FIFA’s latest crisis has once again raised a fundamental question for international sport:

Who holds those in power to account when sport’s own systems fail?

In this episode of the Play the Game Podcast, you can hear a narrated version of the opinion piece “FIFA’s latest crisis shows why sport needs independent oversight”, written by Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game, and Jens Sejer Andersen, founder and senior advisor.

The piece responds to the recent crisis around Gianni Infantino’s plan to restructure FIFA’s commercial operations — a proposal that triggered protest, pressure, and internal criticism before it was withdrawn.

But the argument goes beyond FIFA and Infantino.

The episode looks at a recurring pattern in international sport: when sport’s own safeguards fail, it is often journalists, whistleblowers, survivors, lawyers, prosecutors, and public authorities who expose what the system did not confront.

From corruption and doping scandals to abuse, match manipulation, and other integrity breaches, Play the Game argues that internal reform is no longer enough.

The episode presents the case for permanent and genuinely independent oversight in international sport — and introduces ClearingSport, Play the Game’s proposal for an independent international entity able to counter crime, corruption, and other integrity breaches in sport.

Host and narrator: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Authors: Stanis Elsborg and Jens Sejer Andersen

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: Voices by rexlambo & I Walk With Ghosts by Scott Buckley