By Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros
Co-Founder & Global CEO, SIGA
There is a fundamental contradiction at the heart of modern Sport. Sport asks governments to respect its autonomy. It asks sponsors, broadcasters and investors to channel billions into its competitions. It asks athletes to entrust their careers to clubs, and supporters to give it something even more valuable than money: their loyalty, passion and trust.
These expectations are legitimate. But they carry an equally legitimate responsibility. If Sport claims the autonomy to govern itself, it must be prepared to demonstrate — independently and credibly — that it governs itself well.
It is how the world works.
States accept scrutiny. OECD countries subject public policies and institutional performance to peer review. The International Monetary Fund conducts surveillance of national economies and financial systems. The Financial Action Task Force subjects jurisdictions to mutual evaluations designed not merely to establish whether rules exist, but whether they work in practice.
The same principle applies in finance. The Basel Core Principles provide internationally recognised standards for banking supervision and are used by the IMF and the World Bank to assess national systems. Within the European Union, banks are supervised by the European Central Bank and national authorities through the Single Supervisory Mechanism. Their accounts are independently audited.
Aviation follows the same logic. ICAO assesses whether States are effectively discharging their safety oversight responsibilities, while IATA subjects airlines to internationally recognised operational safety scrutiny. International shipping has a mandatory audit architecture through the International Maritime Organization. International labour standards are supported by the ILO’s supervisory system.
The mechanisms differ, but the principle does not: where significant powers and responsibilities are exercised, standards apply, performance is scrutinised, compliance must be demonstrated and those exercising power must render account.
These are not isolated examples. Collectively, they demonstrate the rule: across modern economies and societies, standards, scrutiny and independent verification are fundamental to accountability and trust.
If this is, as we have just demonstrated, how the world works, why should Sport be the exception?
AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
I have spent almost three decades working in law, football and the wider world of Sport. I know what it is to run a football club. I know what it is to run a league. I know what it is to create from scratch and lead an association of European professional football leagues. And I know what it is to build and lead a world association of leagues.
I know football from within — its pressures, its politics, its responsibilities and its extraordinary capacity to do good.
That is precisely why I have always been a staunch defender of the autonomy of Sport. Sporting autonomy exists for good reasons and should be protected from unwarranted governmental interference. But autonomy is neither unlimited nor unconditional. It was never intended to mean immunity from accountability. The greater the autonomy claimed, the greater the responsibility to demonstrate that it is exercised properly.
There is no contradiction between autonomy and independent scrutiny. Independent scrutiny strengthens legitimate sporting autonomy. If Sport asks governments not to intervene, it should be able to demonstrate objectively why intervention is unnecessary.
Self-assessment and internal controls are indispensable. But self-assessment is not independent evidence. No serious company argues that preparing its own accounts makes an external audit unnecessary.
Sport should not hold itself to a lesser standard.
THE FIFA CRISIS — AND THE LARGER QUESTION
The current governance crisis surrounding FIFA has brought these questions sharply into focus. Different institutions have taken different positions, which should not be conflated. SIGA is not aligned with any camp. We are independent, neutral and impartial.
For me, the fundamental question is not who prevails in the present institutional dispute. It is whether FIFA — and international football more broadly — can demonstrate that its governance is worthy of the extraordinary trust, authority and responsibility placed in it.
Some of the reforms now circulating in the media bear a striking resemblance to those advanced three decades ago by UEFA, under its then President Lennart Johansson, amid concerns over the concentration of power within FIFA. These included greater decentralisation, stronger confederations and even a system of rotation for the FIFA presidency.
The historical parallel is instructive. Debates over the distribution and concentration of power within world football are not new.
Structures can be redesigned, powers redistributed and institutional balances recalibrated. Leadership can change. But none of it, by itself, resolves the central question of accountability. Lasting reform requires effective checks and balances, transparency and genuinely independent scrutiny.
No institution exercising significant power should be the sole judge of its own integrity.
FROM RULES TO EVIDENCE
Sport does not lack rules. Yet the existence of rules is not proof of their effectiveness.
A code of ethics does not establish ethical conduct. A commitment to transparency does not establish transparency. The question must therefore move beyond what rules an organisation has adopted to whether they work in practice.
That is where independent scrutiny becomes indispensable.
And we should be equally rigorous about the word independent. Calling a review independent does not make it so. Independent of whom? Appointed by whom? Against what standards? Using what methodology? With what access to evidence? And with what safeguards against influence from those being assessed?
These are not semantic or technical questions. They go to the credibility of the process itself. There is a fundamental difference between an institution asserting that it meets the required standards and an independent, competent and impartial process examining the evidence and determining whether it actually does.
One is assertion. The other is evidence.
FROM SELF-ASSESSMENT TO INDEPENDENT SCRUTINY
This is the gap SIGA set out to address. The SIGA Universal Standards on Sport Integrity establish objective, Sport-specific benchmarks across Good Governance, Financial Integrity, Sports Betting Integrity, and Youth Development and Protection. SIRVS — the SIGA Independent Rating and Verification System — enables organisations to submit their governance and integrity arrangements to independent assessment, rating, verification and certification.
Neither the Universal Standards nor SIRVS were created for FIFA or today’s controversy. They were created because, from the outset, we believed the credibility of Sport would ultimately depend on moving beyond self-regulation towards independently verified accountability.
The present debate demonstrates how relevant that proposition has become.
There is no need to reinvent the wheel every time a governance crisis erupts. For years, SIGA has called on Sport to embrace universally recognised standards of integrity and genuinely independent scrutiny. We developed the SIGA Universal Standards and SIRVS from the ground up precisely to provide that framework.
The standards exist. The methodology exists. The mechanism for independent scrutiny exists.
The present crisis does not create that need; it demonstrates, with renewed urgency, why these instruments should be used.
FIFA should consider adopting the SIGA Universal Standards and opening its governance and integrity arrangements to independent scrutiny through SIRVS. So should confederations, national associations, international federations, leagues and clubs — and, of course, SIGA itself. There can be no credible argument for universal standards and selective accountability.
TRUST MUST BE EARNED
Independent scrutiny is not about naming and shaming, nor should it become an instrument in political, personal or electoral disputes. Its purpose is to move the debate away from personalities and competing narratives towards recognised standards, evidence and objectively verifiable performance.
Sport occupies an extraordinary position in society. Few institutions command the same passion, loyalty and sense of belonging, or have the same capacity to transcend borders, cultures, religions and political divisions. That extraordinary position brings responsibilities. Governments recognise sporting autonomy. Companies invest billions. Athletes entrust their careers to Sport. Parents entrust their children to it. Supporters give it their loyalty, passion and trust. They are entitled to expect integrity, accountability and credible evidence of good governance in return.
I remain, as I have always been, a staunch defender of the autonomy of Sport. But it must be an autonomy worth defending. If Sport wants the world’s respect, it must meet the standards that respect requires. If it wants the world’s trust, it must earn it. And if it wants the autonomy to govern itself, it must be prepared to demonstrate — independently, objectively and credibly — that it is fit to do so.
That is not an unreasonable demand. It is how the world works.
Why should Sport be different? Why should Sport be the exception? In 2026, Sport can no longer govern itself as if we were still in the 19th century.
The Integrity Line is a SIGA editorial platform by Co-Founder & Global CEO Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, providing authoritative insight and independent scrutiny on the most critical challenges facing Global Sport
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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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