Just in time for the birthday of the Russian would-be oligarch Umar Kremlev, the final sale of the media platform Insidethegames was announced. The new owners, who operate through a strange corporate construct, are old acquaintances and associates of Kremlin-affiliated Kremlev.
The news behind the news on the 2030 World Cup is that the 2034 World Cup will go to the sporting rogue state of Saudi Arabia and the chainsaw monster MBS. It sounds weird: FIFA does not act worse in awarding its mega-events than the IOC does with the Olympics, but comparatively transparently.
A city council election in Brisbane next year could spell trouble for the 2032 Olympics plans of the Queensland state government. It's a decision not without controversy.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino thinks he is in seventh heaven after a case against him was dropped on flimsy grounds. Our readers deserve to see not just the accompanying FIFA propaganda message but the original document - in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and in the original German version.
The most important investigative Olympic journalist has died in 2022, in the year of the sporting rogue states with mega events in China and Qatar. We honor the legacy of Andrew Jennings with THE INQUISITOR project. Read about decades in which our network has been built. This goes beyond journalism.
The documentary "Memórias do Chumbo – O Futebol nos Tempos do Condor", an investigation spanning 4 countries, exposed how the dictatorial governments that ruled South America from the 1960s to the 1980s infiltrated football and used it for their purposes.
One of the biggest crime stories in the Olympic world takes another surprising turn. The Executive Board of the IOC has suspended the highly influential Sheikh Ahmad Al-Sabah as an IOC member for three years. The consequences are hard to foresee. It has the potential to blow up the Olympic family.
While World Athletics president Sebastian Coe sides with democratic nations, the IOC President Thomas Bach rejects their statements on Russia's war of aggression as uninformed and a violation of sport’s autonomy.
"The IOC is not the official body representing sport", writes the Secretary General of a non-Olympic federation. This letter can be seen as a direct attack on the IOC leadership. It is tantamount to blasphemy. However, the fight against the dissolution of the GAISF comes too late.
A great majority of non-Olympic sports federations may be ready to weaken their position vis-à-vis Olympic federations if they vote to dissolve their common association GAISF at a General Assembly on 29 November. This will further strengthen IOC’s grip on world sport.
FINA has stripped Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia and aggressor in the invasion of Ukraine, of the highest honour of the global regulator, the FINA Order, granted in 2014.
The IOC and the Olympic federations are obliged to punish Russia and its warmonger, Vladimir Putin. Jens Weinreich calls for a comprehensive independent criminal investigation of the longstanding deep connection of the Olympic institutions with the Kremlin within the framework of the EU.
Kamila Valieva' doping case raised questions about a minimum age for Olympic athletes. The Games thrive on high-performing children – some of them so young that they are not even allowed to compete in the Youth Olympic Games. Children are vulnerable to authoritarian states chasing medals and glory.
For decades there has been speculation about information and possibly incriminating material on IOC members and other big names that might be stored in Moscow's secret service archives. If anyone had access to compromat, it was Vladimir Putin. The spying activities span half a century.
Sheikh Ahmad Al-Sabah has been sentenced to prison. Our author has observed the Kuwaiti Sheikh for many years and has been threatened by the Sheikh’s aides several times. He describes the methods that brought Ahmad to power and the implications of the conviction for Al-Sabah and the Olympic system.
An incomparable era is coming to an end. In 97 years of the FIS, there have only been 5 presidents, 70 years of which two Swiss men determined the course of events in their federation. In these 97 years, the Catholic Church has had 8 popes, at least. An obituary for Gian Franco Kasper (1944 - 2021).
