Istanbul: Not Constant but Hopeful

Last year Sportshour heard from fans of Istanbul's biggest football clubs who had put aside their deep rooted hatred of each other and come together to defend the rights of protesters in the city’s Gezi Park. With it, the seeds of a political movement were born, but have they flourished, or has the traditional rivalry returned? Steve Crossman has been to find out as the first Istanbul derby of the new season between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce took place.

Sunday Service: Church vs NFL:
The Atlanta Falcons next ‘home’ fixture is at London’s Wembley stadium. Kick-off time on America’s eastern seaboard is 09:30 Sunday morning. It is the earliest kick-off time in NFL history and the first time it clashes with church. So what are the implications if this became a weekly occurrence? Will the people of the bible state of Georgia, the home of Atlanta, go to church or watch the football? Maybe they will do both! We hear from one Reverend who has set up a jumbotron (a giant TV screen) in his church so people can pray and watch the play.

Better than Bolt:
At the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, had Loughborough College competed as a separate nation it would have finished 10th in the medal table above Uganda, Pakistan and Jamaica. The college deals with mainly youngsters under university age and is part of the wider Loughborough Sport group. We have been on campus to see how they combine academic gold stars off the track with gold medals on it.

A Love Haiti Relationship:
Despite being one of the poorest nations on earth, Haiti’s women’s football team have donated half their funding to the impoverished Trinidad and Tobago team! Their reward - The Socca Princesses beat their benefactors 1-0 and could become the first Caribbean nation to get to a Women’s World Cup finals. Caroline Rigby has been speaking to the coaches of both sides.

Africa’s Financial Fair Play?
Designed to protect clubs financially, football has adopted new 'financial fair play rules'. We look at a different kind of financial fair play - one that could develop not only African footballers but the wider community. In 2008, Keta, a coastal town in Ghana was badly affected by a tidal wave. It is hoped the latest stage in the town’s regeneration will be through its football club. The Keta Sandlanders are part of a growing network of supporter-owned teams spread over nine African countries.

Concrete Cricket
Each year over one and a half million people from South Asia leave their countries looking for work, but wherever they end up, be it Europe, America or the Middle East, there is one thing you can guarantee - they will find somewhere to play cricket - like the concrete car parks of Lebanon!

Sporting Witness
In 1964, the British driver John Surtees became the last person to pull off a unique sporting double – winning both the world motorbike championship and the Formula 1 car championship. He talks about the golden era of Motorsport and about the death of his own son in a motor-racing accident.

(Photo: Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce in Istanbul. Credit: VI Images/Getty Images)