Qatar 2022 is about to start with massive labour and human rights challenges. The sports integrity industry has had little effective effect. Sports integrity is, now, an industry. It needs clear rules of disclosure.
During Joe Biden’s Presidential Inauguration, we saw him join three former presidents - George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, to stand in front of the grave of the unknown soldier in the Arlington National Ceremony. It was a sombre break from the near-Hollywood blitz of the rest of the celebrations that featured stars like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Jennifer Lopez. The message of much of the day was that America had just got through a four-year...
There are more - far more - viruses, like Covid-19 out there. That is the view from the scientific literature that - like many of the things during this crazy time - is really terrifying. One article tells of a group of dedicated Chinese researchers in the provinces around Wuhan discovering thousands of similar viruses. A few of these viruses are potentially as or more harmful to humans than the Covid-19. If unchecked, the...
You ain’t in Kansas anymore Dorothy. Back in the day, international sports integrity conferences - like Play the Game, happening right now in Colorado Springs - were jovial affairs where independent journalists, saddened whistle-blowers and beleaguered sports officials could meet, chat, drink and sometimes dance. Now, everything has changed. Sports are battle grounds of geopolitical soft power. Hard power is the idea that you can conquer another country with tanks, planes and lots of death. Soft power is the idea that you can...
They are the worst mass murderers in the history of humanity and they have chosen to face down the National Basketball Association (NBA). If you missed this week’s foreboding story of communist Chinese taking umbrage at a seven-word tweet by a relatively unknown (by international standards) NBA manager, this is what happened. Daryl Morey is the intelligent, maverick general manager of the Houston Rockets. He tweets about a range of subjects, mostly basketball but ranging to speed chess and jokes about...
Below is the confidential paper on building an investigative culture in a corrupt sports world that I wrote for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Think Tank held in Lausanne on September 20th. It was supposed to be secret but some craven twit leaked it to his pals in the media within 24-hours of it being circulated. Now that a number of journalists have read it, I have no hesitation in making it public. The headlines are: 1) World Anti-Doping Agency is not...
Back from a personal boycott of the Rio Olympics caused by the cowardly attitude of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the Russian doping scandal. Here are three gold medals and a couple of F marks that should be awarded. Gold Medal to the Rio de Janeiro police It is hard not to like the take no prisoners attitude of the Rio de Janeiro police to senior international sports officials and spoiled athletic brats in the US swim team. Actually, ‘take no...
The links between organized crime bike gangs and the IOC/FIFA Okay, everyone calm down. This blog is not about Thomas Bach’s previously unknown (and utterly fictional) history as a Hells Angels member or Sepp Blatter’s non-role as a Bandido drug enforcer. Rather it is about the reason why those nine motorcycle gang members were murdered in Waco, Texas and how it is linked to a key issue around international sports organizations. Brand protection. The superficial reason for the killings last weekend was...
