• A debate suggesting that the UK Parliament has no confidence in the ability of the Football Association (FA) to govern the game will take place on Thursday 9 February at 2:15pm. The debate will call on the government to introduce legislation forcing the governing body to reform, after previous calls for reform were ignored. “The current Minister for Sport told the Committee that The FA had been given six months from publication of the Government’s guidance in October 2016 to demonstrate that it was willing to improve governance, otherwise public money would be withdrawn from The FA and distributed to football through other means”, read a statement from Damian Collins MP, Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee of the UK Parliament. “We do not believe that The FA will comply voluntarily […] We are therefore preparing a draft Bill to bring the structure of The FA, especially its Board and Council, more into line with modern company practice and the Government’s guidelines for sports bodies.”

• Girmay Birahun, a 22-year-old Ethiopian athlete faces a minimum of three years in jail after testing positive for meldonium, according to Haile Gebrselassie, newly-appointed head of the Ethiopia Athletics Federation. “In a way I am scared for the athlete, sad for him, for what he will face in jail”, Gebrselassie told The Independent. “Three years minimum. That’s a very bad punishment for someone to face. He will be the first Ethiopian athlete to go to jail and he has been crying non-stop ever since. But I need to work to protect the majority, not the individual.

• New Zealand rugby union international Patrick Tuipulotu tested positive for a banned substance in November last year, according to a New Zealand Rugby statement reported by Reuters. It is understood that Tuipulotu was sent home from an All Blacks tour following the adverse analytical finding (AAF) and did not return to his club, Auckland Blues, for training.

• West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell has reportedly been given a one-year ban after registering three whereabouts filing failures during a year, which constitutes an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) under the World Anti-Doping Code. The cricketer will be banned for one year from 31 January 2017, reports Reuters.

• The Sports Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) will develop pilot projects with four sporting organisations, which will implement its Universal Standards. At its General Assembly, SIGA announced that the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL), the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC), the ESport Integrity Coalition (ESIC) and European Aquatics would implement the three Standards – Good Governance in Sport; Financial Integrity in Sport and Sports Betting Integrity. SIGA was launched by the International Centre for Sports Security (ICSS) in April last year.