Louis Saha, 43 y.o., is best known for being a football legend. Having played for top clubs like Manchester United, the French striker is, now, an entrepreneur, a SIGA Champion and a SIGA EUROPE Advisory Board Member.
Committed to reforming sport, and ushering it into a new era, Saha participated in a collective interview with SIGA’s Global Media Partners. He spoke about his role in SIGA, and, also about Cristiano Ronaldo. Cristiano? Yes… CR7! Why? Because, for Louis, the Portuguese “red devil” is a role model that can make a deep impact, and for that reason, he addressed his former team mate an invitation to join SIGA.
- Why did you become involved with SIGA, and accepted to be a SIGA Champion, as well as a SIGA EUROPE Advisory Board member?
- It is for me an honour to be considered as a potential contributor to SIGA’s vision. We have seen over the years the words transparency and integrity have meaning, but there is no real action. SIGA is correctly trying to rectify that, so I felt it was my duty to contribute. I cannot say that I’m happy with the contribution yet. I think we can do more things. We need to change the mentality and I feel like as I’m starting individually as an entrepreneur it made sense to partner with SIGA. I’m happy to work alongside people who are genuine. I really want to change things and put sport’s values at the top. And that’s basically what Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros has delivered. I’m a very passionate guy, I like to see results. I was a striker. I like to score goals. It’s pretty much the same for me outside sport.I don’t like to speak for weeks and months without seeing anything coming to fruition. I am here today with the hope that people will have the same passion and vision to deliver integrity in sport and join forces with SIGA.
- What role do you think athletes must have regarding full implementation of Sport Integrity Standards?
- I think that the thing is to try to really use their education, their knowledge, their actual experiences, good or bad, to highlight the things that need to be improved. Integrity in our sport has been tarnished in so many ways… As athletes, we are the biggest Ambassadors of our sports. If we don’t know how the mechanics of this industry works, we can’t change anything. You can’t advocate for anything, you can’t back up the people who are trying to change things. So yes, we have seen so many things happening, and players aren’t even consulted. If we come together, we could be a real strength and this is why I’m really conscious that players start to understand and become more educated. It is our role to bring every single strength into one place. Talking and talking is not for me, I want to be alongside people who really want to do things. Some sportsmen don’t want this. Let’s try to change the mentality of the ones who have the power, because over the years they always said they’re going to change things, but we don’t see any results.
- What can you tell us about AxisStars, your personal project? What do you want to achieve?
- I’m very passionate about it, since I stopped playing. It was eight years ago, so things go very fast. I would say that my entrepreneurial journey started 20 years ago, because I really worked hard as a football player to score goals, having a sense of pride with trophies. I was really privileged to live all those moments but straight away I felt frustrated because in such a great environment where you can really enjoy and make people smile I felt like I had to fight against a lot of processes that were wrong. So, I dedicated the first years of my retirement to build an environment that made sense, where we can connect projects and also entertainers us to service providers and companies. That’s going to be vetted so to bring integrity. We are building features that are already working on other platforms and to make it centralized in one very easy accessible tool, which is an app. Obviously I love my football, so I keep watching Cristiano Ronaldo scoring goals, but the main part of my life right now is integrity and innovation, to have a sense of better transition for the next generation. I’m trying hard, I want to be helped and SIGA is standing with us.
- Recently you flagged on social networks how proud you were that Axis Stars has a black man and a woman in leadership roles. Can you explain why to our readers?
- Diversity is key to integrity. Integrity is a word that sometimes get people confused. What does it mean? I feel like it’s justice. I prefer the word justice. I was shocked to learn that less than 2 percent of start-ups are run by black people, and even less by women. So, we’re kind of like something that is bigger than the Everest Mountain, because we have a woman who is a contender and a black man as a founder of this company. Diversity and making sure that everyone has a chance, is very important to our mission, and I really want to actually work with anybody who thinks that is the way forward. We have so much work to do.
- You played 124 matches with Ronaldo on the same team and only 3 as a rival. How’s your relationship, and would you prefer to have him on your team or as an opponent?
- The relationship is easy because hard working individuals are motivating. He always has a smile, and is respectful. Ronaldo is a family man. If you don’t like the guy when you have him as a teammate, it is because you are lazy or you don’t want to win. That’s simple as that. You can’t dislike him.
When you are alongside him, you feel like you are a young kid, because he shows so much maturity that you are really impressed. I remember one day Cristiano saw me working really hard, but I wasn’t playing with a smile. He is younger than me, but he told me: Louis, you are way better when you smile. Please smile. 10 or 11 years after I still remember that.
- Some, including Amnesty International, are upset with public investment funds of Saudi Arabia taking over Newcastle. What are your thoughts on this takeover?
- That’s a huge problem in a way that money goes away from football at some point. So many things have been done over the years, like maybe in 1996 with the Premier League starting to open up, with the billionaires coming. How can we now actually track back and say “oh no, this formula doesn’t work”? You see how successful the Premier League is? Fans in England or anywhere in the world dream to have a billionaire coming and spending his money. They dream investment will bring the best players, so no one can stop that. Integrity is about how to use the money correctly, to know if there is money laundering. What we can do is try to regulate. We, as an organisation, can add pressure on how to make it cleaner, to protect the value of our sports. We have, however, to respect the history of every club and every country. We digest the sport differently today.
Diversity is key to integrity. Integrity is a word that sometimes get people confused. What does it mean? I feel like it’s justice. I prefer the word justice. I was shocked to learn that less than 2 percent of start-ups are run by black people, and even less by women.
So, we’re kind of like something that is bigger than the Everest Mountain, because we have a woman who is a contender and a black man as a founder of this company. Diversity and making sure that everyone has a chance, is very important to our mission, and I really want to actually work with anybody who thinks that is the way forward. We have so much work to do.
- How do you see the return of Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United?
- I think right now Solskjaer can be very very happy about this transfer because Cristiano Ronaldo is like an extra-terrestrial. He is someone that can play everywhere, in any team in the world. He will score goals in any championship. He has dedication and sacrifice. There is no one like him, and definitely and obviously, when you look at the most influential athletes in the world, that’s Cristiano Ronaldo. That’s not only about football. Lots of people are watching how he lives, his nutrition or how he respects family. He is the best role model you can imagine, because he makes people healthier, so it’s great. He is an inspiration for people to practice more sport. When listening to him talking, you feel he’s 100% genuine. So, he is an amazing ambassador and I hope one day he can join SIGA in some way, to bring more integrity to sport. The aim for anyone who reaches his level is to have an impact in this world. And I think our agenda has so much potential that I hope one day everyone around him can advise him to do more impactful things. He’s doing it, but I think he can do way much more.
- You played 124 matches with Ronaldo on the same team and only 3 as a rival. How’s your relationship, and would you prefer to have him on your team or as an opponent?
- The relationship is easy because hard working individuals are motivating. He always has a smile, and is respectful. Ronaldo is a family man. If you don’t like the guy when you have him as a teammate, it is because you are lazy or you don’t want to win. That’s simple as that. You can’t dislike him.When you are alongside him, you feel like you are a young kid, because he shows so much maturity that you are really impressed. I remember one day Cristiano saw me working really hard, but I wasn’t playing with a smile. He is younger than me, but he told me: Louis, you are way better when you smile. Please smile. 10 or 11 years after I still remember that.
- Some, including Amnesty International, are upset with public investment funds of Saudi Arabia taking over Newcastle. What are your thoughts on this takeover?
- That’s a huge problem in a way that money goes away from football at some point. So many things have been done over the years, like maybe in 1996 with the Premier League starting to open up, with the billionaires coming. How can we now actually track back and say “oh no, this formula doesn’t work”? You see how successful the Premier League is? Fans in England or anywhere in the world dream to have a billionaire coming and spending his money. They dream investment will bring the best players, so no one can stop that. Integrity is about how to use the money correctly, to know if there is money laundering. What we can do is try to regulate. We, as an organisation, can add pressure on how to make it cleaner, to protect the value of our sports. We have, however, to respect the history of every club and every country. We digest the sport differently today.
- Do you feel clubs and sport organisations are doing enough to improve Sport Integrity?
- There is room for improvement. You can clearly understand that in terms of communication they’re doing great marketing, but the result is not very efficient. We need to push all those people, so it’s still a process of organisation, getting together, having the strength of partners, the sponsors, whoever investors are that can put ourselves in a better position to move things forwards. The establishment of SIGA EUROPE, and on other continents, will be really helpful because each continent has their own specificity. There is a lot of work to do because nobody is going to give up their seats. They won’t give up their privileges or whatever they’re trying to do. We want our sport to be clean, it’s that simple. I think that they like to use the word Integrity, but they don’t like to promote it. This is where the work of SIGA is pivotal and I am proud to be a Champion and on the board of SIGA EUROPE.
Watch it here
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SIGA is the world´s largest coalition in the field of sport´s governance and integrity. Supported by more than 100 international multi-industry supporters, SIGA is an independent and neutral organisation whose mission is to bring about meaningful reforms and enhance the integrity of all sports through a set of universal standards operated by an independent and neutral body. 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. Click on the hyperlinks for the list of SIGA Members and Committed Supporters and SIGA Partners.
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