Gibraltar – the tiny British overseas territory below Spain – should be given the opportunity to become a member of UEFA, the European football governing body. So rules the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the face of many years resistance from Spain that has tried to block the application for a long time.

Governance in sport is making its way onto the political agenda in Europe. At the end of September politicians from Europe and the Russian State Duma will meet with a wide range of sports actors to discuss the future of sport in Europe at a conference called “Play Fair With Sport.”

UEFA President Lennart Johansson is ready to increase the level of control of the economic interests in football.

The independent review of European football being carried out by former Portuguese sports minister José Luis Arnaut on behalf of EU looks set to increase tensions between governing body UEFA and the continent's major clubs because it will look into how fans can take over more clubs.

UEFA is renewing its efforts to clamp down on the racism that continues to dog the game in Europe. Only last week, the football club AS Roma had to play a home match against Cagliari at a neutral venue without spectators because Roma fans had displayed neo-Nazi banners and anti-semitic slogans at a previous game.

Knowledge bank: The popular perception is that the same clubs from each country compete every year as cash from the Champions League fuels greater domination of domestic European competitions by a handful of clubs. Yet research shows this is not the case in Switzerland, Sweden, France or even Germany, where a variety of different clubs regularly enter and are competitive in the Champions League.

Knowledge bank: Europe’s minor nations can breathe a sigh of relief as doomsday has been temporarily averted. At the April 2005 congress in Tallin, UEFA changed procedures for replacing President Lennart Johansson. This delayed Franz Beckenbauer’s seemingly inevitable advance to European football’s top job with his suggestions for preliminary rounds before international qualifying tournaments.

Sepp Blatter's cash-strapped FIFA are in turmoil this week after he sacked one of his closest aides - but agreed to pay his salary, around GBP150,000 a year, until the end of 2006.