Play the Game is launching a weblog in the beginning of September to establish an open forum for debate and dialogue in today’s international world of sport. You are invited to participate.

In Swaziland one reporter has been assaulted for taking pictures of violence between football fans and another was beaten up by a football player who was unhappy with the stories the journalist had written about him.

Last year, the government in New Zealand refused entry visas to a cricket team from Zimbabwe in protest against human rights abuses by Zimbabwe’s government. Now the New Zealand government has agreed to pay New Zealand Cricket compensation to cover losses from the cancelled tour.

The Seoul High Court in South Korea has turned down an appeal in the case of IOCmemberPark Yong-sung who was convicted of embezzling the Doosan Group earlier this year. The IOC has already suspended Park Yong-sung but must now decide whether he should be expelled permanently.

Greek Deputy Sports Minister George Orfanos felt the heat this summer when FIFA excluded Greek football teams from international competitions. FIFA was unhappy with proposals for a new law which would open the Hellenic Football Federation to public scrutiny. In the end, football was exempted from the law leaving Orfanos to ask whether FIFA is above national lawmakers.

Two years before more than 20,000 international journalists are expected to go to China to cover the Beijing 2008 Olympics, a survey by the Foreign Correspondents Club of China shows that Chinese authorities frequently detain foreign reporters, and occasionally use violence against them and their sources.

International academics and experts on the social and economic impact of mega events will convene in Denmark in September to discuss facts and myths surrounding the effects of major sports events. The Danish government is currently discussing whether to bid for the Olympic Games in 2020 and the conference hopes to inform that debate.

Murders and abductions of athletes and sport officials are rapidly becoming the norm in Iraq. In July 2006, most of Iraq’s Olympic Committee was abducted by men in uniforms, the coach of the Iraqi wrestling team was murdered and Iraq’s national football coach resigned following death threats.