Kenya’s minister of sport Maina Kamanda threatened to deport Munro from Kenya and yesterday Munro was picked up by six immigration officers and two police men who took him to a meeting with the Principal Immigration Officer to discuss his work permit.

The United Nation’s General Assembly has unanimously backed a new three year action plan to incorporate sport into development programmes. The plan aims to use sport as a way of reducing conflict, slashing poverty, promoting gender equality and reducing a host of other social problems.