In an exclusive interview with G&M News, Miguel Gouveia de Brito, Vice Chair of the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA), shares his perspectives on the key global priorities shaping the sports integrity agenda, highlights Portugal’s leadership as an international benchmark in governance, and addresses the challenge of translating ethical principles into effective and sustainable practices amid the rapid expansion of sports betting and digital entertainment.
Click to read the Interview by Tatiana Martins, journalist at G&M News, in Portuguese.
You are directly involved in leading global initiatives on Sport Integrity. What do you consider to be SIGA’s strategic priorities today, and how does your role contribute to advancing them?
As Vice Chair of the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA), I believe the strategic priorities are focused on strengthening ethical and responsible governance in Sport, combating corruption, protecting athletes’ health, rights, and well-being, and safeguarding the sustainability of the Sport ecosystem. My role involves contributing to the definition of strategic guidelines, promoting cooperation among Sport stakeholders, and ensuring that integrity principles are translated into concrete and measurable practices. My experience as CEO of TrueClinic allows me to bring an applied, results-oriented perspective, reinforcing the credibility and real-world impact of these initiatives.
Portugal has stood out internationally for its adoption of high standards of sports governance and integrity, including initiatives led by Liga Portugal and the Football Foundation. In your assessment, what makes the country a global example in this field?
Portugal has established itself as an international reference in Sport Integrity through a combination of strategic vision, institutional commitment and effective execution. There is clear alignment among key stakeholders — including the Portuguese Football Federation, Liga Portugal, the Football Foundation, associations, professional clubs, sports companies, and public and private partners — around the adoption of high standards of governance, transparency and ethics.
By way of example, Liga Portugal was the first professional league to obtain SIGA’s SIRVS Good Governance certification, is certified under ISO 37001 (anti-bribery management system), promotes campaigns against match-fixing in coordination with the Federation and the Players’ Union, and develops initiatives and study groups focused on players’ physical integrity, among many others. Consistent investment in integrity, education and prevention programmes, combined with a culture of cooperation and openness to international scrutiny, enables Portugal not only to follow global best practices, but often to anticipate them. This structured and collaborative approach strengthens the credibility of the Portuguese Sport system and positions the country as a global benchmark in this area.
The growth of the sports market, betting and digital entertainment increases the complexity of threats to integrity. What type of international cooperation do you believe is essential for organisations, governments and sports bodies to act in a coordinated and effective manner?
The growth of the Sport market, betting and digital entertainment requires an increasingly coordinated, structured and cross-border international response. It is essential to strengthen cooperation among Sport organisations, governments, regulators, law enforcement authorities, betting operators and the technology sector, based on information sharing, regulatory alignment and joint prevention and response mechanisms. Timely data exchange, the definition of common compliance and integrity standards, and the development of international cooperation platforms are critical to addressing threats that are inherently global. Only through a collaborative approach, grounded in trust and shared responsibility, can the integrity of Sport be protected effectively and sustainably.
Sport Integrity Action Month reinforces international mobilisation around ethics, transparency and good governance in Sport. How does SIGA plan to deepen this movement in the coming years and expand the impact of this agenda globally?
Sport Integrity Action Month has established itself as a global platform for mobilisation and concrete action around integrity, transparency and good governance in Sport. In the coming years, SIGA aims to deepen this movement by strengthening engagement with governments, Sport organisations, the private sector and civil society, while promoting clear and measurable commitments aligned with the Universal Standards on Sport Integrity. The focus will be on translating awareness into effective implementation through education, capacity building, sharing of best practices, international cooperation and accountability mechanisms. By scaling this approach in a consistent and collaborative manner, SIGA seeks to expand the global reach of the integrity agenda and embed it as a permanent pillar of modern Sport.
Considering recent advances in Portugal, such as SIRVS certification and the public commitment of clubs and institutions, what are the next challenges in consolidating a culture of integrity that is sustainable and replicable by other countries?
The next challenge is to ensure that these practices are consolidated in a sustainable way and adopted consistently across all levels of Sport. This requires strengthening internal governance, compliance and risk management capacities within clubs and associations, increasing the number of Sport organisations certified under SIGA’s frameworks, developing continuous education, monitoring and evaluation programmes, and ensuring robust transparency and accountability mechanisms. Replicability in other countries also depends on contextual adaptation, structured knowledge-sharing, the use of universal and practical tools, and international cooperation frameworks that support the implementation of proven and effective models.
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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.
To contact SIGA, please email: comms@siga-sport.com.