By Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros
Co-Founder & Global CEO, SIGA
WHERE ARE THOSE WHO HELP FINANCE SPORT?
There is one question that, amid the governance crisis now shaking world football, is still not being asked loudly enough:
Where are the sponsors, the broadcasters, the investors and the major commercial partners?
They invest billions in Sport. They compete fiercely for the right to associate their brands with its greatest competitions, clubs and athletes. They benefit from Sport’s extraordinary global reach, its emotional power and the loyalty of millions of fans and consumers. That is entirely legitimate. Modern Sport needs commercial investment. But those who benefit from Sport cannot simply enjoy the upside and look away when difficult questions arise. A commercial association with Sport carries not only benefits, but also responsibilities.
There is an old English saying: “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” I am not suggesting that those who finance Sport should dictate how it is governed. They should not. But one would surely expect those whose money, brands and reputations are so deeply intertwined with Sport to take an active interest when the credibility and integrity of the institutions they support are called into question.
And yet, are we hearing enough from them?
THE LESSON OF 2015
We have seen a different response before. In 2015, when FIFA was engulfed by one of the gravest crises in its history, several major sponsors raised serious concerns and called for change. They understood a simple reality: reputational risk does not stop at the door of the institution in crisis. Consumers are watching. Shareholders are watching. Clients and employees are watching. Their brands were on the line too. The institutional voice of another enormously influential constituency – the broadcasters – was less evident. They reported the crisis, investigated it and analysed it. But as rights-holders investing vast sums in football, what was their own corporate position? More than ten years later, that question remains relevant.
For me, this is not an abstract debate. In May 2015, as I was laying the foundations for what would become SIGA, I met the CEO of a major global corporation at his office on First Avenue in Manhattan. I asked him what concerned him most about his company’s involvement in Sport. His answer was immediate: reputational damage.
Companies, he explained, do not always really know whom they are sponsoring. This is not because major corporations fail to conduct due diligence. They do. The problem is that conventional due diligence is generally not built around criteria specifically designed for the distinctive nature, structures, risks and governance challenges of Sport.
WHY SPORT REQUIRES SPORT-SPECIFIC SCRUTINY
That distinction matters. Sport has its own governance structures, regulatory framework, stakeholder relationships, decision-making processes, integrity risks and operational realities. It cannot be properly assessed through generic corporate criteria alone. Assessing Sport properly requires standards and methodology conceived specifically for Sport, grounded in its realities and capable of testing not only what exists on paper, but how governance and integrity work in practice.
This is precisely why SIGA was created. To fill that gap. To bring together Sport, governments, international organisations, global business and civil society around a common reform agenda. And to develop the most comprehensive set of Universal Standards on Sport Integrity, providing a credible, sport-specific benchmark against which organisations can be independently assessed, verified and, where appropriate, certified.
That same CEO made another point I have never forgotten: “We are accountable.” Accountable to shareholders, to consumers and to clients. And precisely because of that accountability, companies need confidence in the credentials, integrity and governance of the organisations with which they associate their brands.
On the same day that several FIFA officials were arrested at the Baur au Lac in Zurich, I happened to be meeting another very senior business leader from one of the world’s largest sponsors. News of the arrests reached him during our meeting. When he returned, he was visibly shaken. Questions were already coming from consumers: What has happened? Why are we sponsoring FIFA? Why is our brand associated with this? That moment reinforced something fundamental: consumers are not passive. They care about the organisations their brands choose to support, and when integrity is called into question, they expect answers.
Those two encounters, against the extraordinary backdrop of May 2015, reinforced a conviction that has remained with me ever since: global business cannot simply be a source of funding for Sport. It must be part of the integrity solution.
DUE DILIGENCE MUST WORK BOTH WAYS
This is why good governance in Sport is not only the right thing to do. It is responsible business. And it is good business. Governance failures destroy value. They damage reputations, destabilise institutions, undermine confidence and affect the very competitions, rights and properties in which commercial partners invest. Good governance protects value, strengthens confidence, safeguards reputation and creates stability.
Regulators are increasingly recognising this connection. Earlier this year, the UK Financial Conduct Authority warned football clubs about the risks associated with questionable sponsorship arrangements and stressed the importance of proper due diligence before agreements are signed and throughout the commercial relationship. Among the risks identified were legal liability, money laundering and serious reputational damage. The principle is absolutely right. But why should it operate in only one direction?
If a sports organisation is expected to know who is sponsoring it, surely a company investing millions – sometimes hundreds of millions – has an equally legitimate interest in knowing the organisation it is sponsoring.
Due diligence must work both ways.
Sponsors should want to know how the organisations carrying their brands are governed. Broadcasters investing billions in media rights should have an interest in the integrity and governance of the institutions selling those rights. Investors should examine not only the financial value of sports assets, but also the quality of governance surrounding them. How are decisions taken? Where are the checks and balances? How are conflicts of interest managed? How is power held accountable? Are integrity safeguards working in practice? And, crucially, has any of this been independently assessed against recognised sport-specific standards?
A UNITED FRONT FOR POSITIVE CHANGE
This is also where global business has an opportunity to become a genuine agent of positive change. Not by telling Sport how to govern itself, but by using its influence to help make good governance, accountability and independent scrutiny the norm. That is the change of paradigm SIGA has advocated from the beginning: a united front bringing together Sport, governments, international organisations, global business and civil society, working together to usher Sport into a new era of integrity.
Not through name and shame, but through name and fame: by recognising those who step forward, lead by example and turn principles into practice, vision into action, and action into measurable achievement.
The framework is there. The SIGA Universal Standards provide the benchmark. SIRVS provides the independent scrutiny, assessment, verification and certification. The pathway is there.
THE CALL TO LEADERSHIP
So my invitation to sponsors, broadcasters, investors and major commercial partners is simple. Join SIGA. Support this reform agenda. Become part of this global movement for positive change. Make sport-specific independent scrutiny part of your due diligence, and lead by example. Not because anyone should tell you to, but because responsible leadership demands it.
Sponsors, broadcasters and investors rightly demand performance, audiences, visibility and return on investment. There is one more return they should demand: integrity. Not as a slogan, not as a contractual clause and not as a public-relations exercise, but as independently verified reality.
That is the paradigm shift Sport now needs: good governance not as an afterthought, but as the starting point.
They know where we are. They know how to reach us. Our doors are open. Do not be a bystander. Lead by example. The moment is now.
– THE END –
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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