Berlin – Germany, May 30, 2013: Chris Eaton, the Director for Sport Integrity at the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) today called on sports ministers to take global leadership in the fight against match fixing and betting fraud.
Addressing the Fifth International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport (MINEPS), as the expert speaker and rapporteur on integrity in sport, Chris Eaton (Director of Sport Integrity, ICSS) called on sports ministers to collaborate to create an independent and neutral international platform that draws together key stakeholders for the collective protection of sport.
Such an international platform would facilitate a global information exchange, develop and recommend consistent preventative actions and policies, and identify and report on any substantive international gaps or incapacities across global jurisdictions.
A number of other recommendations for sport ministers were made during the conference, including formally recognising:
• There is a serious existing international problem with the corruption of sport competition results, and with related betting fraud
• The threat to the integrity of sport is a global phenomenon that should be solved by consistent and collective global action
• The problem of match fixing actually crosses all sports internationally
• Increasingly, transnational organised crime is active in corrupting sport competition results, and in committing international betting fraud
Speaking after his address to the conference, Chris Eaton (Director of Sport Integrity, ICSS), added; “Educational initiatives like ‘Save the Dream’, recently launched by the Qatar Olympic Committee and the ICSS, and supported by Ooredoo, are important tools in sharing best practice and protecting sport’s core values in young people around the world. This conference has once again highlighted the need for greater collaboration between governments and international sport to tackle sports-results manipulation. With an ever increasing number of criminal organisations turning their gaze towards sport, it is now critical that governments and international police forces start doing more to protect sport and the positive values that it tries to instill in young people around the world.”
Alongside Chris, a leading ICSS-Sorbonne delegation including Helmut Spahn (Executive Director, ICSS), Massimiliano Montanari (Director of International Cooperation and External Relations, ICSS) and Laurent Vidal (Chair of the Management Committee of the ICSS-Sorbonne Sport Integrity Programme), attended the conference and presented the findings of the ICSS-Sorbonne joint research project to the MINEPS V expert group.
Helmut Spahn, (Executive Director of the ICSS) said: “Sports results manipulation is a complex global problem, requiring multi-sectoral and cross national collaboration. This unique forum was an important opportunity to bring together governments and sports bodies from around the world to discuss the escalating problem and vital next steps in the fight to eliminate it. With its international network of integrity practitioners, the ICSS is committed to working with governmental and sporting bodies to develop lasting solutions that contribute to safeguarding the integrity of sport.” —- By: Will Shand
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