Sport has been "used and abused" by politicians everywhere and down the ages with personal and political agendas according to Terry Monnington, director of Warwick University’s Department of Physical Education and Sport.

Monday morning's plenary session at Play the Game did not limit itself to a review of crime and corruption in sport but also came up with a number of suggestions on how to combat it.

It had been a long and arduous road, but in the end Mario Goijman of the Argentinean Volleyball Federation was able to stand before the Play the Game conference in Copenhagen and relate compelling evidence of corruption, greed and blatant misuse of power in the ruling body of his sport that occasionally had the audience gasping in disbelief.

The first day of the Play the Game conference concluded with an in-depth examination of one of the biggest problems facing world football - the exploitation of players.

"Mr. Syrigos, someone tried to kill you. Do you suspect anyone?"

That was the question the Greek police asked sports editor Filippos Syrigos of the newspaper Eleftherotypia the day after he was brutally attacked by two men who hit him over the head and stabbed him several times in the back.

Former World Champion sprinter, Kelli White, feels that it is possible to top global track and field without relying on drugs, and some recent performances makes her believe that things in the sport are getting better since she was banned for two years for testing positive.

On its first day, the Play the Game communication conference on sport and society received a major boost in the form of a message of support from United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Have you ever left a football match feeling that the result was so unfair or bemusing that it must have been fixed?