New ruling from CAS on Gibraltar’s application for UEFA membership could have an impact on FIFA and UEFA policy on aspiring football federations. New documents from FIFA’s Working Group on Small Nations show how potential member federations from small nations and independent territories are prioritized.

Analysis: Putin’s increasing influence in the Olympic world and the awarding of the FIFA World Cup to Russia and Qatar make it clear for everybody: Everything is for sale in the world of sport – and the worst is to be expected. The German freelance journalist Jens Weinreich looks behind the curtains of international sport politics.

Non-Western countries are now hosting the majority of sport’s mega-events. The biggest events are leaving Europe and North America and challenging the West’s traditional dominance. Prestige and profile are the driving forces behind this shift towards new countries and regimes.

By donating expensive stadia, China is trying to increase its influence in third world countries.

Comment: "The current events in Egypt make me think of what happened in Romania in November and December 1989. Time will show if Hosni Mubarak will suffer the same fate as Nicolae Ceausescu – violently removed as head of state and killed? The similarities are there, but there is one important difference," writes Andreas Selliaas in this comment piece.

Comment: There are still many who discuss a cultural boycott of Israel because of Israel's policies towards the Palestinians, and especially because of the Israeli blockade of Gaza. If sport is perceived as part of the concept of culture - the so-called extended concept of culture - the discussion about a cultural boycott might have a new and important element. 20 January Israel and the Palestinians formally entered a sporting cooperation towards the London Olympics in 2012.

Sports federations are increasingly fed up with the way that athletes are affected by the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The IOC as well as UEFA are applying pressure on Israel to ease restrictions on Palestinian athletes. And in Iran, there is simmering resistance against the government's policy that Iranian athletes can not compete against athletes from Israel.

Turkish Cypriots hope that meeting between football governing bodies, FIFA and UEFA, will bring them one step closer to leaving football’s international wilderness.