Launched on 4 June 2026 in Record, Portugal’s leading sports newspaper, SIGA’s weekly opinion column Linha da Frente (Front Line, in Portuguese) provides a dedicated platform to address issues at the heart of SIGA’s global agenda, including Sport Integrity, good governance, transparency, accountability, financial integrity, sports betting integrity, sustainability, youth development and protection, and the future of sport.
Click to read this week’s article in Portuguese.
The Trust Test
By Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros
Founder and Global CEO, SIGA
There was a time when sport could live on passion alone. Not anymore. Today, reputation is king.
In boardrooms. In government offices. In financial markets. In the minds of sponsors, media operators, investors, governments and fans, trust has become the most valuable currency in the world.
Sport is no exception. In fact, it may be in sport that the battle for trust matters most.
Let us look at the FIFA World Cup 2026.
The numbers are striking. FIFA expects revenues of around USD 13 billion for the 2023–2026 commercial cycle, setting a new record for the organisation. This refers to FIFA’s four-year commercial cycle, not the revenues of a single tournament. Accuracy matters. But so does context. The expanded World Cup, featuring 48 national teams and hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, is the main driver of that growth.
The ticketing story is equally revealing. By the end of November 2025, FIFA had announced the sale of almost two million tickets across the first two sales phases. This month, the FIFA President was already referring to more than six million tickets sold, while defending ticket prices amid growing debate over affordability and cost.
Yes, the World Cup is bigger. Richer. More mediatised. More global than ever before.
But there is one point too many continue to ignore: scale is not the same as legitimacy.
Money does not buy trust. It follows it.
Brands do not invest billions because a football match lasts ninety minutes. They invest because football remains one of the rare global platforms capable of bringing people together across borders, cultures and ideologies.
Sport in general, and football in particular, commands attention. It inspires belief. It creates emotional connections that politicians, companies and media organisations struggle to replicate.
That is why reputation has become sport’s most strategic asset. And that is why losing it now represents the greatest risk facing the sector.
For too long, the industry has lived with an uncomfortable contradiction. It speaks endlessly about values, while too often continuing to coexist with threats capable of destroying them. Governance failures. Corruption. Money laundering. Competition manipulation. Conflicts of interest. Abuse of power. Lack of transparency. Weak accountability.
Every scandal has a cost. Not only a moral cost. A commercial cost. A financial cost. A reputational cost.
Trust leaves the room faster than money. And when trust disappears, money follows.
That is why the announcement made this week by the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) is so important.
Not because it adds another certificate.
Not because it creates another institutional acronym.
Not because sport needed yet another high-level conversation about integrity.
It is important because SIGA has chosen to act.
We have officially opened applications for organisations wishing to become SIGA Accredited Certification Bodies, transforming our independent certification model into scalable global infrastructure.
Put simply: independent, qualified and accredited entities will be able to assess sports organisations against SIGA’s Universal Standards on Sport Integrity.
And that changes the conversation.
For years, sport has lived on declarations. “We defend integrity.” “We promote transparency.” “We comply with the highest standards.”
Very well. Now prove it.
The age of speeches is over. The age of evidence has begun.
Sponsors want evidence. Investors want evidence. Governments want evidence. Media operators want evidence. Fans want evidence.
They are all asking the same question: can you demonstrate what you claim?
The organisations that understand this reality will lead the next era of sport. Those that do not will be exposed by it.
Because the winners of the next decade will not simply be the richest, the biggest or the loudest. They will be the most trusted.
Trust is not an abstraction. Trust is infrastructure. Trust is capital. Trust is competitive advantage.
And, unlike marketing, trust cannot be bought. It has to be earned.
That is why this SIGA initiative matters so much. Because it separates those who talk from those who act. Those who issue statements from those who accept scrutiny. Those who hide behind slogans from those who are prepared to be measured against objective and independent standards.
This is the line in the sand.
So, if you believe in integrity, step forward.
If you claim to lead, lead by example.
If you say you have nothing to hide, open the doors.
If you truly practise what you preach, take the test.
The World Cup will demonstrate the extraordinary power of sport. Its reach. Its influence. Its beauty. Its contradictions.
But the future of sport will not be decided by revenues alone. It will be decided by reputation.
The Trust Test has begun.
And, in a world where reputation is king, those who refuse to take it have already given us their answer.
– THE END –
Previous Front Line articles
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.
SIGA is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, as a non for-profit association, and comprises of the following continental subsidiaries: SIGA AMERICA, SIGA EUROPE and SIGA LATIN AMERICA.
For more information on SIGA, including its vision, mission and reform agenda, please refer to the website: www.siga-sport.com and FAQs.
To contact SIGA, please email: comms@siga-sport.com.