1. “FIFA presently pays 1.7 million francs (2.1 million dollars) in taxes on a billion francs (1.2 billion dollars) worth of equity. The organization’s profits are not taxed. According to canton of Zurich tax authorities, if FIFA were a business it would have paid 57 million francs (71 million dollars) worth of taxes last year.”

We all know about FIFA’s dodgy track record when it comes to transparency and frugality, but Peter Aeschlimann‘s Time Magazine feature on Zurich’s growing impatience with football’s governing body is full of jaw-dropping statistics (see above) and scarcely believable accounts of the organisation’s abuse of public spaces.

2. “Bryson’s mom didn’t get a chance to thank Pope. She was too busy rushing Bryson to the hospital, where he would check out fine. By the time she got back, Pope was gone. She was so overcome that she stayed up all night staring at Bryson while he slept and thanking God for sending a man like Leonard Pope.”

The Lockout had most Americans cursing the NFL, but the family 6-year-old Bryson Moore haven’t been complaining. As ESPN’s Rick Reilly explains, the dispute set in place a lengthy chain of events that culminated in 6’7” Kansas City tight-end Leonard Pope saving Moore’s life. Serendipity doesn’t even begin to cover it.

3. “The Bundesliga’s 49th season kicks off on Friday night, when defending champion Borussia Dortmund hosts a completely re-engineered Hamburger SV. Last season’s intoxicating randomness proved how difficult it is to predict Europe’s most open league but here’s a moderately educated guess as to how the 18 teams might finish…”

The sage-like Rapha Hoenigstein is back with a primer on the upcoming Bundesliga season for Sports Illustrated. Like an expert chef, the German has reduced the summer’s tranfers and behind-the-scenes manoeuvrings down to a dense and satisfying whole. Bon appetit!

4. “The chances of one family being involved in two deadly plane crashes are, according to an international aviation expert, extremely slim. You are more likely to win the lottery. Had the fog never settled in on the Michigan peninsula the night of June 24, had the giddiness of the nine days before that worn off sooner, maybe the story, at least for now, would’ve ended at a pizza parlor on the north side of Fort Wayne.”

Austin Hatch is a high school basketball player whose path to an NCAA scholarship has been anything but smooth. As Elizabeth Merrill makes clear, in a feature written for ESPN, the teenager had to surmount the most improbable and heartbreaking tragedy.

5. “At the world championships in Melbourne, Australia, in March, Lochte finished second to Phelps in the 200 I.M., then appeared on the medals podium wearing a silver and diamond-encrusted grill over his teeth. With one impish smile, Lochte demonstrated that all that glittered was not Phelps’s gold medal.

“‘I guess everyone is starting to realize I’m completely different than your average swimmer,’ Lochte said.”

Ryan Lochte may have upped his game in the pool over the last year, but as this 2007 New York Times feature by Karen Crouse makes clear, his odd-ball personality has been in place for an awful lot longer. Cigars, diamond-encrusted grilles, and an attention span shorter than that of the average fish (most of whom he can outswim): the Olympian deserves a bigger following.

6. “So Japan, its year of tragedy marginally lifted by the World Cup triumph of its women’s team just weeks ago, is now in shock.

“This is one more reminder of the terrible paradox of top sports. Our athletes are supposed to be the fittest of the fit, yet, seemingly no matter what medical precautions are taken, or what emergency equipment is on hand, young men and women die doing what they train to do.”

Rob Hughes, writing in the New York Times, places this week’s tragic death of Japanese footballer Naoki Matsuda in the broader context of sport’s recurrent failure to detected heart defects, and asks: is it all worth it?

7. “Still a month to go to the hallelujah game, then. When hurling squares up to a mirror, that’s how it sees itself today. Just getting the big hall ready. Waterford and Dublin are the forgotten men of this jamboree, a floor that must be swept, a table that needs a sponge. Maybe greatness gives, but it also takes away. Some time ago, Brian Cody and Kilkenny became inanimate in our eyes. Not so much a group of people as some kind of shared philosophy. Winning was considered a natural punctuation of their lives. A given.”

Vincent Hogan in the Irish Independent brings his A-game ahead of the weekend’s GAA action.

8.”‘It’s been an interesting day, hasn’t it?” Dietmar Hamann says with a smile as he takes another drag on a cigarette and stretches out his legs in the early evening sunshine. Sitting outside a chic restaurant near his home in Alderley Edge, a leafy and celebrity-studded corner of Cheshire, the new manager of Stockport County looks down at the three drinks he has just ordered for himself. A Coke, a double espresso and a bottle of fizzy water may seem a bizarre combination but, after the day we have shared, the contrast is just right.

The Guardian’s Donald McRae spends a day with Didi Hamann and his young charges at Stockport County. Guess who the German wants to manage in a few years time. They also discuss phone hacking.

9. “It was close to midnight last Saturday when they got back to Leuven, and Ciarán O’Lionaird reckoned there was time for a beer. “Just the one,” he said to the small enclave of runners, knowing full well that would turn into the two or three.They ordered a round of Belgium’s finest – Leffe Blond – and as O’Lionaird took the first sip he felt pretty satisfied…”

Ian O’Riordan of the Irish Times introduces one old-school runner who has a bright future ahead of him.

Sitdown Sunday: 7 deadly reads on the Daily Edge>

The sports week in pictures>