The involvement of organised crime in illegal trafficking of doping is a growing problem. Yet governments and international institutions have done very little to combat the problem or get the pharmaceutical companies to stop the conscious over production of drugs with doping potential.

How does sport impact on the private lives of athletes? That is the topic of a seminar which takes place at Aarhus University the day after the Play the Game conference ends in Copenhagen.

“Journalism is mostly a lubricant facilitating the smooth working of the sports complex and bringing it into a rewarding relationship with world populations. Journalism is not really as aware of it as it should be and therefore we welcome Play the Game under our roof.”

In October last year, Greek sports editor Philippos Syrigos of the Athens daily Eleftherotypia was brutally attacked when he left a radio station after a radio show. Thanks to emergency surgery Philippos Syrigos survived and in November he will attend Play the Game 2005 to talk about the price of reporting the dark side of sport.

At the conference in November, Play the Game will present the results of the most wide-ranging survey of sports coverage ever undertaken. Academics and journalists from nine different countries have been analysing national and regional newspapers to contribute data to the survey.

Knowledge bank: The International Business Leaders Forum’s policy paper, ‘Shared Goals: Sport and Business in Partnerships for Development” is produced in partnership with UK Sport’s Worldwide Impact programme and puts the case for business and development organisations to come together through sport, to meet their shared objectives.

The EU Commission’s second Eurobarometer survey on “The citizens of the European Union and sport” looks at the practice and attitude to sports within the European Union.

The study concludes that sports sections of America’s newspapers are a passive and reactive space dominated by game previews and recaps with little room for enterprise reportage.