Bringing change to the heart of sport was the slogan for the 2011 Play the Game conference. Judging from media coverage of the conference, there is little doubt that the heart of sport lies in football, and its main affliction is corruption.

The British newspaper, The Telegraph, has published videos and a transcript of a speech given by former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner back in May in which he appears to urge FIFA officials from the Caribbean to accept cash gifts from Mohammad Bin Hammam, who challenged Joseph Blatter for the FIFA presidency earlier this year.

In a sensational session at Play the Game, FIFA’s new communications director, Walter De Gregorio, confronted Andrew Jennings during a session on corruption in FIFA and refuted the veteran investigative journalist’s claim that he was banned from the world body for his tough line on questioning corruption claims.

After years of trying to engage FIFA in open debate about issues of governance in world football, organisers of the Play the Game conference were surprised to learn that FIFA's new Director of Communications and Public Affairs had decided to attend the conference and listen to a number of presentations. The surprise grew as Walter De Gregorio later told a group of journalists that he was prepared to speak at the next Play the Game conference.

The contrasts between football’s multi millionaires and its less powerful stakeholders were highlighted on the third day of the Play the Game conference. Through research, documentaries and investigations, a number of filmmakers and journalists presented contrasting stories on those making a living from the beautiful game.

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.

The next football World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games threaten to produce a catalogue of white elephants for Brazil, while restricting benefits to the business community, a panel of academics warned at today’s Play the Game.

UEFA revealed fresh details on the woeful state of European club football to Play the Game ahead of the introduction of the new Financial Fair Play measure that aims to curb the game’s endemic losses.