The great family of sport is right now gathered in Belek, Turkey for the SportAccord Convention. Andreas Selliaas takes a look at the Olympic House of Cards.

When the deadline for submitting bids for hosting the 2022 Winter Games closed this weekend, the cities of Almaty (Kazakhstan), Beijing (China), Krakow (Poland), Lviv (Ukraine) and Oslo (Norway) had all submitted their official host applications.

1.2 million pounds has reportedly been transferred from a Qatari company to then FIFA ex-co member Jack Warner shortly after Qatar won the hosting rights for the FIFA World Cup 2022, writes UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph.

The Olympic Winter Games cost on average five times more than the organisers indicate. This includes Sochi 2014, which also experienced a quintupling of their costs. The IOC wants this to change, but has been powerless for decades.

The Olympic Games need to be reinvented in order to ensure their continuing longevity, says Swiss professor Jean-Loup Chappelet in this comment piece discussing ways to innovate the Games while maintaining their uniqueness.

The overspending and political abuse at the Sochi Winter Olympics go right against every recommendation made by the international community in Berlin last year. Governments from all over the over the world demand change, but is the IOC able to deliver?

Australia’s bid for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups did not fail due to a lack of suitability or a lack of infrastructure, the former head of Corporate and Strategic Affairs at the Australian Football Association (FFA) Bonita Mersiades told delegates at Play the Game 2013.

In Portugal, the local municipality of Leiria is paying 5,000 Euro per day in maintenance costs for a stadium that is now closed. And a further eight percent of the annual local municipality budget is spent repaying the mortgage of the stadium that was built for the European championships in football in 2004.