AIPS Football Commission Chairman Keir Radnedge comments on the need for sport and major events to treat the people as partners rather than paving stones

Comment: While the public demand for better governance in sport rings louder than ever, sports leaders are confronted with troubles inherited from the past

Conflicting views on Brazil’s staging of the 2014 World Cup were presented by panellists from both ends of the critical spectrum in a plenary session entitled Mega-events and democracy: The Brazilian challenge on the closing day of Play the Game.

Brazil’s Deputy Minister of Sport Luis Fernandes is ready to debate with critics of the country’s mega-events this Thursday at Play the Game 2013.

What are the true legacies and costs of mega-events? Play the Game 2013, taking place in Aarhus, Denmark on 28-31 October, raises a critical debate on a theme where sport meets big politics.

The preliminary programme of Play the Game 2013 is at hand now. Early bird-deadline is postponed to give you time to consider your favourite Play the Game themes.

Countless Brazilians are taking to the streets in protests that started as an uprising against increasing transportation prices and evolved into country-wide demonstrations against the World Cup spending among other things. In this article, Erich Beting, Brazilian journalist and sports business expert, gives his account of the demonstrations.

Protests over the rising costs of public transportation and the expense of hosting the 2014 World Cup have spread, leading as many as 200,000 protesters to march through the streets of Brazil’s biggest cities.