Play the Game launches new podcast on integrity and the darker sides of international sport

Corruption, human rights, geopolitics, gambling, athlete welfare, and abuse in sport are among some of the issues at the centre of a new podcast from Play the Game.

The first episode will be released on 8 June and will be available through Play the Game’s website and major podcast platforms.

The podcast is a natural extension of Play the Game’s long-standing work to create space for open, critical, and informed debate about international sport.

It will feature presentations from previous Play the Game conferences, introduced with a current perspective, as well as interviews with journalists, researchers, athletes, whistleblowers, and decision-makers.

The podcast will also include narrated articles from Play the Game’s website and debate formats inspired by the discussions that have characterised Play the Game’s work for almost three decades.

Listen to Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game, explain the vision behind the new podcast

“At Play the Game, we meet many people with important stories to tell. Some of those stories are heard at our conferences, some appear in our articles, and some emerge in conversations that deserve a wider audience. With this podcast, we want to give those stories a longer life”, says Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game and host of the new podcast.

The podcast is also a way for Play the Game to open its archive of conference presentations, interviews, and journalism to a wider audience.

“Too much valuable material from our conferences disappears once the event is over. A presentation may challenge, shock, or inspire the people in the room, but afterwards that knowledge rarely travels further. The podcast will keep our archives alive in the broader debates where they belong", Elsborg says.

Among the first topics covered by the podcast are FIFA’s growing engagement with the betting industry, the political dimensions of the ownership of Paris Saint-Germain, Gianni Infantino’s ten years in power as FIFA president, and the use of sport as a political tool in connection with the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games.

The podcast is also intended to strengthen the sense of community around Play the Game and reach people who are looking for critical, independent spaces to discuss the future of sport.

“For many years, Play the Game was known as a home for the homeless questions in sport. What is clear today is that there are still many homeless questions and people who feel they have nowhere to turn in their fight for a more just and transparent world of sport. The podcast gives us another way to connect with that community and to invite more people into the conversation”, says Elsborg.

Sport has never been short of difficult stories. What it has often lacked is spaces willing to tell them.

“Sports need spaces where difficult and sometimes uncomfortable stories can be told", he says