If the size of the Olympics are not reduced, they may become awarded only to rich and authoritarian regimes in the future. Professor Jean-Loup Chappelet, sports governance expert at IDHEAP in Lausanne, analyses the risks of Olympic gigantism

The “most extraordinary story I ever worked on” is how sports writer James Corbett described the bidding procedure for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. Corbett followed the process closely through his involvement with World Football Insider, an independent organisation which shadowed FIFA’s inspection process with its own rankings of the respective national bids.

Comment: Wednesday 6th July the IOC will decide who will host the Winter Olympics in 2018. The battle is between the cities Pyeongchang, Munich and Annecy. Pyeongchang is bidding for the third time and many see the Koreans as a narrow favourite. But favourites are rarely victorious!

Three of FIFA’s most powerful men, President Sepp Blatter, presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam and Vice-President and would-be “king maker” Jack Warner face the Ethics Committee Sunday in Zurich, Switzerland while a fourth, Executive Committee member and CONCACAF General Secretary Chuck Blazer, can feasibly sink one, two or all three parties or even go down in flames himself.

Non-Western countries are now hosting the majority of sport’s mega-events. The biggest events are leaving Europe and North America and challenging the West’s traditional dominance. Prestige and profile are the driving forces behind this shift towards new countries and regimes.

Two major sports events in recent months were intended to anchor Qatar’s image as a global sports hub and demonstrate its mastery in hosting major sporting events. It didn’t quite work out that way.

Watch the BBC Panorama documentary "FIFA's Dirty Secrets" that spurred so much controversy before the 2018/2022 World Cup host election on 2 December 2010.