A new grouping of international organisations featuring ruling bodies, commercial sponsors and government officials proclaimed Friday its mission to help clean up sport while being adamant it had no intention of usurping the role of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Initially launched in November, the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) now features 70 partners who want to “promote better governance” of sport worldwide by the creation of a set of “universal standards”.
With so many recent sporting corruption scandals, such as the “state-sponsored doping” that saw the Russian track and field team banned from this year’s Olympic Games linked to drug misuse, there have been suggestions SIGA could replace WADA and become an all embracing outfit for governance and integrity issues.
Speaking at a SIGA news conference in London on Friday, Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, the chief executive of the International Centre for Sports Security in Europe and Latin America, said: “SIGA is the only global, multi-partner organisation pushing the issue of good governance in sport to the next level.
“What we are not is a threat to anybody. We are not the new WADA and neither do we intend to be.
“We are inclusive and passionate about sport and we want to work with any like-minded people in promoting better governance.”
Simon Greenberg, the head of sport at financial media firm Dow Jones and another of the figures involved in getting SIGA off the ground, said the new body was still a “work in progress” and an “informal coalition”.
