How to deal with the threat of corruption in sport?

TI’s working paper on Corruption and Sport identifies areas within sport in dire risk of corruption and brings out ways to implement anti-corruption work in the industry.

According to Transparency International – the global coalition against corruption (TI) the power, money and competition element involved in today’s sporting industry create an obvious nest for corruption. The sporting industry needs to take action in order not to compromise the basic values in sport, TI writes in their newly released working paper Corruption and Sport: Building Integrity and preventing abuses.

 “A lack of integrity in the sporting industry may endanger sport’s most essential elements and core values: fair play, ethics, mutual respect and trust in the rules of the game,” the paper reads.

The working paper highlights seven areas in the industry particularly vulnerable to corruption because of a lack of transparency or integrity. The seven areas are match fixing, organised crime, governance, construction, sponsorship and media.

TI’s working paper brings forward suggestions as to how the industry can deal with and take initiatives to prevent these threats of corruption and the paper stresses cooperation between stakeholders in the industry as vital for the success of establishing accountability and transparency in sport.

“Moving the agenda forward on sport and corruption will depend on the ability of sporting authorities, team owners, events rights owners, sponsors and all key actors to take decisive actions that promote transparency, accountability and integrity in their decisions and policies,” TI concludes.

Click here to download the working paper.

Sport, Gambling and Sponsorship 2010
14 September 2010
World Sports Law Report