Once upon a time - and in fact many more times than that now I come to think of it - an Aussie mate and fellow sub-editor would say to me, as we mused over the world’s latest novelties: "You’ll find it very easy to mock."

In recent years the debate about the hosting of major sports events has intensified. 

Among the delegates mingling here at the European Olympic Committees (EOC) General Assembly is Jon Hestoy, vice-president of the Faroese Confederation of Sports and Olympic Committee.

Last weekend, Cristiano Ronaldo was handed a special commemorative shirt to mark his 700th goal in senior football. He did so with a penalty whilst on international duty with Portugal, and was soon on the way to the next milestone with a goal in Juventus' victory over Bologna.

Candidates for any high-profile role, both inside and outside of sport, are notorious for making promises and then failing to keep them.

When sports fans descend on Tokyo next summer, I expect a fair few will take with them a little book by Haruki Murakami, the internationally renowned Japanese novelist.

Democracy is a dirtied word in the United Kingdom these days. The Greeks may have invented it, but the British have sullied it thanks to the current shenanigans over another word someone must have dreamed up and is now regretting: Brexit.

There is much laying on of hands at an Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) General Assembly - especially when International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach is around.

I felt the first Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) World Beach Games might be a curious event given the change of hosts from San Diego to Qatar a matter of months before. The sight of children carrying guns during an Opening Ceremony merely confirmed my suspicions.

This week in Pyongyang, North and South Korea played out a 0-0 draw in a qualifying match for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The International Olympic Committee's approval of a €12 million (£10.3 million/$13.4 million) cash injection into the International Olympic Academy (IOA) for what President Thomas Bach described as "a comprehensive renovation" will come as a welcome boost for the institution as it approaches its 60th birthday.

Tucked away on an industrial estate in Kent is a company desperate to be given the opportunity to showcase its products in a crucial sector of the convoluted world of anti-doping.

Increasingly in sport, most roads that do not lead to the Middle East lead to China and its huge market of 1.3 billion people, a growing proportion of them highly aspirational and middle class.

He stands 6ft 9in and has five children, so Tyson Fury could rightfully claim to be boxing's Big Daddy, had that nom de guerre not already been nabbed by the esteemed late British wrestler Shirley Crabtree.