The new WADA whereabouts rule requiring athletes to report their whereabouts more comprehensively is proving to be very unpopular. EU is urging WADA to reconsider the rule, UEFA director Platini recommends not to follow the rule and Belgian athletes have filed a court challenge to decide whether the rule is violating human rights.

The International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education (ICSSPE) has appointed a new president, Prof. Dr. Margaret Talbot, who will succeed Prof. Dr. Gudrun Doll-Tepper at the beginning of 2009.

After a massive overhaul in strategic direction, content and layout, the improved ‘one-stop-shop’ on Sport & Development, sportanddev.org has been relaunched.

Organisers of the unique international Magglingen Conference on Sport and Development have been forced to cancel the event after its key funder has pulled out. Director of Play the Game, Jens Sejer Andersen, calls it a major setback and encourages  international sports federations to come up with new funding as proof of their commitment to sport and development.

Long term internal wrangling and tension inside the Badminton World Federation and its administration has for the time being come to an end. The now former vice president, Datuk Punch Gunalan of Malaysia, has been ousted from the federation after a vote of no confidence. Badminton leaders are optimistic that transparency and democracy will now find their way in the federation.

In a surprising press release, the president of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), Ruben Acosta, has declared that he plans to retire from his post at the FIVB Congress in Dubai in June. However, long-time critics of Acosta’s regime fear that the announcement is part of a power game and that Acosta has no real plans to give up his position in FIVB.

The Greenland Handball Federation has won its year-long dispute with the Pan-American Team Handball Federation over the continental handball federation’s decision to reduce Greenland’s membership status from full to associate.

Mark Davies, managing director of global betting giant Betfair, has called for a world anti-corruption agency for sport.