In a sensational session at Play the Game, FIFA’s new communications director, Walter De Gregorio, confronted Andrew Jennings during a session on corruption in FIFA and refuted the veteran investigative journalist’s claim that he was banned from the world body for his tough line on questioning corruption claims.

After years of trying to engage FIFA in open debate about issues of governance in world football, organisers of the Play the Game conference were surprised to learn that FIFA's new Director of Communications and Public Affairs had decided to attend the conference and listen to a number of presentations. The surprise grew as Walter De Gregorio later told a group of journalists that he was prepared to speak at the next Play the Game conference.

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.

The contrasts between football’s multi millionaires and its less powerful stakeholders were highlighted on the third day of the Play the Game conference. Through research, documentaries and investigations, a number of filmmakers and journalists presented contrasting stories on those making a living from the beautiful game.

The 2011 Play the Game conference concluded with a call to the International Olympic Committee to organise a world conference before the end of 2012 in order to draft a code and international standards for good governance in sport.

The “most extraordinary story I ever worked on” is how sports writer James Corbett described the bidding procedure for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. Corbett followed the process closely through his involvement with World Football Insider, an independent organisation which shadowed FIFA’s inspection process with its own rankings of the respective national bids.

Why are so many sports governing bodies based in Switzerland?

What should decide whether an athlete can take part in a female sports competition? A test for levels of androgen? Or should the athlete be allowed to make the decision personally by signing a self-declaration of gender?