From 1989 to 2001, the world’s biggest marketing company ISL/ISSM paid personal commissions – or bribes – worth an unbelievable 138 million Swiss francs (87,5 million euros) to sports officials and other persons involved in the dealing of sports TV and marketing rights.

South African parliamentarian George Lekgetho of the ruling ANC party has proposed that South Africa legalises prostitution for the duration of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in order to prevent instances of rape, as well as bring in revenue for the government to help the unemployed. His suggestion is the latest development in an ongoing debate in South Africa about how to tackle prostitution and human trafficking before the World Cup kicks off in two years time.

FIFA have secretly fined the son of a top official almost $1million for selling World Cup tickets illegally.

On 9 February 2007, the suspended IOC member Park Yong-sung was given an amnesty for his fraud conviction by South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun. A few days later, Park was welcoming the IOC bidding committee that came to assess Pyeongchang as host for the Winter Games in 2014, even though the judo president is still suspended from the IOC.

Imagine a country where football clubs have not legally registered their players, where the national football federation has ordered thousands of jerseys and shorts with false PUMA trade marks and the top official in the federation has obtained his job with a false university degree. If media reports are to believed this country is Macedonia.

In Finland drugs for sports doping are increasingly arriving by couriers rather than by mail or air freight. Last year customs officers at the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport uncovered 72 cases of doping substance crimes, and in some cases the smugglers had more than 10,000 hormone ampules or tablets in their checked luggage.

Multinational cooperation between police and football authorities will be a must if European football wants to counter criminal money laundering activities through football. So says Henri Roemer, a special advisor to UEFA’s Executive Committee and an expert on what makes football vulnerable to organised crime.

Knowledge bank: Sepp Blatter suggests that professional referees could put an end to match fixing. In England, the FA has a group of paid referees and so far no instances of match fixing. But a refereeing career is short and may not pay enough.