Programme for Play the Game 2025

Athletes' power: Owning their narrative, shaping a collective future

09.00  
Room: Small auditorium
Chair: Christina MacFarlane
Session organised by the panel

• Presentation 
  Caster Semenya, co-founder, Caster Semenya Foundation, South Africa 
• Presentation 
  Annet Negesa, athlete ambassador, Humans of Sport, Uganda
• When you go viral: Scrutiny and public humiliation because of a random medical test 
  Evangeline Makena Kathenya, athlete ambassador, Humans of Sport, Kenya
• Presentation
  Payoshni Mitra, executive director, Humans of Sport, UK
• Presentation
  Roger Pielke, professor emeritus, University of Colorado Boulder, USA
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

Rethinking sport ethics and integrity: Learnings from Finland

09.00  
Room: Duetto 1
Chair: Niina Toroi 

Session organised by the Ministry of Education and Culture, FINCIS, and the Finnish National Olympic Committee

• Integrity framework based on cooperation and dialogue: introducing the Finnish model 
  Satu Heikkinen, senior ministerial adviser, Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland, & Elina Laine, sustainability manager, Finnish Olympic Committee, Finland
• Unveiling the findings of an external review of the national sports integrity framework 
  Vesa Salminen, managing director, Forefront Oy, Finland
• An overview how integrity in sport is managed around the world – from national systems to international federations – and how Finland’s distinctive model stands out in comparison 
  Chiel Warners, principle consultant, CW Consulting, Netherlands
• How integrity can be reach with aiming towards the same goal with different stakeholders 
  Antti Aine, professor, University of Helsinki/Turku, Finland

Panel debate:

1. Expert on integrity, Chiel Warners
2. Athlete voice, Panu AuƟo OR possibly an acƟve athlete
3. Sport journalist, Joose Palonen
4. Researcher, Kati Lehtonen
5. Finnish Center for Integrity in Sports, Pia Ek

The panel debate will be followed by Q&A.

From games to gains: How states leverage sport for geopolitical influence

09.00  
Room: Duetto 2
Chair: Simon Licen 

• Going for Glory: Why Authoritarian Regimes Compete to Host Sports Mega Events 
  Johannes Strauman, student, NTNU, Norway
• How mega-events help authoritarians 
  Sven Daniel Wolfe, professor, University of Neuchâtel, USA
• Mediation, Memory, and Sites of "Popular Politics": Remembering the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA 2020 Euros in the UK and Iceland
  Vitaly Kazakov, postdoctoral Fellow, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Stadiums, Soft Power, and Strategic Alignment: China's Use of Football Infrastructure in Africa 
  Steffany Ndei, PhD researcher, Heriot Watt, Kenya
• Rigged bids and human rights risks - lessons from the 2030 and 2034 FIFA World Cup contests
  Steve Cockburn, head of business and human rights, Amnesty International, UK
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

Reimagining governance: Lessons across sports and borders

09.00  
Room: Sonaatti 2
Chair: Spencer Harris

• Conflicting perceptions of good governance in sport 
  Marjukka Mikkonen, University instructor, Tampere University, Finland
• Football across borders: Governance Lessons for the emerging Baltic Football League
  Karina Zalcmane, vice-rector of Academic Affairs, EKA University of Applied Sciences, Latvia, & Marina Kamenecka-Usova, leading researcher, assoc. prof., Rīga Stradiņš University, Latvia
• Creating a sports governance framework: lessons from the Biathlon Integrity Unit 
  Julia Cook, governance coordinator, Biathlon Integrity Unit, UK
• What Can Behavioral Ethics Contribute to Sports Governance? 
  José Luis Pérez Triviño, professor, Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Spain
• The collaboration between sports and esports: governance and integrity challenges 
  Aline Lopes da Silva Candeo, PhD candidate, Johannes Gutenberg University, Brazil
• Playing for Power: The Limits of Competition Law in Safeguarding Players’ Health Amid Football’s Governance Struggles
  Thibault Ulrich, PhD candidate and research assistant, University of Lausanne, France
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

Financial mismanagement in sport: Examining the application and use of the Soft Budget Constraint approach

09.00  
Room: Riffi
Chair: Zsolt Havran

• The Soft Budget Constraints applied to sport management and economics: A brief literature review 
  Zsolt Havran, associate professor, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
• Why does sporting success lead to financial collapse in some cases and not others? Recent developments in European Women’s handball
  Klaus Nielsen, professor emeritus, Birbeck University of London, Denmark, & Zsolt Havran, associate professor, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
• French Football: A Crisis Rooted in the Failures of Multi-Level Governance 
  Mickaël Terrien, professor, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
• Has UEFA’s financial fair play regulation increased football clubs’ profitability? 
  Henry Jarva, assistant professor, Hanken School of Economics, Finland
• The Soft Budget Constraint and Financial Survival in Lower-Tier German Football (2019–2025) 
  Dominik Krüssmann, PhD student, University of Münster, Germany
• Recurring vs. One-Off Events: Economic Implications for Event Organizers 
  Harry Arne Solberg, professor, NTNU, Norway
• The economic crisis of French professional football: soft budget constraint and the winner's curse 
  Wladimir Andreff, emeritus professor, University Paris 1, France
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

Sport for All? A new vision for inclusive sport

09.00  
Rom: Aaria
Chair: Mogens Kirkeby

• From the Ground Up: Community Sport Leaders Reimagine an Inclusive Future for Youth in Canada 
  Sasha Gollish, knowledge mobilization director, University of Toronto, Canada
• Decent Sport Sport Décent: Toward a Vision and Value for Canadian Sport 
  Peter Donnelly, professor emeritus, Faculty of Kinesiology and PE, Canada
• Launching the Re-Think Sport Hub (Canada): A Partnership for Equitable, Diverse and Inclusive Participation, Access, and Quality Experiences in Youth Sport
  David Legg, professor, Mount Royal University, Canada
• Centering Athlete Voices to Champion Inclusion and Diversity in Sports 
  Scarlen Martinez, CEO, Maven Strategy Group, USA
• Unruly Lines: Art, Liberation, and the Reworlding of Sport 
  Richard Norman, director, Community Futures/Innovation Curling Canada, Canada
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

Coaching under scrutiny: Preventing harm and promoting accountability

09.00  
Room: Opus 3
Chair: Whitney Braganolo

• Sports coaches' experiences of non-physical violence 
  Sanna Erdogan, national trustee, Professional Coaches of Finland, Finland
• The Role of Athletic Identity in Enabling Emotional Abuse by Coaches and Preventing Disclosure 
  Jatta Muhonen, doctoral researcher, University of Helsinki, Finland
• Integrating Trauma-Informed Practices Into a Coaching Philosophy to Engage Coaches as Change Agents 
  Julie Ann Rivers-Cochran, executive director, The Army of Survivors, USA
• “No pain, no gain” Is coach-perpetrated psychological abuse of athletes part of the game? 
  Cleo Schyvinck, post-doctoral researcher, Ghent University, Belgium
• Regulation of the sports coaching profession to protect the life and integrity of athletes
  Julie Hortencia Gómez Solano, Fundación Universitaria del Área Andina, Colombia
• Beyond the Whistle: Addressing Power Imbalances in Sport 
  Eric Williams, deputy vice president of Investigations, U.S. Center for SafeSport, USA
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

WADA and the fallout from the Chinese swimmers case

11.15  
Room: Small auditorium
Chair: Spencer Harris

• The escalating conflict between the U.S. and WADA 
  Genevieve Birren, professor, SUNY Cortland, USA
• Law and the Staging of Legality in Anti-Doping: A Critical Reading of the Chinese Swimmers Case
  Thibault Ulrich, PhD candidate and research assistant, University of Lausanne, France
• The Chinese Swimmers – a Case Study of Broken Trust and How to Rebuild It 
  Harry Grimes, PhD candidate, University of Lausanne, UK
• Impact of Anti-Doping Injustices on Athletes 
  Allison Wagner, director of athlete and international relations, USADA, USA
• We Need New Governance And We Need It Now: The Perspective Of An Athlete Destroyed By The System 
  Lizzy Banks, retired athlete, UK
• Panelist: Hajo Seppel, CEO, EyeOpening.Media GmbH, Germany
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

From overlooked to oversight: Governance failures in global sport

11.15  
Room: Duetto 1
Chair: Jan Zglinski 

• Barranquilla 2027 Pan American Games: The Political Use of Sport and Colombia's Self-Boycott
  Mauricio Hernández, director, Transparancy in Sports, Colombia, & Federico Dario Teijeiro, investigative, data & OSINT journalist, Universidad de San Andrés & Clarín, Argentina
• The Volleygate. The definitive investigation
  Federico Dario Teijeiro, investigative, data & OSINT journalist, Universidad de San Andrés & Clarín, Argentina, & Lucio de Castro, journalist, Jornal Lance, Brazil
• An assessment of policy and operational discrepancies within the Olympic hierarchy the case of CANOC 
  Kervin Jean, head UWI Global Campus Academy of Sport, University of the West Indies Global Cam, Trinidad and Tobago
• From Loophole to Legitimacy: An Insider Look at How Emerging INGSOs Exploit Weak Oversight 
  Raul Fodor, president, World OCR, Romania
• Democratic deficits in financial governance of sports associations: How market and state erode civic values in sport
  Rolf Elm-Larsen, independent, Denmark
• Health promotion in sports mega-events: The governance gap in promoting health in the Summer Olympic Games 
  Sabrina Furtado, lecturer in Sport Management, Loughborough University, UK
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

Documentary: The NBA, Rwanda, and sportswashing 

11.15 
Room: Duetto 2
Chair: Karim Zidan

In 2021, the NBA launched its first professional league outside North America: the Basketball Africa League. Marketed as a milestone for global expansion and talent development, the league also marked the NBA’s entry into a partnership with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

This ESPN investigation reveals the untold story behind the league’s alliance with Kagame, raising urgent questions about the NBA’s global values and business ethics. Join Mark Fainaru-Wada, Mohamed Keita, and Carine Kanimba for a critical discussion following the screening.

Panellists: 

• Mark Fainaru-Wada, reporter, ESPN, USA
• Mohamed Keita, senior Africa policy officer, Human Rights Foundation, Mali
• Carine Kanimba, member of the Executive Council, World Liberty Congress, Rwanda

Manipulation in sport and how to deal with it

11.15  
Room: Sonaatti 2
Chair: Thomas Könecke

• Tackling Age Manipulation in Athletics – The Way Forward
  Sanchita Aidasani, investigator and analyst, & Hayley Gibbons, senior investigator analyst, Athletics Integrity Unit, Monaco
• Reconsidering Uncertainty of Outcome in Sports: Bringing Together Law, Ethics and Economics 
  Cem Abanazir, lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan University, Turkey/UK
• “Better to lose your eyes than your name”: The ineffectiveness trap of national sport integrity reporting mechanisms
  Pim Verschuuren, senior lecturer, University of Rennes 2, France, & Marcelo Moriconi, researcher, ISCTE Instituto Universitario de Lisboa, Portugal
• Patterns, problems and priorities in competition manipulation education in European football 
  Laima Kirtovska, PhD student, DAiSI, Latvia
• Match-Fixing and its Harms: An Analysis of Fans Perceptions of Match-Fixing in Football and Tennis 
  Emil von Werthern, PhD candidate, KU Leuven, Germany
• The systemic failure to protect the players 
  Giannis Braho, legal counsel, FIFPRO, Greece
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

From policy to practice: Making safeguarding real in sport

11.15  
Room: Riffi
Chair: Joanna Maranhão

• Conceptualising Coercive Control in Organisations: A Case Study from Olympic Sport 
  Victoria Roberts, lecturer, The University of Melbourne, Australia
• Beyond Compliance: Presenting a Typology of Organizational Misconduct in National Sport Organizations 
  Daniel Wigfield, assistant professor, York University, Canada
• The Institutionalisation of Safeguarding: Power, Discourse and Responsibility in Global Sport 
  Carole Gomez, PhD candidate, University of Lausanne, France
• Structuring Safe Sport: Integrity and Public Health Approaches to Welfare, Wellbeing and Risk 
  Neal Anderson, COO, Safe Sport International, UK
• Accountability that drives Culture Change: What does a Prevention-Driven Audit look like? 
  Hannah Hinton, vice president of Organizational Development and Compliance, U. S. Center for SafeSport, USA
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

Whose rights, whose game? Sport’s struggle with human rights

11.15 
Room: Aaria
Chair: Kati Lehtonen

• The Universal Game? Deconstructing FIFA’s Human Rights Discourse 
  Pedro José Mercado Jaén, PhD researcher, European University Institute, Spain
• Don’t Break The Game – Human rights belong at the heart of sports 
  Samuel Bashmakov, human rights advisor, Finnish League for Human Rights, Finland
• The LGBT+ Community. Migrant Workers. Women. In That Order: Framing and Visibility of Human Rights Issues in the UK Media During the 2022 FIFA World Cup
  Elizabeth Dann, PhD researcher, University of Sheffield - School of English, UK
• Merely plastering a deep cut? A critical policy analysis of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) human rights commitment
  Zohreh Abdollahkhani, research fellow, University of South-Eastern Norway,Iran
• A Constitutional Approach to Sports and Human Rights 
  Ariel Dulitzky, clinical professor, Human Rights Clinic, University of Texas School of Law, USA
• From Principles to Practice: An NOC’s Perspective on International Human Rights Engagement 
  Nina Skyhøj Babore, head of International Affairs, NOC & Sports Confederation of Denmark, Denmark
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

The politics of image: Sportswashing, soft power or just double standards?

14.00  
Room: Small auditorium
Chair: Nicholas McGeehan

• Creating European Sport-Soft Power Index Using Quantitative Methods
  Zsolt Havran, asssociate professor, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary, and Katalin Varga & Riesing Eszter, MSc students, Hungarian University of Sports Science/Széchenyi Special College, Hungary
• From Sportswashing to Cultural Changes and Positive Values 
  Marcelo Moriconi, researcher, ISCTE Instituto Universitario de Lisboa, Portugal
• Law-Washing Sports 
  John T. Holden, sssociate professor, Kelley School of Business - Indiana University, USA
• Double standards? Early Framing of the 2034 Winter Olympic Games in American Media 
  Simon Licen, associate professor, Sports Journalism, Penn State University, USA/Slovenia
• The Naturality of Sport: what neo-Gramscian perspectives on sportswashing can tell us about Western normativity in sport 
  Amir van Eekelen, MAiSI graduate, KU Leuven, Netherlands
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

From policy to public perception: Sex and gender in sport

14.00  
Room: Duetto 1
Chair: Kati Lehtonen

• Integrity and the regulation of transgender athletes and athletes with sex variations: The role of journalists and sports practitioners
  Anna Posbergh, assistant professor, Florida State University, USA, & Madeleine Pape, maître asistante FNS Ambizione, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
• Epistemic violence at the United Nations: The report of the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls in sport
  Madeleine Pape, maître asistante FNS Ambizione, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
• Gender/biological controversy over female boxing at the Paris 2024 Olympics: An empirical study of Japanese discourse on X (formerly Twitter)
  Aya Sadamasu, researcher, Chiba University, Japan
• Trust, Risk, and Representation: Brand Activism in the Sportswear Industry 
  Lindee Declercq, graduate student, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

ClearingSport: Open consultation. How do we strengthen enforcement in sports integrity? 

14.00 
Room: Duetto 2
Chair: Chiel Warner & Ingrid Beutler

The ClearingSport project group invites all interested stakeholders to an open consultation about how we can best get to an all-encompassing sports integrity entity or other ways to strengthen the enforcement of laws, rules, and standards

Gender-based violence and online abuse in sport

14.00  
Room: Sonaatti 2
Chair: Kim Shore

• The Gender Harassment Experiences of Women Who Play, Coach, Officiate, and Manage Sport in Australia 
  Samantha Marshall, research officer, La Trobe University, Australia
• To serve or not to serve? Exploring gambling-related online abuse in tennis 
  Bram Constandt, professor, Ghent University, Belgium
• Presentation
  Julie Ann Rivers-Cochran, executive director & Emily Austin, senior policy and advocacy specialist, The Army of Survivors, USA
• Tackling online abuse in Sport - Australian initiatives
  Linda Muir, head of sport engagement, Sport Integrity Australia, Australia, & Cathrine Ordway, sport integrity consultant, freelance, Australia
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

Gender and sport corruption: The missing links to understanding anti-corruption and integrity reform in sport

14.00  
Room: Riffi
Chair: Lisa A. Kihl 

• How is sport corruption gendered? 
  Lisa A. Kihl, professor, University of Minnesota, USA
• Gender Pay Parity Strengthens Integrity
  Catherine Ordway, Sport integrity consultant, Australia, & Christina Philippou, associate professor, University of Portsmouth, UK
• Whose Data Counts? How Ignoring the Most Vulnerable Undermines Sport Integrity Reform 
  Whitney Bragagnolo, PhD sport ethicist and consulant, The Sport Ethics Examiner | MAiSI Alumni, Netherlands
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers

Trafficking in sport: The hidden exploitation behind the game

14.00  
Room: Aaria
Chair: Jan Zglinski 

• Defining and disrupting sport trafficking: conceptualisation, typologies, and legal perspectives 
  Serhat Yilmaz, senior lecturer in sports law, Loughborough University, UK
• Safeguarding Dreams: Fighting Trafficking in Indian Sports 
  Tarun Tarun, assistant professor, Gujarat National Law University, India
• An African Perspective to Player Trafficking
• Brian Wesaala, founder & CEO, The Football Foundation for Africa (FFA), Kenya
• Panel debate, Q&A: All speakers