When FIFA’s Executive Committee starts work on a new Code of Ethics, it may consider stopping the practice of entrusting world cup tickets to officials from national football federations. It is a practice that appears to invite abuse, and according to media reports Ismail Bhamjee from Botswana is not the only one who has succumbed to the temptation of selling tickets on at inflated prices

In Bangladesh, a group of sports journalists and press photographers are still waiting to hear the outcome of an official government probe into a brutal police attack on them at a cricket test match between Bangladesh and Australia at the end of April. The Asian Human Rights Commission is concerned about the delay of the report and allegations that the probe commission has listened to fake eyewitnesses.

Knowledge bank: With the emergence of genetic enhancement technologies that can be used on athletes, it is necessary to change our approach to anti-doping too.

Knowledge bank: Athletes are too often willing to compromise their own health to win. How many athletes who are already experimenting with gene doping is hard to trace. Many athletes are closely monitoring the developments in genetic research.

Knowledge bank: If you have sweet dreams about Olympic medals the best advice is to be very selective choosing your parents! Research suggests that genes account for up to 50 per cent of the variance in athletic performance.

Knowledge bank: Developments in genetic technology move faster than the ethical debate about its impact on human life and also on high performance sport.

Knowledge bank: Is it at all possible to detect genetic manipulation for the enhancement of athletic performance? When a gene is inserted into the body it becomes part of the human genome. Afterwards, when making a screening how will we tell whether a gene is new or if it has always been there?

Football can, it seems, revive national rivalries and conjure the ghosts of past wars. But football, can also, in a different way than long speeches or international resolutions, help induce progress toward peaceful solutions for military conflicts.