The lack of physical activity in everyday life has become such a rapidly increasing problem globally that a broad international effort is necessary, say the more than 70 organisations and stakeholders behind a new report called 'Designed to move - a physical activity action agenda'.

In response to recent tragic incidents involving football and handball referees in Europe, Christer Ahl, former President of the International Handball Federation’s Playing Rules and Referees Commission, calls for new reforms within sports federations to attend to elite referees’ wellbeing by creating support networks to help them deal with their increasingly demanding profession.

Too many young people offer too much in the pursuit of gymnastic success, says Bruno Grandi, President of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) who worries that many young athletes lead imbalanced lives because of too hard training and risk of burning out before the age of 20.

Comprehensive studies prove a wide variety of beneficial effects of playing football. A future challenge is to make the game accessible to new groups of potential players.

During FIFA's World Cup in South Africa, football fans may get their drinks served on a coaster with the message: "Don't leave this bar without picking up a condom." At least that is one suggestion from a recent consultation process in South Africa on how to deal with the very real problem that close to half a million football fans will come looking for a good time in a country where 1 in 5 are estimated to be infected by HIV.

20 years ago the German heptathlete Birgit Dressel died from drug poisoning. She did not die because of the lack of medical expertise – she died because of the excess of it. Has sport learned from this?

Athletes in former communist Czechoslovakia were subjected to a secret state-controlled doping programme with grave consequences for their health. In contrast to the situation in the former East Germany, however, the Czechoslovakian programme has not been described in any detail yet but a report is expected in 2007.

Knowledge bank: Young people from indigenous cultures - societies which did not until recently have a history and culture of suicide - set alarming records of suicide.