Showing 1 - 10 of 15
An ugly side to the beautiful game
News, Published on 15/11/2022
» When the World Cup kicks off next weekend, a Western sense of fair play will be outraged that a country without any native tradition in the game has won the right to host the tournament through financial muscle. Insult is added to injury too -- due to Qatar's extreme temperatures, the World Cup isn't being staged during the usual summer break but in November, disrupting domestic soccer competitions in the northern hemisphere for six weeks. Fans and players just have to lump it.
After all Rio's drama, clean up the Games
News, Editorial, Published on 14/08/2016
» In the first week of the Rio Olympics we have already seen the "good, the bad and the ugly" of the world's greatest sporting carnival.
Forced to pull the plug
News, Published on 05/03/2016
» TV news anchor Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda has finally bowed to pressure and called it quits, leaving in his wake many questions about media integrity.
Just banning Sepp Blatter won't clean up football
News, Published on 23/12/2015
» The ethics committee of football's global body brought down the hammer on president Sepp Blatter, banning him for eight years for making a $2 million (72.1 million baht) payment that looked an awful lot like a bribe. But don't expect Mr Blatter to go gently into the night, if his post-suspension press conference is any indication.
Doping woes run deep
News, Editorial, Published on 17/11/2015
» The Russian athletic officials and a few track and field competitors have been caught doping. But that is only the tip of the iceberg. The Russians got away with it for a long time by bribing the top international track and field officials who knew they were cheating. The head of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), a previously admired man and a UK sporting hero, knew nothing about this during three years in charge. Those involved with doping must be banned for life, but this dirty business goes much further, and has many more victims.
Russian athletes aren't the only cheaters around
News, Published on 12/11/2015
» A highly anticipated report on doping and corruption in international athletics accused the Russian government of being complicit in a widespread and coordinated doping programme, recommending the Russian team be banned from next year's Olympics in Brazil.
Globalisation unleashes a tranche of new weapons
News, Nader Mousavizadeh, Published on 29/09/2015
» The element of surprise in international relations appears more frequent and more ferocious. Are these shocks to be expected from a dangerously fragile political and economic global architecture? Or is something else going on?
Public apathy feeds high-level graft
News, Published on 15/06/2015
» Ours is a world of impunity. Allegations of corruption swarmed around Fifa for decades, culminating in mass indictments of Fifa officials last week. Yet Fifa president Sepp Blatter was re-elected four times, including after the indictments were filed. Yes, Mr Blatter has finally resigned, but only after he and dozens of federation members once again showed their scorn for honesty and the law.
Blatter's ouster alone will not fix football
News, Published on 04/06/2015
» Sepp Blatter is resigning from Fifa. That bears repeating: Sepp Blatter is resigning from Fifa. It's almost impossible to fathom that the ultimate sports dictator was toppled this suddenly, just four days after winning re-election amid a snowballing scandal.
Use auctions to purge unholy graft
News, Published on 01/06/2015
» International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach on Thursday told the functionaries of Fifa, the football governing body, to clean up their act as the IOC did 15 years ago. His advice might have been more credible had Fifa president Joseph Blatter, himself an IOC member, not just introduced Mr Bach as "the Boss". International sports organisations have too much arbitrary power for their attempts at self-improvement to be effective.