The partnership agreement with the Danish Broadcasting Corporation ensures live streaming from Play the Game 2013. Other important partnerships strengthen both the content and dissemination of the conference, among other things about the controversial 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

In this paper, professor Barrie Houlihan raises a number of fundamental questions about the application of stakeholder theory in the world of international sports organisations. Can stakeholders be properly defined, and are they necessarily supporters of good governance?

Sports journalism focuses almost exclusively on results, tournaments and top athletes. According to new research on sports coverage in 80 newspapers from 22 countries presented at the Play the Game conference, sports politics and economic issues are of little interest to the printed media.

At Wednesday’s final keynote session at the EASM 2012 conference Jens Sejer Andersen, international director of Play the Game pointed to seven areas of interest for academic research in the future.

The Ukrainian government had high hopes that co-hosting the Euro 2012 would be Ukraine’s European coming out party. For now, the tournament remains a PR disaster, highlighting mostly corruption scandals and political turmoil, writes Ukraine-based journalist Mark Rachkevych in his second of two articles on Ukraine’s Euro 2012 preparations.

Alongside their successful bids for high profiled sports events, Qatar and other Gulf states are gaining an increasing influence in European football through their acquisition of European soccer clubs, broadcasting rights and sponsorships. James M. Dorsey maps the Middle Eastern offensive, which is welcomed by some fan groups, but questioned by other stakeholders.

Trinidad and Tobago High Court has given the former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner a deadline of February 10 to provide an account of all income, donations, gifts, grants or benefits and all expenditure arising from the Germany 2006 World Cup. But it is still too early to tell whether Warner will be remembered as a living parody or a cunning politician, Lasana Liburd writes.