Frustrated local soccer fans may be behind a recent armed attack on the home of sports journalist Manuel Gilberto García on 22 January in the city of Jutiapa in Guatemala. Two bullets penetrated the door of his home, landing inside, but luckily neither Garcia nor his family was hurt.

An ordinary news story speculating about the potential purchase of a new player for a local football club, Mjällby AIF, led to death threats against a Swedish radio reporter. The first threat came an hour after the broadcast in December 2005 where an anonymous man informed the reporter that his life would be over if the story meant that the deal fell through.

Knowledge bank: Laura Robinson is the author of the book " Crossing the Line - Violence and sexual assaults in Canada's national sport". Her vital research on sexual abuse in Canadian junior hockey was met with a deep and intellectual understanding outside the boarders of her home country Canada.

Delegates at Play the Game today agreed to send a letter to FIFA urging it to speak up louder when journalists are threatened, attacked or penalised for trying to cover football related stories.

Delegates at Play the Game today decided to ask FIFA what action the organisation had taken when Burmese journalist Zaw Thet Htwe was sentenced to death because he published articles questioning how the Burmese Football Federation had spent money from FIFA’s Financial Assistance Programme.

The Secretary General of the International Federation of Journalists wants media organisations and journalist’s associations to recognise that safety is an issue for sports journalists too.

"Mr. Syrigos, someone tried to kill you. Do you suspect anyone?"

That was the question the Greek police asked sports editor Filippos Syrigos of the newspaper Eleftherotypia the day after he was brutally attacked by two men who hit him over the head and stabbed him several times in the back.

Greece is rapidly becoming a very dangerous place for sports journalists. On 30 September 2005, sports journalist Periklis Stellas was brutally attacked by an unknown assailant – taking the number of sports journalists attacked in Greece up to three within the past year.