In this speech to the conference 'Play Fair with Sport' held at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on 29 September 2006, director of Play the Game Jens Sejer Andersen suggests that the international communiy founds a “Global Coalition for Good Governance in Sport" to fight the growing problem of corruption in sport. The new body should be organised along the lines of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The new international volleyball federation does not only face hard resistance from the old one, but must overcome challenges on the inside in order to present a real alternative, Play the Game’s director writes in this editorial comment.

The president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, has plans to stand as president of the IOC in order to attract more attention to chess as a sport. And the ploy might work. Ilyumzhinov is an eccentric who is also president of the Russian republic of Kalmykia and claims he was once abducted by aliens.

Governance in sport is making its way onto the political agenda in Europe. At the end of September politicians from Europe and the Russian State Duma will meet with a wide range of sports actors to discuss the future of sport in Europe at a conference called “Play Fair With Sport.”

Zimbabwe Cricket has run into difficulties after the country’s Sport and Recreation Commission (SRC) has refused to endorse its new draft constitution because it is undemocratic.

70 national volleyball federations support plans to reform the International Volleyball Federation and elect a new president, claims a newly formed committee to reflect on a new and more transparent international volleyball organisation. But reform seems elusive as the FIVB has just confirmed Ruben Acosta as the only candidate eligible to stand for election as president at the upcoming FIVB congress in Tokyo.

A wide-ranging set of "Legal prerequisites for new candidates to the FIVB president" combined with the FIVB Constitution seem to make it next to impossible to challenge Ruben Acosta for the presidency of the International Volleyball Federation. So the campaign of former secretary-general Jean Pierre Seppey may have ended before it began and the prospects of other candidates emerging seem bleak.

Knowledge bank: WADA Vice President and Danish Minister of Culture, Brian Mikkelsen, speaks at  Play the Game 2005 "Governance in Sport: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly"