The newly launched streetfootballworld Knowledge Centre will share experience and inspiration on development through football.

After a massive overhaul in strategic direction, content and layout, the improved ‘one-stop-shop’ on Sport & Development, sportanddev.org has been relaunched.

Organisers of the unique international Magglingen Conference on Sport and Development have been forced to cancel the event after its key funder has pulled out. Director of Play the Game, Jens Sejer Andersen, calls it a major setback and encourages  international sports federations to come up with new funding as proof of their commitment to sport and development.

Athletes from India rarely win medals in international competitions but that may soon change. India’s Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has just published a draft for a new national sports policy on its website inviting everybody to contribute their views on a policy that aims to make India one of the world’s leading sporting nations within the next decade.

In April this year, Robert K. Cheruiyot from Kenya won the annual marathon in Boston and took home 100,000 US dollars in prize money. A week later another Kenyan, Martin Lel, won the marathon in London with a prize of 55,000 US dollars. Prize money from running has become a very important part of Kenya’s economy as many runners take the money home to invest them.

The United Nation’s General Assembly has unanimously backed a new three year action plan to incorporate sport into development programmes. The plan aims to use sport as a way of reducing conflict, slashing poverty, promoting gender equality and reducing a host of other social problems.

International academics and experts on the social and economic impact of mega events will convene in Denmark in September to discuss facts and myths surrounding the effects of major sports events. The Danish government is currently discussing whether to bid for the Olympic Games in 2020 and the conference hopes to inform that debate.

Denmark has won the bid to host the 2007 Homeless World Cup, the annual street soccer tournament which unites teams of homeless people from all over the world to kick off poverty Teams from 48 countries are expected to take part in the tournament in Copenhagen in July next year.