We run a comprehensive mdia impact analysis of the positive benefits for South Africa for perfectly organizing the FIFA World Cup 2010. We also monitored in that study the extraordinary positive impact for the image of Spain as country champion of the competition.

But the crown prince and princess too are part of the soft power strategy of Spain. That was why they were in New York, part of a quiet tour of the U.S. northeast.... in the party in the Cervantes institute were a select audience susceptible to their brand of royalty: prominent leaders of the Hispanic community in the U.S., an audience well aware of their own historical links to Spain on various levels...

The world’s media focused on the atrocities of the Syrian conflict prior to Euro 2012 – and how quickly, it would appear, that we have forgotten the suffering of others just because we are watching another TV channel...Could we now be described as being subjects of ‘compassion fatigue’..?

The street jugglers are out in action and a festive buzz is growing in the Ukrainian capital where the centre has been transformed into one big Euro soccer ‘welcome’ zone. But the closer the Euro 2012 tournament gets, the more the problems mount for President Viktor Yanukovich.

The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, on Sunday criticized the German Football Association after only three members of the national team visited the Auschwitz death camp on Friday in the run up to the Euro 2012 soccer championship...

Sports boycotts, as part of sports diplomacy or the use of sports for political or diplomatic means, have occurred on a number of occassions in the past. The most notorious examples are the Olympic Games of 1980 in Moscow and 1984 in Los Angeles, both heavily influenced by Cold War politics. But also in 2008 only 9 leaders of EU Member States attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

The European Commission and other political leaders are planning to boycott the event because of the alleged ill-treatment of the country’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko who has been on hunger strike for several weeks...

The European Commission and other political leaders are planning to boycott the event because of the alleged ill-treatment of the country’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko...Lots of people say that sport and politics shouldn’t mix. But the reality is that they very often do and not...