The USADA has laid forward evidence that Lance Armstrong and his team USPS ran ”a massive team doping scheme, more extensive than any previously revealed in professional sports history”.

FIFA has revealed that a record number of athletes tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol at the Under-17 football World Cup in Mexico this year.

Comment: Sport is huge business and the influence of the underworld is getting greater by the year. The threat is so acute that it needs to be addressed head on, argues David Howman, Director General of WADA, in the fifth contribution to Play the Game’s comment series on corruption in sport.

Comment: It would be disastrous if politicians took over the governing of sport. To avoid such a worst case scenario, it is essential that sport federations at all levels work a lot more with good governance, argues Niels Nygaard, President of the Danish NOC and Sports Confederation in this fourth contribution to Play the Game’s comment series on corruption and good governance in sport.

Comment: In this second contribution to Play the Game’s exclusive comment series on corruption in sport leading up to the Play the Game 2011 conference, Thomas Bach, Vice-President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), highlights the need to protect sport, which integrity, credibility and reputation are threatened by doping, corruption and manipulation of competitions.

Comment: In this first entry in a comment series Sylvia Schenk, Senior Advisor on sport in Transparency International, opens the sport governance debate arguing that corruption, the lack of transparency and other governance problems is an urgent challenge.