The national radio Deutschlandfunk and Play the Game enter a partnership to inspire sports journalism and render tangible benefits to both international and German participants in Cologne.

IWF President Tamás Aján and Brazilian world champion and social entrepreneur Raí are among the first new names on the list of speakers for Play the Game 2011.

A very succesful opening round for abstract submissions and the late addition of a new theme have led the Play the Game 2011 programme organisers to open a new call for papers. They are encouraging academics, journalists, sports practitioners and other sports stakeholders to send in presentation proposals to the conference by 16 May 2011, 15:00 CET.

A record number of nations have now confirmed their participation in the International Sports Press Survey 2011, an update of the 2005 version which at the time was the biggest quantitative survey ever of the sports content in the written press.

Six years have passed since Play the Game launched the biggest survey so far on the content of the newspaper sports pages. 14 research institutions from 10 countries in three continents took part, and a total of 37 leading newspapers were analysed.

For the seventh time Play the Game invites you to engage in open, fact-based and constructive debates on a number of themes that are essential to the future of sport. The abstract submission for Play the Game 2011 is now open.

Play the Game 2011 will operate under the subtitle “Bringing change to the heart of sport”. The conference will, as always, act as a forum for discussion of the ‘homeless’ questions in sports and attempt to influence the international sports agenda.

By appointing 11 out of 15 new names, the board of Play the Game has carried out the biggest make-over of its Programme Committee in more than a decade. A blend of international experts in sports science, media, business and politics will in the coming year contribute with “advice regarding which themes and speakers appear on the programme of the international conferences” as the statutes of the institution lay down.