CORRUPTION IN SPORT

→ Integrity must be at the heart of sport’s response to COVID-19.

Ensuring the integrity of sport is essential to ensure that it emerges from the pandemic as strong as possible. It is therefore important that actions taken by governments, sport organizations and relevant stakeholders are focused on tackling corruption and crime both in and through sport.

Detection of corruption in sport during the pandemic can be enhanced through the development and implementation of reporting mechanisms in sport, which would also require relevant leadership to act upon reports of wrongdoing. Governments must ensure that resources and support is provided to sports during the pandemic are used for their intended purposes and not diverted for illicit gain. Key to this is ensuring that good governance measures are in place in sports organizations, to help reduce corruption risks and its associated unequal and unjust consequences, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Actions

• Implement the United Nations Convention Against Corruption resolution 8/4 on Safeguarding Sport from Corruption.
• Provide and implement reporting mechanisms for athletes to come forward and report corrupt activities such as match-fixing.
• Implement commitments to anti-doping measures to protect athletes and promote ethical practices in sport.
• Enhance cooperation between law enforcement, criminal justice authorities, sport organizations and sports betting entities to address the manipulation of competition.

UNODC Tools

• An Anti-Corruption Ethics and Compliance Programme for Business: A practical guide
• IOC/UNODC publication Reporting Mechanisms in Sport: A practical guide for development and implementation
• IOC/UNODC Model Criminal Law Provisions for the prosecution of competition manipulations