It may seem unfair that sport more than any other cultural phenomenon must constantly explain its human and social values. There are however some very good reasons to demand a little more from sport than from other activities.

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.

Play the Game and the Danish Institute for Sports Studies (Idan) invites you to an opening seminar marking the merger of the two organisations. The seminar is entitled "Corruption in the corridors - International Sport at a crossroad' and takes place on Thursday 10 March.

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.

From 1 January 2011 Play the Game will carry out its work in a new organisational set-up. After many years of close cooperation Play the Game and the Danish Institute for Sports Studies (Idan) have decided to merge in order to strengthen their common tasks: Knowledge production, analyses, conferences, educational initiatives and communication on a broad range of sports political issues.