By Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros
Co-Founder & Global CEO, SIGA
Sport cannot afford to wait until 2030 to ensure that its growth is governed with integrity.
Who controls its clubs and competitions, and can the money behind them be traced and verified? How are conflicts of interest managed across increasingly complex ownership and commercial relationships? What safeguards protect competition as betting, data and artificial intelligence create new sources of influence? And what voice do athletes, supporters and communities have in the decisions shaping their game?
These questions demand answers now. The decisions being made and the systems being adopted will shape Sport for years. By 2030, its leaders will have to answer for the choices they made, the protections they established and the risks they left unchecked.
In January 2020, SIGA launched its Sport Integrity 2030 consultation to examine the forces reshaping Sport and the reforms they would require. Within weeks, the pandemic exposed the fragility of a business built around uninterrupted competition. Recovery has unfolded amid war and economic instability, while investment and technology have accelerated change. The question today is whether Sport’s institutions are becoming strong enough to govern that change.
Some shocks will remain unforeseeable. But we can already see how ownership, commercial deals and technology are changing Sport. Leaders must act while they can still shape those changes. If they wait, athletes, supporters and communities will bear the costs.
POWER IS CHANGING HANDS
Investment funds and international ownership groups bring capital, expertise and opportunities to expand. They also move decisions beyond the boundaries of individual clubs and national competitions. Scrutiny must follow the people exercising control, the sources of finance and the transactions connecting clubs within the same group.
Leading athletes are acquiring influence of their own. Cristiano Ronaldo’s stake in Almería and Kevin Durant’s investment in Paris Saint-Germain show how sporting achievement, personal brands and ownership increasingly reinforce one another. They now bring audiences and capital of their own to negotiations with clubs and competitions. Rules must recognise their different responsibilities as competitors, owners and commercial partners.
Digital platforms extend that influence. Audiences follow athletes across clubs and competitions, while younger generations change how Sport is consumed. When sporting organisations negotiate deals with these platforms, they are also deciding who controls the data, who receives the revenue and how they reach their supporters.
A governing body can keep all the powers written into its rules and still lose the freedom to use them. It can commit future income or become dependent on technology it cannot properly oversee. An institution can keep its constitution and lose its independence.
RESPONSIBILITY MUST FOLLOW POWER
Sport’s right to govern itself comes with a duty to protect fair competition, safeguard participants and sustain the game for future generations. That requires leaders with the knowledge and independence to resist improper political pressure and undue commercial influence.
By 2030, Sport should be able to attract responsible investment under clear, credible rules. Innovation should improve performance, access and the experience of supporters, with athletes’ rights protected. Growing revenues should help sustain participation and the communities behind the game. Achieving this requires institutions able to defend those priorities when powerful interests pull in another direction.
I propose that governing bodies publish a programme of institutional reform for 2030, with deadlines and independently verified results. It should strengthen board accountability, financial transparency and the independence of regulatory decisions. It must also equip institutions to understand and govern the new business models developing around them.
Independent review of major ownership changes, investments and long-term agreements should form part of that programme. It must establish who controls the arrangement, where the money comes from and the consequences for competition and institutional independence. Reviewers must have no financial stake in the outcome. Boards should explain their response to the findings, with verification continuing throughout the relationship. Integrity must shape the deal before the deal shapes Sport.
An institution’s independence is tested when defending its rules carries a commercial cost. A governing body must be prepared to refuse a profitable arrangement if the safeguards needed to protect competition and independent decision-making cannot be secured.
Regulatory and disciplinary bodies need the freedom, resources and information to act. Athletes should help shape rules affecting their careers and rights. Supporters and communities need effective ways to challenge decisions with lasting consequences for their clubs.
INTEGRITY ACROSS THE BUSINESS OF SPORT
Financial integrity provides a concrete test of that readiness. From 10 July 2029, the EU’s new anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing rules will apply to the professional football clubs and agents covered by the legislation. Financing and commercial arrangements agreed today may still be operating when those obligations apply.
That scrutiny must extend to betting deals and the sale of competition data. Sporting organisations must protect sensitive information, help detect attempts to manipulate competitions and work with the authorities. Their integrity teams must be able to challenge commercial decisions that put the game at risk.
Data also powers artificial intelligence, with opportunities to improve coaching and officiating. But who answers when a system gets it wrong? Reliable data and human oversight are essential. People must have a clear way to challenge decisions affecting them. Sport’s leaders remain responsible, even when they rely on a supplier’s technology.
Leaders must also protect the places and communities on which Sport depends. Heat and environmental degradation threaten the conditions in which Sport takes place. Rising costs can shut communities out of participation. Sport must show how its investment protects participation and the environment, and whether its promises are being kept.
THE RECORD WE LEAVE FOR 2030
The same board that approves a commercial strategy must answer for its financial, technological, social and environmental consequences. SIGA’s reform agenda brings these responsibilities within a common framework. Our Universal Standards on Good Governance, Financial Integrity and Sports Betting Integrity provide a practical basis for reform. Independent assessment tests whether organisations are putting those standards into practice.
Next month, SIGA will promote Sport Integrity Action Month worldwide. Through education, debate and practical initiatives, it will bring together Sport, governments, business, academia and civil society to advance reform. We will also unveil two new sets of Universal Standards: on social and environmental sustainability in Sport, and on artificial intelligence and sporting integrity.
The new standards will help organisations govern the use of AI and assess whether growth benefits the people and places that sustain Sport. This is part of our responsibility to lead the way. Governments and major commercial partners should require independent evidence that the organisations they fund meet agreed integrity standards. Those of us calling for reform must also show what we have achieved.
In 2030, governments and parliaments should answer for the effectiveness of their laws and enforcement. Business should answer for the obligations accompanying its investment. Sports leaders should answer for the institutions, competitive safeguards and opportunities they leave behind. The shocks we could not foresee will be part of the record. So will our response to the risks we could already see.
Our successors will inherit the institutions we leave them, the commitments we make and the risks we fail to address. They will live with the consequences. We must answer for the choices.
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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 ASIA, 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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