New chairman and new employees at Play the Game

by Marie Venø Thesbjerg

The Danish Minister of Culture, Brian Mikkelsen, has appointed an experienced player in international sports politics, 60-year-old Jens Brinch, as chairman of Play the Game upon recommendation from the Danish sports organisations.

Brinch recently returned to Denmark after nine years involvement with the Sports Confederation of Greenland, the previous six years as a secretary general. Jens Brinch will continue as international head of The Sports Confederation of Greenland from his home in Denmark.

During the nineties, Brinch was an international consultant at the Danish Gymnastics and Sports Association (DGI). In both his jobs, he has build up a wide network in Nordic and European sport. This will benefit Play the Game at a time where the organisation has to secure its future as The Ministry of Culture and the Danish sport organisations’ funding for Play the Game is to be negotiated at the end of 2007.

”Play the Game has a strong network among journalists and sports academics all over the world. My task is to strengthen the connection to sports leaders, who want democracy, transparency and freedom of speech in the bigger sports confederations and in the Olympic movement,” says Jens Brinch.

“For the coming negotiations, the take-off with the Play the Game conference in Iceland seems like an excellent starting point. The initiative has been met with goodwill all over the Icelandic community. We hope this atmosphere will spread to all the Nordic countries.”

The coming conference will be held in Reykjavik from 28 October to 2 November in cooperation with the Icelandic youth and sport organisation Ungmennafelag (UMFI).

The new chairman replaces Michael Andersen who withdrew after his appointment as director of Team Denmark.

New employees at Play the Game

Play the Game has also welcomed two new employees:

Michael Herborn, 26, is from Britain and lives in Copenhagen. He has a degree in law from England and a Master’s degree in International Business from the University of Sydney, Autralia. Michael has worked with websites and the publication of reports upon sustainability and microfinance amongst other things.

Marie Venø Thesbjerg, 30, journalist and cand.public. has travelled worldwide and worked as a freelance journalist. Recently she has worked with the Danish International Development Agency (Danida) in Bhutan. Marie knows Play the Game and the sports political world from her time as a journalist trainee in the Danish Gymnastics and Sports Association (DGI)and from her participation in Play the Game.

The two new employees are replacing news coordinator Kirsten Sparre, and will be updating playthegame.org and preparing the Play the Game conference in Reykjavik in October 2007.