Preparing and hosting a FIFA World Cup has often been perceived to bring tremendous opportunities to the host country. These include stimulating a sense of patriotism and fostering nation-building to help further modernize and fast-track infrastructural development within the country. Nevertheless, as with any sporting mega-events, hosting an event of such magnitude and international interest comes with exceptional risks. This essay presents an assessment of risks relating to previous FIFA football tournaments, namely - 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany; 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa and the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, to reflect upon a number of threats and challenges associated with the hosting of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia. With a lapse of eight years from the award to the tournament, the planning and operational decisions for Russia 2018 are undertaken under conditions of high ambiguity. The essay aims to identify the effects of uncertainties that may compromise the Russian World Cup through the assessment of potential and emerging threats that hold the potential to jeopardize the safety and security of the tournament.

Along with the rise of digital media technologies, digitisation disrupted and reconfigured the established practices of previously discrete media markets. The erosion of conventional media divisions has resulted in wide-ranging ramifications for sports broadcasts as it shifts from the historically dominant platform of broadcast television to the digital environment of the Internet in the new mediascape. This paper considers how these emergent practices from the advent of media technology have represented significant challenges to the mediascape of sports broadcasts in Singapore. Given the popularity of mediated Western sports in Singapore, it comes as no surprise that the challenge of sports broadcasts piracy is acute in the country. Singapore has an exceedingly high degree of online infringement compared to other countries in the region. Data discloses that Singapore's per capita infringement ranks first in Asia and fifth highest globally. This paper seeks to review the phenomenon in Singapore, examining the drivers that created the unique market dynamics which shaped the piracy of sports broadcasts in the country. The paper goes on to discuss provisions in Singapore in terms of copyright law and enforcement that are in place for the deterrence of sports broadcasts piracy. It considers the adequacy of these current approaches and concludes with an observation of how Singapore will seek to adjust to the continual digital advancement in its battle against digital sports piracy. The outcome of this assessment helps provide an additional account for its comparison with existing discourse on the challenges of digitisation on sports broadcasts development in advanced capitalist Asian countries.

The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) was an initiative launched by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2007 with adapted sports targeting young people between the ages of 14 and 18. Singapore was selected as the first host city for the Summer YOG in February 2008, with the inaugural event taking place from 14 to 26 August 2010. Through the YOG, the IOC aims to create an event for young people to participate in sport, to learn about Olympic education and to share experiences with their peers. To this end, a unique feature of the YOG is the inclusion of an extensive Culture and Education Programme (CEP) to introduce young people to Olympism and Olympic values of respect, excellence and friendship, alongside the sports element of the event. The decision to de-emphasise the competitive aspect of sport and to encompass a cultural- and educational-based component at the Games invited criticism from various corners of the Olympic Movement. This paper provides an overview of the YOG and its CEP. With the inaugural YOG brought to a close, the Games was declared a success 'beyond expectation' by the IOC President. This paper critically analyses the promises of the YOG CEP, focusing on the extent to which the CEP has met its intended goals. The evaluation offers possible implications for development of the CEP for future editions of the YOG. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.