A coalition of women rights groups has launched a campaign calling on international sports bodies to boycott countries with sexual segregation in sports in order to secure sport as a ‘fundamental right’.

The saga of FIFA and the hijab, the traditional head-covering worn by many Muslim women that also refers in some countries to the entire style in which Muslim women dress, goes back at least seven years.

Last Sunday Ali Karimi - aka Asia's Maradona – was fired from the Tehran team Steel Azin FC for not fasting during Ramadan. Karimi is no ‘nobody’ in Iran. He is the second most merited on the national team, third on the top scorer list and was voted Asia's best player in Iran in 2004.

At least two persons died and three others were wounded in a grenade attack on a house where young Somalis were secretly watching a world cup game in the Elasha biyaha neighborhood south of Mogadishu last night.

The one time I tried to get into St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, I was stopped because I wore shorts. Bare knees are not appropriate for the Pope and his patrons. This day, at least, they missed the opportunity to save a lost soul. Now I wonder if the attitudes and strategies of the St. Peter have rubbed off on FIFA. FIFA also has a clothing police to prevent happy supporters from provoking their beneficiaries.

With Islamist militants in Somalia killing two world cup fans and arresting many others over the weekend, transitional federal government (TFG) of Somalia on Tuesday condemned the move describing it unacceptable.

Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies have overpowered the Islamist group that controlled much of southern Somalia for the past six months. This is good news for female athletes who are now returning to the capital’s sports fields after they were banished from sport by the Islamists.