The SIGA Football Integrity Forum returned to the Portugal Football Summit for its second consecutive year, bringing together senior representatives from football, broadcasting, regulation, technology and the betting industry for an afternoon of debate on some of the most pressing integrity challenges facing the game.
Hosted by the Portuguese Football Federation at Cidade do Futebol and organised by the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA), the Forum focused on three areas with direct implications for the future sustainability and credibility of football: digital piracy and broadcasting rights, Good Governance and independent verification, and Sports Betting Integrity.
The programme opened with a keynote address by Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, Co-Founder & Global CEO of SIGA, under the central message that football already knows many of the reforms and safeguards it needs — and that the cost of failing to act is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
Addressing the governance challenges currently confronting world football, Macedo de Medeiros stressed the importance of effective independent scrutiny, transparency, accountability, and governance mechanisms capable of operating not only in principle but when institutions face political, commercial, or strategic pressure.
His intervention was closely aligned with SIGA’s Public Statement on the proposed independent external review of FIFA’s governance framework, in which SIGA set out five requirements for a credible process: independence from the outset; a sufficiently broad mandate; full access, fair process and objective standards; transparency; and effective action, accountability and independent follow-up.
Piracy, Technology and the Future of Sports Broadcasting
The first panel examined the growing impact of illegal streaming and digital piracy on the value and sustainability of sports broadcasting.
André Mosqueira Amaral, CEO of Liga Portugal; Nuno Ferreira Pires, CEO of Sport TV; Sandra Maximiano, President of ANACOM; and Sam Stewart, Director of Product at StreamAMG, brought the perspectives of a league, a broadcaster, a regulator and a technology provider to a discussion moderated by Nuno Perestrelo, SIGA Senior Director of Communication, Media & Thought Leadership.
The discussion explored the consequences of piracy for investment in sports rights and broadcasting, the challenges faced by regulators and rights holders in identifying and disrupting illegal services, and the need to combine technological solutions with effective enforcement and closer cooperation across the ecosystem.
With Liga Portugal preparing for the centralised commercialisation of audiovisual rights, the debate also addressed the importance of incorporating content protection into future broadcasting models from the outset rather than treating piracy as a secondary issue.
From the regulatory and technology perspectives, the discussion reinforced the complexity of a problem that crosses jurisdictions, platforms and infrastructures and cannot be solved by any single stakeholder acting alone.
Good Governance and Independent Verification — From Commitment to Demonstrable Impact
The second session turned to governance and the difference between formally adopting good governance principles and demonstrating that they work in practice.
Andrew Mercer, General Counsel and Director of Legal Affairs at the Asian Football Confederation; Gianni Minervini, Acting Executive Director of European Aquatics; and Roberto Fiore, Partner at LP Avvocati and Member of the SIGA Council, joined moderator Katie Simmonds, SIGA Chief Legal & Business Affairs Officer and Chair of the SIGAWomen Council.
The panel discussed how governance systems must be tested under real institutional pressure and why processes, rules and compliance structures are insufficient if information does not reach oversight bodies in time or if independent scrutiny is absent.
Drawing on European Aquatics’ governance journey, Gianni Minervini highlighted the role of measurable standards, gap analysis and independent assessment in identifying weaknesses and driving continuous improvement. European Aquatics has used the SIGA Universal Standards on Good Governance in Sport and independent assessment as part of its governance reform process.
The discussion also examined how governance failures should be analysed beyond individual incidents, looking instead at the institutional systems, oversight structures and organisational conditions that allow problems to emerge.
Sports Betting Integrity — Protecting Sport, Protecting People
The final panel broadened the Sports Betting Integrity debate beyond match manipulation to include prevention, responsible gambling and the protection of athletes and other vulnerable participants.
Iñaki Arbea Sarasa, Integrity Deputy Director at LaLiga; Ricardo Domingues, President of APAJO; and Paul Buck, CEO of EPIC Global Solutions, took part in the session, moderated by João Paulo Almeida, Co-Chair of the SIGA Permanent Committee on Sports Betting Integrity.
The panel explored how technological developments and increasingly sophisticated betting markets are creating new integrity challenges and why effective responses must combine prevention, detection, monitoring, regulation and education.
From LaLiga’s perspective, the importance of scalable and continuous integrity programmes, athlete education and technological monitoring was underlined, particularly as betting markets become more granular and complex.
Representing betting operators in Portugal, Ricardo Domingues addressed the responsibilities that arise when suspicious patterns are detected and the operational and regulatory challenges that can follow once alerts have been generated.
Paul Buck brought a player-protection perspective to the discussion, arguing for stronger emphasis on prevention and education around gambling-related harm, alongside the established focus on detecting manipulation. His intervention highlighted the importance of recognising the individual behind integrity incidents and equipping athletes, coaches and organisations to identify warning signs before problems escalate.
From commitment to implementation
Across the three panels, a common theme emerged: protecting football’s integrity increasingly depends on the ability to move from commitments and policies to implementation, independent scrutiny and measurable action.
Whether confronting illegal streaming, strengthening governance systems or protecting competitions and individuals from betting-related risks, the discussions reinforced the need for cooperation between sports organisations, regulators, public authorities, broadcasters, technology providers and other stakeholders.
The Football Integrity Forum 2026 formed part of the Portugal Football Summit and was hosted by the Portuguese Football Federation at Cidade do Futebol, in Oeiras.
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ABOUT SIGA
SIGA is the world’s leading organisation for Sport Integrity. We are creating a whole new landscape for the sports industry by delivering independent global rating and certification for world Sport to ensure it is governed and operates under the highest integrity standards: The SIGA Universal Standards.
Funded by our Members, SIGA is a non for profit global independent organisation with one aim: To ensure the sport industry is governed under the highest integrity standards so that the values of sport are protected.
SIGA is the only organisation to bring together sport, governments, academia, international organisations, sponsors, business, rights holders, NGOs and professional services companies, from every region in the world, around a common cause of fostering greater integrity throughout sport.
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