Sports leaders are often keen to ascribe a higher purpose to the gloriously trivial pursuits to which they owe their positions.

Hence last year’s agreement aimed at strengthening collaboration between the United Nations (UN) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC); hence FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s dogged attempts to use football to help map out a modus vivendi between Israel and Palestine.

Well, guess what guys? – the migrant crisis that has finally surged to the top of Europe’s news agenda hands many of you a golden opportunity to show just how serious sport is about its desire to make the world a better place.

Not in some idealistic, half-glimpsed vision of the future, but now.

No, sport cannot step into the shoes of Government.

As IOC President Thomas Bach said when signing the agreement with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, “Sport can change the world, but it cannot change the world alone.”

It can, however, do two helpful and important things while we wait for bureaucratic levers to grind into action and, perhaps, for Europe’s selfish and complacent immigration policies to be adjusted.

1. It can spawn hope by taking rapid, unilateral steps which, whilst they may constitute little more than gestures when set against the scale of the underlying problem, set a positive example that others may follow.

2. It can set the tone by transmitting messages that make it crystal clear that sports bodies view these poor people unlucky enough to have been born in the wrong place at the wrong time as fellow human beings and members of global society, and not quasi-criminals itching for the chance to undermine western values and living standards.

Bearing this in mind, I am struggling to think of a media release by a sports body more admirable than the one published on Thursday by Bayern Munich, the German football club.

This set out four simple, concrete ways in which the biggest club in the world champion country of the planet’s richest sport will try to help; all seem well thought-through, realistic and, well, helpful.

In summary, Bayern will a) establish a training camp for refugees, with attendees provided with German classes, meals and football kit; b) donate €1 million from a friendly match to refugee support projects; c) arrange for its players to be escorted onto the pitch before its next match against FC Augsburg by refugee children as well as German children; d) arrange via the club’s charity foundation for refugee families to be provided with pre-Christmas events and activities.

“We at FC Bayern consider it our socio-political responsibility to help displaced and needy children, women and men, supporting and assisting them in Germany,” said club chairman, and former German international footballer, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

Bayern’s aid package followed a ground-breaking gesture by another leading German club, Borussia Dortmund, which invited refugees to a match, and by fans, who unfurled “Refugees Welcome” banners.

One of the good things about all this, or so I would argue, is that the givers are benefiting as well as the recipients: the positive publicity Germany is getting for the generous and enlightened attitude towards migrants it is now displaying has countered the negative press it was receiving in many quarters (rightly, in my view) over Greece.

Another sports leader who has been singing from the same song-sheet, albeit in a sport with only a fraction of football’s financial muscle, is Chungwon Choue, President of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF).

Choue told me in a recent interview that a body called the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation is close to being set up that will send teams of people to refugee camps to teach not just taekwondo, but “to teach young kids, What is Olympism? What is world peace? And also how to live as a good world citizen.”

Choue traced the origins of the idea back to a conversation with a Jordanian Taekwondo Association official.

“He told me, President, we have two million Syrian refugees in Jordan,” Choue recalled.

“The young kids are there doing nothing.”

To say that events over the month or so since the interview have highlighted the urgency of this type of initiative would be a considerable understatement.

“I do believe all Olympic sports should have a responsibility to contribute to human society,” said Choue, sounding a lot like Rummenigge.

“Now is the time to create these kinds of humanitarian foundations.”

Let’s hope that the appalling scenes many of us in Europe have been made aware of in recent days will prompt plenty more sports bodies to follow the example of Bayern and Borussia.

The continent remains the epicentre of world sports administration.

It is only right that this industry does its bit to help alleviate the world’s problems when they present themselves with such urgency and when a little bit of thought and effort can make a big difference.

Shortly after this blog was written, the IOC announced an emergency $2 million fund aimed at helping refugees.

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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) have announced that an emergency fund of $2 million (£1.3 million/€1.8 million) will be made available to National Olympic Committees to fund programmes aimed at helping refugees.

Thomas Bach, IOC President, said the decision to set up the fund was taken quickly in response to the growing crisis which has seen refugees attempt to reach Europe in search of safety.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)  has revealed that more than 300,000 refugees and migrants have attempted to reach the continent so far this year by making dangerous sea crossings across the Mediterranean after leaving unstable areas in Africa and the Middle East.

More than 2,600 migrants and refugees have believed to have died in making the crossings so far this year and Bach hopes the new fund will help those trying to deal with the growing crisis.

“We have all been touched by the terrible news and the heartbreaking stories in the past few days,” he said.

“With this terrible crisis unfolding across the Middle East, Africa and Europe, sport and the Olympic Movement wanted to play its part in bringing humanitarian help to the refugees.

“We made a quick decision that we needed to take action and to make this fund available immediately.

“Because of the nature of the crisis the assessment of projects and the distribution of funds will be carried out extremely quickly.

“We are able to work on the ground with our partners in the National Olympic Committees and the expert agencies to get help to where it is needed most urgently.”

National Olympic Committees and other interested parties have been asked to submit projects aimed at helping the refugees, with $1 million (£650,000//€1.8 million) having come directly from the IOC while the other half of the fund is from Olympic Solidarity.

The IOC have also stated they will continue to work with and be guided by the United Nations (UN), whom they signed a collaboration agreement with in April 2014, to contribute to efforts to aid refugees.

Additionally they are also hoping to utilise the expertise of the UNHCR, having worked alongside the agency for the past two decades to deliver sport programmes and donate equipment to refugees.

“We have a long term relationship with the United Nations and with the UNHCR and we draw on their help and expertise,” Bach said.

“We know through experience that sport can ease the plight of refugees, many of them young people and children, be they in the Middle East, Africa, Europe or in other parts of the world.

“Our thoughts are with the many refugees risking their lives and the lives of their families to escape danger.”

Earlier this year former IOC President Jacques Rogge, in his new role as Special Envoy for Youth Refugees and Sport, vowed to increase sporting opportunities for South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia following a visit to the Gambella region.

The IOC Honorary President also visited a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan last October, which currently has 5,000 shelters housing around 18,000 refugees.

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They might not know it yet but all of the competitors who paraded around the track at Apia Park during the Opening Ceremony of the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games have something in common with some of the world’s best athletes.

Heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill of Britain and South African swimming sensation Chad Le Clos are two such members of an elite group to have won an Olympic gold medal having participated at the event in the late stages of their development.

Each can claim the Commonwealth Youth Games as an integral part of their steps towards greatness.

And while they may have seen Ceremonies on an Olympic and world scale, even they would have been impressed had they seen the heart-warming spectacle presented by Samoa 2015 as the fifth edition of the event officially opened in style here this evening, in spite of a technical glitch which caused a short delay following the closure of formal proceedings.

Bathed in beautiful sunlight and with a stunning backdrop of the picturesque Samoan hills and mountains, Apia Park played a wonderful host to a Ceremony that was purely traditional from the get-go.

Unlike many other similar spectacles, no outside production company was brought in - it was conducted entirely by locals and Samoan residents - making it a true reflection of a culture many of us in the Western world remain so fascinated and intrigued by.

And those Samoans delivered a Ceremony for their nation to be proud of.

While there was no star international singing sensation or American rapping artist to steal the show, the spectacle was packed full of tradition and a true sense of community was prominent throughout.

In keeping with the traditional format of Ceremonies such as this one, it opened with the Athletes Parade, where 2011 host nation Isle of Man led out the convoy of each of the teams from the 66 competing Commonwealth countries.

Each nation was given a rapturous reception by those in attendance, with special ovations handed to the likes of Australia, hosts for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, England and Scotland, a nation that has become synonymous with the Games themselves in recent times.

As if to really hit home the message of how small Samoa is as a nation, the crowd gasped in unison as Bangladesh entered the fray, accompanied by the announcer declaring the Asian country has a population of 160 million people.

But nothing could quite match the arrival of the host nation, who were cheered as soon as their placard became visible on the left-hand side of the track.

The welcome of the 117 home athletes - the largest contingent at the Games - provided another reminder of a how much the country has got behind staging the Commonwealth Youth Games since it was awarded the hosting rights six years ago.

Three nations were in fact unable to take part in the parade due to not having arrived in Samoa on time, one of which being Dominica, a country ravaged by tropical storms in recent times, the latest of which killed 20 people.

Their participation is another method of showing the way in which sport can triumph against all odds, although the same cannot be said for Sierra Leone, whose athletes and officials were refused visas due to fears over the Ebola virus by the Samoan Government, despite lobbying from the Commonwealth Games Federation.

Not perhaps the advert for the Games they would have liked.

Yet those concerns, coupled with the disappointment of St Lucia’s withdrawal from hosting the 2017 event, were forgotten on a night where Samoa was given the opportunity to present its culture and enthusiasm for sport to the world.

Samoa is no minnow in the sporting stratosphere - it has hosted the Pacific Games on two separate occasions, in 1983 and 2007, and its rugby team are just outside of the top 10 on the latest world rankings.

But even Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi went as far as saying it is the biggest sporting event they have ever held, which just goes to show the passion they have for the Games - a fervour which was evident throughout the course of the Ceremony.

Following the closure of formal proceedings, which included speeches from Malielegaoi and newly-elected CGF President Louise Martin, the Ceremony itself began, with rampant drum music hyping up the expectations of the crowd as those involved with the spectacle graced the field of play, ready to dazzle those inside the quaint venue.

It was at this point no-one moved for a good five minutes or so, with each participant remaining still as a sense of confusion washed over the Apia Park grandstand.

Was this all part of the act?

Unfortunately for the producers of the Ceremony, it wasn’t as it quickly became apparent that something had gone wrong.

It must be mentioned, however, that with the absence of a world-renowned production company, absolute perfection could not be guaranteed, and those who were made to wait patiently on the lush green grass brushed the slight malfunction off effortlessly to pick up the Ceremony’s momentum, created by a rapturously-received Athletes Parade.

Once play had restarted, so to speak, the dancers and other participants got the festivities underway, blending entertainment with informative content about the nation’s history.

Accompanied with all the razzmatazz of song and dance, the spectacle as a whole in fact got better after the delay as the centre of the field was lit up by flames by performers using fire to present a traditional Samoan dance to the crowd.

A stirring rendition of the Commonwealth Youth Games theme song “Here I Am” was then belted out by some of the best young singers Samoa has to offer, bringing a superb Ceremony to a fitting end.

Attention now turns to the sporting competition, which begins on Monday (September 7) owing to the strong religious views of Samoan people and Martin, who ousted rival Prime Imran of Malaysia to land the CGF hot-seat at the organisation’s recent General Assembly in Auckland, is hoping the Games can continue to be a unique stand-alone event which gives the athletes the best possible multi-sport event experience.

“We don’t want people to compare these Games to the main Commonwealth Games. This is a unique event,” CGF President Martin told insidethegames.

“I don’t want this to become a replica of the main Games - I want it to educate these athletes on other cultures on other communities.

“In four or five years they might be competing at the Commonwealth Games and this gives them excellent preparation for that.”

As if to further illustrate the mantra of athletes being at the core of the event, neither the CGF nor the organisers will be keeping a medals table as the federation, led by the views of Martin, who calls the Commonwealth Youth Games her “baby”, feel the event is about individual performance rather than collective totals.

It is about honing their skills and giving them an experience of a multi-sport event so they can go on to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Ennis-Hill and Le Clos.

Judging from the Opening Ceremony and the state of the venues, it looks like all of the 904 athletes who will compete for gold over the next week or so have been given the perfect platform to do just that.

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St Lucia’s withdrawal from hosting the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games was a “big disappointment”, newly-elected Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) President Louise Martin said today, while claiming a successful event here will encourage more countries to enter the race to replace the Caribbean nation.

Speaking ahead of the Opening Ceremony of the 2015 Games, which takes place later today, Martin, who was chosen as the new CGF President at the organisation’s General Assembly in Auckland, hopes the spectacle put on by Samoa over the next seven days will prompt further interest in future editions of the event.

The Caribbean island had been awarded the 2017 Games in November 2011 but its preparations were hit by doubts over venues and financial concerns, particularly over the lack of a stadium to host athletics.

Their decision to pull out was made during the CGF General Assembly in a video message from St Lucia's Prime Minister Kenny Anthony.

Canada and Scotland are said to have expressed an interest in hosting the 2017 Games, with Martin saying there are a further two who have been in contact.

“It was a big disappointment not just for us as a Federation but also the St Lucian people,” Martin told insidethegames.

“They tried very hard to get it sorted but they have given us enough time to find someone else to host it and I’m convinced we’ll have a great host in 2017.

“This event has so much potential and I know there are countries who will be inspired by what they see here in Samoa and will want to take the Commonwealth Youth Games on in future.”

Despite hosting the Pacific Games on two occasions - in 1983 and 2007 - Samoan President Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi, who is also chair of the Organising Committee, believes the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games will be the biggest sporting event ever to be held on the island.

Around 1000 athletes, aged between 14 and 18, from 66 Commonwealth nations will compete for 107 gold medals during the competition, with Samoa’s contingent of 117 set to be the largest to participate.

“This is the biggest sporting event that we have ever hosted,” he said.

“Samoa is proud to once again lead the Pacific in a regional first as we host the Commonwealth Youth Games and welcome more than 1,000 athletes and officials from across the globe.

“After the successful United Nations Small Island Developing States Conference last year, we are confident that all athletes, officials and new visitors to our country will take away fond memories, new friendships and great experiences of their time in Samoa.

“Hosting the Games is a big task but we joyfully take responsibility for it.”

The Opening Ceremony takes place at the Apia Sports Complex tonight and will be streamed live by local broadcaster TV 1 Samoa.

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...blind, courageous, gifted, determined