US President Barack Obama poked fun at one of sport's biggest stars at the White House on Tuesday, remarking that British soccer player David Beckham had a knack for combining athletic prowess with commercial appeal.

Roberto Mancini, the Manchester City manager, declared yesterday that his side are now “the best team in Manchester” but, in another wounding statement for the club they share a city with, reflected that: “It's not important to beat United twice or beat Chelsea, it's only important to win a championship in the end.”

The working conditions reported at factories making Team GB Olympics kit are truly appalling

It's no secret why Adidas and other sportswear brands such as Nike, Gap, H&M and others get most of their products manufactured in developing countries. Wages are cheap, labour law is lax, and people are desperate for jobs. Over the past decade, such companies – in response to public pressure – have taken steps to monitor their supply chains, enforcing minimum pay and conditions and outlawing child labour.

At a grand ceremony at the Tower of London this morning, amid much fanfare and lycra, the official TeamGB kit for the Olympic and Paralympic Games were unveiled.

The official football for the London 2012 Olympic Games has been launched.

One day, during the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Japan, the American player Glenn Cowan missed his team bus back to the hotel. A Chinese player invited him to theirs. They gave him as a gift a silk-screen print of the Huangshan mountains; the next day he gave them a T-shirt with the words to "Let It Be". Within months Henry Kissinger was in Beijing, and inside a year Richard Nixon was meeting Mao Zedong.

Commitment the 1980s great puts into ventures will rub off on British No 1 predicts leading coach

If you ask me...

From Kool Herc spinning in the Bronx to Jay-Z blinging in the mud, Matilda Egere-Cooper counts down the flash points that turned hip-hop from a marginalised inner-city culture into a global phenomenon

The stainless reputation of the new International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief, Christine Lagarde, is to be tested by a French court investigation.

Major sponsors Coca-Cola have described the ongoing controversy surrounding FIFA as "distressing and bad for the sport" as the saga rumbles on.

Sports Direct International; Fidessa

The Way I See It: Surely it is only a matter of time before the two boot giants realise that they have access to the finest talent and see the commercial possibilities