SIGA Global CEO Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros participated in the annual conference of the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) of the Portuguese Judiciary Police, held in Lisbon. The morning session focused on Financial Integrity in Sport — particularly football — and brought together senior representatives from the law-enforcement sector, investigative police, financial experts, and Sport Industry stakeholders.
Speaking on the panel “Financial Integrity and Anti-Corruption in Sport: The Reforms We Cannot Delay”, Macedo de Medeiros delivered a comprehensive diagnosis of the main threats undermining financial integrity and transparency in football. These include:
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Player and coach transfers
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Club ownership structures and ultimate beneficial ownership
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Commercial agreements, sponsorships, and audiovisual rights
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Organisation of major sporting events
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Illegal betting and match manipulation
Macedo de Medeiros underlined four structural root causes enabling these risks, including the lack of robust, adequate, and up-to-date legislation and regulation, insufficient action-oriented cooperation at national and international levels, deficits in good governance, transparency, and independent oversight, and gaps in resources, knowledge, expertise, and capacity-building.
As a path forward, the SIGA CEO presented the SIGA U Universal Standards on Sport Integrity as a global solution to strengthen governance, financial integrity, and accountability across the sports ecosystem. He called on clubs and sports organisations to adopt these Standards and to undergo independent assessment through the SIGA Independent Rating and Verification System (SIRVS).
SIGA’s Global CEO also stressed once more the critical need to establish an autonomous and fully independent clearing house capable of monitoring and verifying all financial flows in sport, ensuring transparency, accountability, and effective anti-corruption safeguards.
SIGA remains committed to working with public authorities, the private sector, and the broader sports community to advance these reforms and safeguard the integrity of sport in Portugal and worldwide.
Contact: info@siga-sport.com
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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.
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