Through his organisation Foot Solidaire, Jean-Claude Mbvoumin has dedicated more than 14 years of his life to the fight against illegal trafficking of young African footballers. It is a fight that is far from over – and one that FIFA recently brought to light through the sanctioning of FC Barcelona and the club’s exploitation of young players.

The number of new clubs taking part in the Champions League for the first time has more than halved over the last two years according to Play the Game's annual Diversity Index.

Four years before the opening match, the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia has already produced significant cost overruns and construction work is falling behind deadlines. Overall, it looks set to become the most expensive World Cup ever, says Martin Müller from the University of Zürich in this comment piece.

It may be an overlooked reason for the protests in Brazil, that this World Cup has taken football away from its traditional audiences, says PhD candidate Guilherme Nothen in this comment piece.

The FIFA World Cup will influence Brazilian domestic and international politics, the ongoing crisis at FIFA and the wider future of sporting mega-events, writes author David Goldblatt in an exclusive piece for Play the Game.

There are only a few days to go before the Brazil World Cup begins. Will the streets be safe? Will there be protest and violence again? After mass demonstrations marked the Confederations Cup last year, the fragile security and violence situation means that no one knows what to expect during the biggest football event in the world.

Though the World Cup has brought some positive change to Brazil, the 14 billion USD investments fail to deliver opportunities for long-term development, American scholar and activist Christopher Gaffney writes.

The World Cup in Brazil is not only challenged by the risk of civil unrest. Violence in and around football stadiums is notorious in South American football. The tournament’s immediate success will partly depend on the ability to curb the violent fans, but the problems go deeper, writes Javier Szlifman.