7 Days, 7 Good News: The Chess Prodigy, Tom Brady and Cash for Footballers

Lionel Messi wouldn't even lace up his football boots for this "small change", but for fans and fan projects it's a really warm windfall: German football's fan projects will continue to receive around 15 million euros a year. "The funding of the projects is secured until the end of 2022," says Sophia Gerschel, spokeswoman for the Federal Working Group of Fan Projects. The associations DFB and DFL together bear half, the federal and state governments the other half. The money is mainly used to pay for full-time fan work in professional football, but also in the lower leagues. Each club receives a maximum of 150,000 euros for fan work. The German Football Association actually wanted to make the funding dependent on the league - this would have meant that the fan scene would also have been punished for a sporting relegation of the players. This has now - for the time being - been averted.

At 44 years old, NFL superstar Tom Brady could actually retire long ago and let wife Gisele Bündchen stroke his belly. But the old man wants the more: "I can still throw the ball like I'm 24," the seven-time Super Bowl winner says before the new season begins. After leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a title, he wants to repeat that feat after recovering from injury.

Next thing you know, they'll be freezing the blood in your veins: The National Anti-Doping Agency has expanded its methods for hunting doping offenders. In addition to the conventional blood and urine controls, the Dried Blood Spot method is now also used. This involves doping hunters dripping blood onto filter paper, allowing it to dry and then analysing it. „NADA sees the DBS test as an important further development of the doping control system and its use as a complementary option to classic doping controls as purposeful," the agency said. Further innovative methods in the search for doping offenders would be examined - we wait anxiously to see whether the blood frozen in the veins will also be one of them at some point.

Officials of sports federations are often accused of cashing in on money and otherwise twiddling their thumbs. We can't verify the former, but those in charge of the International Paralympic Committee don't need to be accused of the latter. For the 2028 Paralympics, he said, the federation wants to change the way new sports are admitted. President Andrew Parsons told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. "We are specifically approaching sports" - until now, sports federations applied for participation. "We are especially open to sports that reach the youth." Should this succeed, another official cliché would be brought down - namely that of the old, unworldly officials who have lost sight of the essentials.

This punishment had to be: The national coach in the Modern Pentathlon, Kim Raisner, has now received the just punishment from the world federation UIPM for her scandalous behavior at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. There, modern pentathlete Annika Schleu had problems with the horse assigned to her. The coaches, however, did not calm Schleu down, but encouraged her protégé to hit the horse. She herself also hit the horse. The punishment from the World Federation was Solomonic: Raisner has to attend a training seminar on the proper handling of horses, only after which she is allowed to stand alongside again in competitions. She also received a reprimand. Should such an incident happen again, her trainer's license will be revoked. The World Equestrian Federation justified the fact that this did not happen already now with Raisner's "exemplary behaviour" so far - the black competition day on August 6 had been an "anomaly".

100 years is the Berlin athletics sports festival Istaf starting on Sunday this year - fitting for the anniversary, the Istaf learns inclusion. Para-sports will also take part in the competitions this year. The Istaf organizers are particularly counting on the crowd-pulling power of disabled athletes with high popularity. For example, the Paralympics bronze medallist Niko Kappel, who is small in stature, will be competing in the shot put. Gold medallists Felix Streng and Johannes Floors will compete in the 100-metre sprint for lower leg amputees. Up to 25,000 spectators are allowed into the stadium for the first inclusive Istaf - hopefully the place will be packed.

He was the milksop among loud masters - and he beat almost all of them. Vincent Keymer, who is only 16 years old, sensationally came second in the European Chess Championship in Reykjavik. In the tournament, the high school graduate from Saulheim left 30 higher-ranked chess grandmasters behind him. In the end Keymer was equal on points with the 33-year-old European Champion Anton Demchenko, the Russian only came out on top by the fine evaluation. We are now counting on a great career for Keymer, who is currently looking for sponsors for his professional career. After graduating from high school he's now putting all his eggs in the chess basket - but even a child prodigy needs money to pay for all the travelling.