A dedicated forum on Health and Integrity in High-Performance Sport, organised by SIGA Member TrueClinic and the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA), in partnership with the Fundação do Futebol – Liga Portugal, took place at the Arena Liga Portugal, Porto, Portugal. The event gathered prominent leaders, experts, and professionals from across the football ecosystem to debate the protection of athletes and the structural reforms required to safeguard integrity in elite sport.
Divided into two panels – “Protecting the Athlete’s Physical Integrity: Legal Implications”, and “The Athlete Beyond the Asset” – the forum opened with remarks from Reinaldo Teixeira, President of Liga Portugal, who underlined the organisation’s commitment to transparency, values, and rigour in professional football. He mentioned the SIRVS certification and aimed at reaching gold rating in the near future.
Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros: “Athlete health is the foundation upon which everything else is built”
In his address, Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, SIGA Global CEO, stressed that the forum took place at a symbolic moment, as SIGA concludes the Sport Integrity Action Month.
Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros emphasised that athlete health must be treated as the primary pillar of any sustainable sports ecosystem, especially in the high-performance environment:
“Athlete health is the factor upon which everything else rests. Players are exposed to extreme physical and mental demands. They are not machines. This discussion on health and integrity in elite sport is crucial for the future of football and for the evolution of the entire ecosystem.”
Reaffirming SIGA’s long-standing collaboration with Liga Portugal and Portuguese clubs, he concluded:
“SIGA will always stand with Liga Portugal and all Sports Companies. Portuguese football is worth it – and it deserves a system that protects its athletes and ensures integrity at every level.”
Miguel Gouveia de Brito highlights the need for prevention
Closing the forum, Miguel Gouveia de Brito, CEO of Trueclinic and Vice-Chair of the SIGA Council, reinforced the strategic importance of prevention and long-term performance management.
Gouveia de Brito underlined that the Portuguese football industry relies heavily on talent development and export, making athlete health a structural priority:
“Our football industry depends profoundly on talent. Behind every ‘asset’ is a human being. Each injury triggers different reactions and risks, and this is why prevention is essential.”
He highlighted the shift already underway in Portuguese Sports Companies, noting that investment in performance, medical, and prevention departments is no longer perceived as a cost:
“Clubs increasingly understand that investing in performance departments is not an expense, but a guarantee. Protecting athletes is safeguarding their most valuable assets and enabling maximum performance.”
A Shared Commitment to Integrity and Athlete Welfare
The Forum at Arena Liga Portugal reaffirmed the growing alignment between sport governing bodies, clubs, medical experts, and integrity organisations around a common message: protecting athletes’ physical and mental integrity is essential for the credibility, sustainability, and long-term success of professional sport.
As SIGA continues expanding its global, multi-stakeholder work on governance, financial integrity, sports betting integrity, and youth development and protection, initiatives such as this forum demonstrate the organisation’s commitment to building safer, fairer, and more sustainable sporting environments.
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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.
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.
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