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?

This paper is written by Michaël Mrkonjic, Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration, Switzerland, Lausanne, as a part of the AGGIS project. It gives an overview on the Swiss regulatory framework on fiscal and corruption issues, and presents several interesting points in relation to the autonomy of International Sports Organisations residing i Switzerland.

Earlier this month the Swiss government published a report on corruption in sport with proposals on possible measures to combat the problem. This article by Jean-Loup Chappelet, professor of public management at the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP) in Lausanne looks into the perspectives the report raises for sport organisations as well as for Switzerland.

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.

Play the Game has received a large grant from the EU to analyse administration and management in international sports organisations in cooperation with an international group of experts.

Two veteran investigative journalists, Jens Weinreich from Germany and Andrew Jennings from the United Kingdom, receive the 2011 Play the Game award in recognition of their tireless work documenting and bringing the enormous levels of mismanagement and corruption in the world's leading sports organisations into public view.

Comment: Spectacular statements at this week’s EU Sport Forum in Budapest may influence the outcome of next week’s IOC symposium on irregular betting and match-fixing. IOC Honorary member Tamás Aján and WADA Director General David Howman called for rapid action against not only match-fixing, but all forms of corruption in sport. Play the Game was present in Budapest and in the following comment, Jens Sejer Andersen, International Director asks if the IOC will bring spring to sport or let the melt-down continue.