Paul Nicholson, Inside World Football
The G20 Anti-corruption Working Group, which for the first time includes sport as a specificity within its mandate, has reached consensus on the draft high level principles on Preventing and Combating Corruption.
The G20 is currently under the leadership of Italy and for the first time has added sports integrity to its anti-corruption agenda.
It is an initiative that gathered pace at the Sports Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) summit on anti-corruption in sport In Rome in February 2020 that saw the Italian sports minister and leading Italian and European national prosecutors talk on the need for a global initiative.
SIGA CEO Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros said that getting to this stage is an important moment in bringing a co-ordinated approach to increasing powers to act on sports corruption and law enforcement.
“It is a huge step forward in many ways,” said de Medeiros. “First it brings the assumption of strong leadership from the G20 to act concertedly to tackle corruption in sport. This has been done for the first time ever and is one of the operational priorities for the current year. It is a process we are proud to have contributed to.”
De Medeiros has at times ploughed a lonely furrow on sports integrity and anti-corruption issues, but SIGA’s voice is cutting through the noise, and not least the demand for leaders on an international basis.
“Without global leadership we can’t have global solutions or solve global problems,” said de Medeiros.