There is growing awareness in sport of the risks posed by corruption and other unethical behaviour, and the public is expecting greater accountability and probity from the sports sector.

The former general secretary of FIFA, Michel Zen-Ruffinen, today wrapped up the Play the Game conference by stating that international sport organisations need new rules or structures in order to counter corruption and improve governance.

Knowledge bank: Kenyan Bob Munro speaks about the culture of corruption in Kenyan football.

Sport can stem the rising tide of youth suicides in many countries according to Australian National University's Colin Tatz. In a presentation to the Play the Game conference, he explained that sport opens the doors of social inclusion to those who feel cruelly excluded.

Elliott Almond, Olympics and Enterprise Reporter for the San Mercury News of San Francisco told conference participants that the BALCO scandal in the US could be compared to the Ben Jonson affair in Canada for its effect in forcing the nation to confront the relationship between national pride, commercialism and doping.

Match fixing has been around as long as sport itself and the cost of fixing a match is not significantly greater today than it was 90 years ago. What is different is that has become much easier to profit by betting on a loser.

Delegates at Play the Game today decided to ask FIFA what action the organisation had taken when Burmese journalist Zaw Thet Htwe was sentenced to death because he published articles questioning how the Burmese Football Federation had spent money from FIFA’s Financial Assistance Programme.

The Secretary General of the International Federation of Journalists wants media organisations and journalist’s associations to recognise that safety is an issue for sports journalists too.