It might just be the ultimate golden ticket for the sports shortlisted as potential additions to the programme for Tokyo 2020. 

New rules brought in by the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Agenda 2020 reform process allow each Organising Committee “to make a proposal for the inclusion of one or more additional events on the programme for that edition of the Olympic Games".

Outside of the Pope, the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop of Canterbury, is there a paragon left who might run FIFA?

You can never know with these votes, and it is always rash to make bold predictions. Yet it seemed a fairly safe bet that baseball and softball would be among the sports proposed for Tokyo 2020 Olympic inclusion by Games organisers today.

So far as we could see, karate, rather than squash, was being mooted as another likely choice, while there was always a chance that a youth oriented event would be selected: skateboarding under the guise of roller skating, perhaps.

Different year, but the same story.

Doing well but could do better seems to be the verdict on Pyeongchang 2018’s preparations as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission concluded their fifth visit to the South Korean county this week.

It took a few moments to register that the source of the burning smell distracting me from a conversation with Hamburg 2024 bid staff was in fact me.

The passing of Yogi Berra, the celebrated New York Yankees Hall of Fame baseball catcher who died on Tuesday (September 22) aged 90, has prompted - in respectful and affectionate memory - widespread coverage of his celebrated non-sequiturs and verbal gaffes.

The list of Yogi’s boo-boos - he was said to have been the inspiration for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Yogi Bear, indeed he even prepared a defamation lawsuit against the company, who insisted it was mere coincidence, before seeing the funny side and withdrawing it - is long. And of course one cannot neglect the opportunity to share again some of the choicer offerings. 

While there might not have been a shock result on a par with Japan beating South Africa at the Rugby World Cup, it is likely that those who came to watch any of the five days of competition at the Canoe Slalom World Championships would have gone home satisfied having seen an equally dramatic and exciting event.

Gobs have never been quite as smacked as they were when Japan pulled off what Sir Clive Woodward called the greatest single moment in the history of the Rugby World Cup by snatching an historic and enthralling victory over mighty South Africa last weekend.

It was the overwhelming volume of marble which struck me first following my arrival in Ashgabat for last week’s Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) General Assembly, with the elegant, white buildings which monopolised every street large and grand enough to be a major tourist attraction in virtually any other city.

The World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) is at it again on the sports humanitarian intervention front.

Another major world sporting event kicked off on Friday with the Rugby World Cup.

According to SportsBusiness Journal, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is looking for a professional services partner to join its TOP worldwide sponsorship programme.

Twenty-four years after their first staging in Britain, the Rugby World Cup finals are back, pawing the ground, ready for the off on Friday when England play the opening match against Fiji at Twickenham.