From whataboutism to universal standards for sport and human rights: Making a case for ClearingSport

Opening session remarks at Play the Game 2025

One of the privileges of hosting Play the Game conferences over the past 28 years is that we regularly have the privilege to meet a group of people who are deeply committed to protecting the basic values of sport. An even greater privilege is to see this community grow year by year, although it is a big job to memorise so many new names and new faces.

At our conference in Trondheim last year, one of those new faces and names was Anatol Kotau, director of external relations at The Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation, which we awarded our Play the Game Award in 2022. 

Calmly and with many nuances, Anatol Kotau analysed the Olympic concept of “neutral athletes”, and how the criteria could expose Belarusian athletes living in exile to a double discrimination from both the autocratic Belarusian president Lukashenko who did not allow political opponents to be selected for the Olympics, and from the IOC whose criteria for selecting athletes with a Belarusian passport were not clear at the time.

A few months later, Anatol Kotau’s solidarity work earned him a 12-year prison term in absentia in his home country. Living in exile, Anatol did not go to jail, but could continue to live peacefully in Poland with his family.

Until a few weeks ago, when he disappeared. 

Shortly after his arrival to the Turkish capital Istanbul on a work trip on the 21st August 2025, his family and colleagues lost contact with him.

The Turkish authorities claim that he left the country voluntarily with a yacht crossing the Black Sea from Trabzon to Sochi in Russia, but they refuse to share any evidence to support that explanation.

We do not know the reason for Anatol Kotau’s disappearance. But bearing in mind how Russian and Belarusian intelligence services attack dissidents in exile, we have reasons to be deeply concerned about his destiny.

Although this story is in the public domain thanks largely to the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and social media posts, the Olympic movement has been remarkably silent. Anatol Kotau should be no stranger to them, as he was once a secretary general of the Belarusian Olympic Committee. 

Also, FIFA and UEFA who continue to allow the Belarusian national football team to take part in the World Cup qualifiers, remain passive. So allow me to call on the international sports movement to step up and put pressure on the Belarusian and Turkish authorities to clarify the circumstances surrounding Anatol Kotau’s disappearance, secure his personal safety, and make sure he is free to travel home to his family.

And since Play the Game is based in Denmark, I want to make an appeal to the Danish Football Association. With a World Cup qualifier against Belarus just four days away, the Danish FA has a unique opportunity to raise this issue directly with the Belarusian football authorities. Silence should not be an option.

The unpredictable relationship between sport, politics, and human rights

Kotau’s case is one out of many examples of the unpredictable, uneasy relation between sport, politics, and human rights. Both the IOC and FIFA have recently integrated human rights in charters, statutes, and documents, but does this positive development on paper mean a difference in the real world?

Over the coming days, we will embark on some of the major geopolitical challenges that sport is facing right now. Before our eyes, a very fragile peace process is finally unfolding in Gaza after two years of atrocities, but what if the war breaks out again? 

Should sport take measures against Israel? 

If yes, how about a much bigger international power in sport, the United Arab Emirates, which is feeding the war in Sudan, labelled the worst humanitarian crisis in the world?

Last week, the International Paralympic Committee – who once were among the first to take a firm stand against Russia following the revelations of the systemic, state-sponsored doping and corruption – now decided to let Russia back into the family warmth of paralympic sport, apparently undisturbed by the intensified Russian war against Ukraine and the swarm of drones over European airports. 

Knowing how loyal the IPC has been to the International Olympic Committee in recent years, you cannot help thinking that IPC may just be testing how the world will respond if also the IOC opens its arms to Russia and Belarus.

You can continue: What about the repressive Saudi regime and its buying spree in international sport? What about the Afghan government excluding half of its population from physical activity, sport and play? What about China, what about Iran?

Whataboutism is not a favourite word in Play the Game’s vocabulary but we recognise that balancing political interests is not an easy task for a movement that strives to have universal outreach.

If only nations with impeccable human rights records were allowed to participate, international sports competitions would shrink considerably. 

On the other hand: Is sport ready to accept all kind of human rights transgressions to keep all countries on board? 

Will sport sacrifice its most basic values like respect for the individual, freedom of association and fair play just for the sake of global unity? 

With the vision and the will, ClearingSport is doable

In these turbulent times, it may seem far-fetched to propose unifying minimum human rights standards for sport to uphold for its international events and tournaments. 

On the other hand, if any global sector is able to take the lead, thanks to its centralized power management, it is indeed sport where all players dance to the tune and the tone from the top. 

You might say that sport is “the last sector standing” where it still makes sense to speak about rule-based international cooperation. 

In that spirit, to strengthen the cooperation and to ensure that international standards on human rights, ethics, and integrity are not only adopted but also enforced, Play the Game and a group of experts launched the ClearingSport project earlier this year.

This followed a call from our conference in Odense in 2022 where we were challenged to come with a more specific proposal on an idea that has been around for two decades: One single entity to deal with all kinds of corruption, crime and other integrity breaches in sport.

We decided early that for a start this proposal would mainly build on advice by experts who are independent from sport and government, to make sure political interests would not dominate the discussion as they have in previous years.

I would like to thank the around 200 experts that contributed to our online survey, and the 20 people whom we invited to our Advisory Group. 

If anyone here feel that they should have been invited, don’t worry: You will have plenty of opportunity to influence the discussion in the time to come as we expand the consultation to other key stakeholders like governments, sports organisations, and private integrity actors.

First opportunity to discuss in detail is Tuesday evening where we present the proposal, and it will be followed up by a workshop on Wednesday.

There are four core elements that ClearingSport proposes to strengthen:

1. minimum standards for sports integrity
2. mechanisms to monitor that they are respected,
3. reporting mechanisms and investigations and
4. an improved judicial system in sport.

ClearingSport does not pretend to be the end solution to all problems in sports integrity. But it is does show that it is realistic and doable to achieve more coordination, better enforcement, and an all-encompassing international integrity entity, if only we have the vision and the will. 

I am sure that most of you share that ambition, and let us continue to work together like we have done since 2022. Thank you.