Governments have a growing interest in the governance of national sports organisations. Since 2013, Australia has required public supported sports organisations to follow a set of mandatory governance principles. Now, UK and Belgium are following suit and introduce new governance codes.

On August 21, West Ham played their first home Premier League match in the newly converted London 2012 Olympic Stadium, but unlike opponents Bournemouth or any other club in the world’s richest league the hosts are getting a free ride courtesy of the British taxpayer.

Does the Hamburg 2024 bid represent the future of the Olympic Games or are the underlying mechanisms still the same, giving old-fashioned bids a new legitimacy? Leading up to a local referendum in November Dennis Pauschinger comments on what he sees as the discrepancy between the words and the action in the Hamburg 2024 bid plans.

The London Olympics in 2012 were supposed to inspire a whole generation to take up sport. It did not happen and the UK government is now giving its entire sports strategy an overhaul in a nationwide consultation process.

Australia, one of the world’s leading sports nations, has so far not lived up to its own expectations at the London 2012 Olympics. This has caused serious public debate and prompted the president of the Australian Olympic Committee to call for giving school sports a higher priority. In this comment piece Bonita Mersiades agrees, but not for the rationale of winning medals.

“We’re breeding white elephants. There are herds of them”, a leading stadium consultant has told Play the Game. Ian Nuttall, a consultant at stadiumbusiness.com, was referring to the underused mega-stadiums that are the legacies of events such as the FIFA World Cup, the European Championships, and the Commonwealth Games.

The party is over and the World Cup has left South Africa, and generally the reviews have been very good. FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, praised South Africa’s efforts in hosting this year’s World Cup by giving them nine out of 10.

This article is a resume of a study carried out by Amnyos Group for the French Ministry of Sport. It provides an overview of the structure of sports financing in EU and recommendations in regards to securing the financing of sport in Europe.