The Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) have reviewed, with grave concern, the key findings of the recent Europol situation report “The involvement of organised crime groups in sports corruption”. This report highlights the increasing transnational criminal infiltration into the world of Sport and the complex link between Sports corruption and organised crime. This is an issue that SIGA has publicly alerted to, on several occasions, and requires greater international attention and focus be directed towards.
Despite this compelling evidence, the reality shows that sports corruption is still not entirely perceived as a serious criminal offence, carried out by highly sophisticated, well organised and resourced international criminal networks that use Sport to expand their influence and launder illicitly obtained assets, amongst other nefarious practices. This report alerts us to the worrying fact that “extremely high return rates combined with low-risk criminal sanctions make this type of crime extremely appealing for OCGs and prompts them to invest large sums of money and other proceeds of crime in this crime area”.
This highly lucrative criminal activity is not expected to reduce in the near future if international cooperation does show more tangible results, legislation is not fit for purpose and law enforcement agencies are not empowered and sufficiently resourced as they need to prevent and, indeed, win the fight this type of criminal activity.
This criminal enterprise needs to be properly tackled, as a matter of urgency. The COVID-19 global pandemic has aggravated the existing challenges and created new, serious ones. The measures in place are insufficient and do not facilitate effective prosecutions, or the necessary investigations that such complex cases require. Simply put, if we are to succeed in preventing and tackling such activity, we must acknowledge the need for a more inclusive, action-oriented and result-driven international cooperation, a more robust and fit-for-purpose legal frameworks at national and global level, and allocate the resources required investigating and prosecuting cases. These cases involve large-scale financial transactions, sports corruption, cross-border money flows and sophisticated layering schemes, often made through shell companies registered offshore, to name but a few of the complexities involved, that all governments know about but not all are willing to put an end to.
Taking all this into consideration, SIGA, as an independent and neutral multi-stakeholder coalition, committed to safeguarding the Integrity of Sport, fully supports Europol’s conclusion that “it is critical to develop and enhance public-private cooperation to ensure a consistent multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary approach for an effective fight against corruption in sports competitions”. This will proactively strengthen international police and judicial cooperation, intelligence exchange and information sharing while providing the means, capability and capacity to adequately fight back.
This report underscores that this area of criminal activity poses a real, significant and increasing threat to the integrity and financial sustainability of Sport. Now is the time to act with a coherent, tangible and impactful set of measures to effectively tackle this surging criminal activity.
To this end, we reiterate our willingness to actively cooperate with the relevant governmental, law enforcement and sporting authorities, and call upon:
- The EU Member States, the current German and the future Portuguese Presidencies of the EU, as well as the European Commission and involved Third Parties to enhance their legislative and regulatory frameworks by adopting, incorporating and enforcing the SIGA Universal Standards on Good Governance in Sport, Financial Integrity in Sport, Sports Betting Integrity and Youth Development and Child Protection in Sport;
- The G20 leaders to place Sport Integrity at the top of the G20 agenda, promoting a more meaningful and inclusive engagement of the civil society, including SIGA, and playing its part in promoting a truly global, concerted, coordinated and action-oriented response to global threats, and eradicate transnational organized crime from Sport and the wider industry; and
- All Sporting Organisations, including international and national Sports governing bodies, international and national competition organisers and other relevant stakeholders, to adopt, implement and comply with the aforementioned SIGA Universal Standards and undergo the SIGA Independent Rating and Verification System (SIRVS).
These and other recent developments in Sports corruption and criminal infiltration in Sport will be widely cover throughout The Sport Integrity Week, between 7 and 11 of September 2020. Join the world’s premier digital conference and thought leadership catalyst for Sport Integrity leaders and all those who want to see the industry being governed and operated under the highest integrity standards.
Register now for your complimentary delegate pass: bit.ly/30Vpvbn
Geneva, 31 August 2
