The Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA), in partnership with PwC Portugal, will host the FITS Forum 2025 in Lisbon on January 27. Bringing together policymakers, leaders of sports organizations, international criminal investigation experts, government representatives, and private sector stakeholders, the event will address the key challenges of Financial Integrityand Transparency in Sport.
In the same week that marks SIGA’s eighth anniversary (January 31), the FITS Forum comes to Europe following its first edition in June 2024 in New York, which led to the drafting of the New York Declaration on Financial Integrity and Transparency in Sport.
Speakers will address, among others, the following topics:
- The emergence and impact of investment funds in European football and the associated risks to the financial sustainability of Sport;
- Rules and oversight of multi-club ownership, as well as the urgent need for robust regulatory frameworks to ensure the integrity of sports competitions;
- The necessity for a global Clearing House, and an assessment of FIFA’s Clearing House in improving transparency in financial transactions;
- How European authorities are responding to money laundering;
- Public-private strategies to prevent and tackle corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion.
Announced Speakers:
- António Brochado Correia – Territory Senior Partner, PwC Portugal
- Athena Constantinou – Managing Director, APC Compliance
- Cecilia Perez Rivas – Former Minister of Paraguay; Member of Paraguay’s Permanent Mission, Organización de los Estados Americanos; Member, SIGA Permanent Committee on Anti-Corruption in Sport
- César Chaparro Yedro – Head of Clearing House, FIFA
- Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros – Global CEO, SIGA
- Fernando Veiga Gomes, Partner, Abreu Advogados; Chair, SIGA Ethics Committee
- Giovanni Tartaglia Polcini – Chair, SIGA
- Joaquim Evangelista, President, Portuguese Football Players Union; Board Member, FIFPRO
- José Fontão, CFA, Anti-Money Laundering Director, PwC Portugal; Vice-President, Transparency International Portugal
- Katie Simmonds, Chief Commercial Officer, SIGA; Chair, SIGA Women Council
- Luís Ribeiro, Criminal Investigation Coordinator, PJ | Polícia Judiciária
- Miguel Gouveia de Brito, President of the Board, TrueClinic, S.A.
- Nicola Allocca, Chair, Business at OECD (BIAC) Anti-Corruption Committee; Member, SIGA Permanent Committee on Financial Integrity & Transparency in Sport; Co-Chair B20 Integrity & Compliance Task Force; Director, Risk & Resilience, Autostrade per l’Italia
- Pedro Fonseca, Director, National Anti-Corruption Unit, Judiciary Police of Portugal, PJ | Polícia Judiciária
- Richard Weber – Former Chief, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, U.S. Department of the Treasury; Co-Chair, Permanent Committee on Financial Integrity & Transparency in Sport, SIGA; Partner, Winston & Strawn LLP
- Stefano Cavanna – Senior Managing Partner, ARCHé Studio Legale
FIFAGate, 10 Years On
A highlight of the FITS Forum will be a keynote by Richard Weber, a global reference in the fight against corruption in Sport. Weber will present an overview of the investigations he led in 2015, which rocked the foundations of world football by exposing bribery, money laundering, and other financial crimes. “Where do we stand nearly 10 years after FIFAGate?” is the key question guiding his address and one-on-one conversation with SIGA Global CEO Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, focusing on the achievements and persistent challenges on the path to a more honest Sport.
SIGA Anti-Corruption Awards
During the event, SIGA will present two SIGA Anti-Corruption Awards, the organization’s highest recognition for outstanding contributions to the fight against corruption in Sport. This year’s awards will be bestowed upon:
- Richard Weber, for his pivotal role in the 2015 FIFA investigations
- Marcelo Pecci, posthumously, in recognition of his courageous legacy as a Prosecutor in the Paraguayan Public Prosecution Office, specializing in organized crime, money laundering, and terrorism financing, who was assassinated while on his honeymoon in 2022.
Registration, Agenda, and Additional Information
The FITS Forum is free to attend but requires prior registration via the SIGA website.
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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: [email protected].
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