For years now exiles and émigrés have been a major component in the rich fabric of boxing, dating back well before the lifting of the Iron Curtain in 1991. This opened the floodgates for such as the Klitschkos and now those big-hitting Beasts from the East, Gennady Golovkin and Sergey Kovalev, to exert so much influence on the professional game.

Just like in American politics, election season is upon us in sport, and lobby bars are becoming full of a familiar combination of plotting and campaigning as strategies and alliances are put into place.

Our General Director, Kirsi Erofejeff-Engman, has recently met the organisers of the 32nd European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Holon, Israel. 

When Jordanian Football Association President Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein took his seat before a press conference in Geneva on Thursday (February 11), he was fully aware of the consequences of what he was about to say.

Memories of 1994 were everywhere at this Youth Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.

I happened across my old College photograph the other day, and remembered one of my footballing mates, Richie, who sadly died a few years ago. Richie was a mad-keen Leicester City fan. Oh, if only he were still here to witness this escalatingly thrilling fantasy of a season…

My insidethegames colleague Nick Butler is a decent sort, but he had me squirming this week with his column on cheating and the form of cricketing dismissal known as the “Mankad”.

The serious injury sustained by the former British gymnastic queen Beth Tweddle - she has fractured two vertebrae in her neck - while taking part in the Channel 4 TV reality game show The Jump is a stark reminder of the dangers of launching oneself through space, fingers crossed rather than skis, and praying for a happy landing. 

Two contrasting but deeply controversial incidents have taken place in sport in recent weeks.

The first concerned 19-year-old Belgian cyclist Femke Van den Driessche, a European cyclo-cross champion last year who, after failing to finish the women's under-23 race at the World Championships in Heusden-Zolder, was reportedly found to have had a motor concealed within her bike.

For the Lausanne 2020 team, the New Year starts on a high note.

Judging by the enthusiasm and excitement which was palpable throughout a special event at Belfast City Hall earlier this week, you would have thought Northern Ireland had just been awarded the Olympics rather than the Commonwealth Youth Games. 

The sign is strong and the message eloquent. And the sight will be amazing. In April 2016, the Olympic Flame will be lit in Olympia in Greece, less than four months before the opening of the Rio de Janeiro Games. It will begin its course in Athens and its outlying districts, then take off for Brazil 12 days later.

There is a pattern to bad publicity before major sporting events. A year or so out the previously optimistic tone will dip amid stories of construction delays, dissatisfaction over ticket distribution, budgets running out of control, rumours of contract corruption and misdemeanours in the awarding of the event to the hosts.

Even the slickest, best choreographed media events – and I have attended few slicker than this week’s descent on Wembley by FIFA Presidential candidate Gianni Infantino and his footballing legends – have revealing moments.