The history of labour relations in sport can be seen as a chronicle of athletes’ struggle to secure a bigger share of the spoils produced by a particularly successful arm of the leisure sector, one of the great growth industries of the past, what, 200 years.
Opprobrium has been heaped upon the head of Amir Khan for the demeaning manner of his exit in his abortive challenge to the brilliant and unbeaten World Boxing Organisation (WBO) welterweight champion Terence Crawford on Saturday night in New York.
Conflicting messages have again emanated from International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach in the past 10 days.
Athlete representation has been the focus of the past couple of weeks in sports governance circles, with several different events featuring panellists musing over the topic.
It is a sad indictment of the state of global sports governance that everywhere you look, a bad news story seems to rear its ugly head.
The latest International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes' Forum held in Lausanne this past week was claimed to be the biggest ever with some 350 participants drawn from across the world of sport.
"You wouldn’t turn up to an Olympic final without training. So why would it be different for what you do after?"
On Monday, along with millions of others, I watched, horrified and helpless, as the great cathedral of Notre-Dame, the second or third-most iconic structure in the city that will host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, burnt.
It is almost a decade and half since Amir Khan won the British nation’s hearts and the Olympic lightweight silver medal in Athens as a bright-eyed 17-year-old who was Britain's lone ring representative, losing only in the final to the Cuban maestro Mario Kindelan, then the world’s finest amateur.
When an athlete takes a shortcut to high performance by doping, there are many victims. Fans, families, friends and coaches all suffer, but none more so than the clean athletes who are cheated along the way. We are the ones who are most affected.
Having spent several days with World Taekwondo (WT) and the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) as they held a series of joint demonstrations in Lausanne and Geneva, I heard the phrase “peace is more precious than triumph” several times.
Seventy years ago, the Olympic Movement was faced with the reintegration of a nation excluded from the world sporting community.
Athletes from the Olympic Movement have come a long way in having their voices heard. Just last year, 4,292 athletes, from 190 countries and more than 120 sports disciplines, shaped the Athletes’ Rights and Responsibilities Declaration.
Earlier this week I spoke to Andrew Parsons, President of the International Paralympic Committee, in an interview to mark 500 days to go until the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics get under way.
There is no doubt that April is my favourite sporting month.
At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Iranian judoka Arash Miresmaeili was disqualified for weighing in at nearly four pounds above the limit for his weight class of his under-66 kilograms match against an Israeli opponent Ehud Vaks in the first round. It was claimed Miresmaeili had gone on an eating binge to protest the International Olympic Committee's recognition of the state of Israel. Iran does not recognise the state of Israel, and Miresmaeili's actions won praise from high-ranking Iranian officials. Mohammad Khatami, the country's President at the time, was quoted as saying Miresmaili's actions would be "recorded in the history of Iranian glories". He was later awarded $125,000 by the Government - the same amount given to Olympic gold medallists.
FA - Partnerships Manager, International Relations - London, UK
The Football Association (The FA) is the governing body of football in England. We are responsible for promoting and developing the game at all levels; from grass roots through to the professional game, The FA Cup and the England International teams, and has two core assets: Wembley Stadium and St George’s Park. This new role requires carving out and delivering new engagement programmes across the confederations, using existing experience of working in international football. It requires confidence in working with and for leadership teams, and an ability to think and work strategically, deliver projects overseas and build a network of contacts across the national associations.
The International Table Tennis Federation is preparing to move its global headquarters from the Olympic capital Lausanne to a new location - probably in Asia - to capitalise on the massive interest in the sport there and which has helped it reach an annual turnover of $20 million, 10 times more than it was making 10 years ago. Mike Rowbottom reports.
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