WhatsApp Image 2022-04-26 at 8.39.36 AM-3

CSCF Sport Integrity Group and Malta Police Force successfully organize the IntegriSport Next national Awareness Raising Session on tackling sports manipulations, bringing together leading international and national decision-makers in Malta.

On April 26 and 27, 2022, CSCF Foundation for Sport Integrity, in coordination with hosting country partner Malta Police Force, executed the unprecedented local event (ARS) for law enforcement and prosecutors in the fight against the phenomenon of sports manipulation that brought over 50 participants.

 

This is one of six professional seminars that within the 2-year IntegriSport Next project focus on the prevention and concrete tackling methods of this sport integrity issue (match-fixing) from the perspective of Sport betting, Virtual currencies, Related criminal offences (corruption, fraud, money laundering), policy making and co-operation, primarily targeting not only law enforcement agencies but also judicial authorities.

 

Law enforcement agencies play a key role in combating the threats of manipulation of sports competition. The conceptual intent of organising such a seminar reflected the needs of police practice, with an emphasis on streamlining the exchange of knowledge, sharing best practices and strengthening the capacity of police forces to detect and investigate manipulation and integrity violations.

 


The professional seminar focuses on the prevention of this sport integrity issue of match-fixing) from the perspective of sport integrity. The session in Malta brought together leading experts and representatives not only from CSCF with expertise in the above topics, but also from the Malta Police Force, and representatives from leading national and international decision-making organizations in the fight against the manipulation of sports competitions (match-fixing) including:

 

–       Global Lottery Monitoring System – GLMS (project partner)

–       FIFPRO (Supporting partner) and the Malta Football Players Association (MFPA)

–       INTERPOL

–       Council of Europe

–       Sports Malta

–       Malta Gaming Authority

–       Malta Football Association

–       Aquatic Sports Association

–       Malta Maltese Olympic Committee

–       Maltase advocates, inspectors and prosecutors

–       International prosecutors (from Hungary)

 

50 people came together on-site and online for an unprecedented event for the Malta Police Force and engaged in lively in-depth discussions with different voices and perspectives of law enforcement, judiciaries betting and sport on how to tackle this issue.  It triggered a strengthening of relations between organizations that, although they have policies on the subject, rarely could “sit down” and interact in a format such as the one presented by the event.

 

“the Awareness Session of IntegriSport Next gave us the opportunity to bring together in one place all the main actors working directly or indirectly to combat this phenomenon, not only locally but also internationally, including CSCF, GLMS, CoE, Interpol and FIFPRO. Even tough we are a small country, this is a fact that rarely happens, and thanks to the project we had two full days where we all sat down and openly discussed policies, challenges, and possible solutions to a problem that we all recognized, however, with still many gaps that need coordinated actions”. said Inspector Anthony Scerri.

Moreover, in the same framework of the Awareness Raising Session, CSCF organized, together with its experts as well as representatives of the Authority for Integrity in Maltese Sport (AIMS), the coordinator of the Maltese National Platform, the Maltese Police Force, the Maltese Betting Authority and the Council of Europe, a parallel multilateral meeting on the future of national actions on fighting sport manipulation, cooperation and the role of the future Maltese National Platform in implementing measures of the Council of Europe Convention on Manipulations of Sports Competitions.

 

Notable current and former footballers also shared their experiences and needs with the law enforcement and judicial authorities present, including Samir Arab, former national team player, Andrei Agius, current national team captain, Andrea Cassar, and Carlo Mamo, President of the Maltese Players’ Union.

 

Moreover, the session made a vital contribution to the developments in Malta with a peer-to-peer meeting of several mational stakeholders, including prosecutors from Hungary, as well as international expertise from Interpol, former Europol sports corruption unit intelligence officer Norbert Rubicsek, and GLMS, in an exchange of best practices. 

 

Exploring investigative techniques and collaborations on various topics

 

The two-day session was intense and touched on a plethora of topics, thanks to experts at national and international level. The primary goals were twofold: firstly, to allow for a sharing of each stakeholder’s perspective, together with contributions from international stakeholders, and secondly, to explore concrete next steps in collaboration and proposals for the building of Malta’s future national platform, Authority for Integrity in Maltese Sport.

 

Topics of discussion ranged from national international structures and legislation on the topic of sports manipulation, the practical implementation of legislation by law enforcement and judicial authorities in intelligence gathering and investigations, sports betting monitoring, analysis and information from the sports betting sector that could be useful for investigations and court, the growing popularity of virtual currencies and its exploitation to manipulate competitions and commit fraud, and finally collaborative exchanges in obtaining witnesses, reporting mechanisms and conducting disciplinary and criminal investigations.


The Integrisport Next project has been successfully running in its second phase, following the well-received first project (2019-2021), and has facilitated awareness-raising and collaboration directly and indirectly of at least 16 countries’ law enforcement and judiciary together with other private and public national stakeholders respectively, with the support of funding from the EU ERASMUS+ project and expertise of CSCF and other international project partners and supporters. The project always aims to be consistent and in line with other international initiatives and has been praised for its efforts. The closing conference of the project will be public and take place in October-November 2022 (exact date TBC).

 

Dr. Norbert Rubicsek, former Lt. Colonel at the Hungarian Police and CSCF Director, added “One of the objectives of IntegriSport Next is to enhance the collaboration between stakeholders of our partners in fighting against sport manipulation. The meeting with the Maltese stakeholders on the activities of the Maltese National Platform was a great example of this important point. We had a comprehensive exchange of thoughts and ideas on mutual operational measures against match-fixers. It was a pleasure and great experience to support the Maltese stakeholders in their fight against manipulation of sports competition.”

 

On behalf of IntegriSport Next E+, CSCF – Foundation for Sport Integrity, as the project coordinator, would like to extend a special thanks and appreciation to the guest speakers and project partners.


CSCF would like to thank all the organizations, participants, and speakers who were part of this event for their collaboration and contribution to making this possible.


The session in Malta was a success.


For more details and the full statement, please contact CSCF Team: contact@cscfsport.com, +31 611880838, www.cscfsport.com

2022_03_27_WRT_human_rights_workshop_lowres (5 von 5)

FAIR PLAY – FAIR RIDE

The World Snowboard Federation (WSF) and the CSCF – Foundation for Sport Integrity are engaged to protect young riders and the integrity of snowboarding.

While the riding season is coming to an end for the grassroots snowboard movement, more than a hundred of young riders have already participated in trainings on key integrity topics across Europe. These interactive and educational workshops have raised awareness on the dangers of doping and sport manipulation, on the prevention of harassment/bullying, the protection of human rights, and the importance of speaking up against any threat and misconduct.

On March 27th, two trainings were successfully integrated as side-events of the World Rookie Snowboard Finals, organized in the historic location of Kitzsteinhorn Zell am See-Kaprun, thanks to the cooperation of the Austrian Snowboard Association (ASA), as project partner and host of the event, the experts from CSCF and the WSF.

“It was a great experience to see how interested and motivated the young people are to work on this project. For us it’s a pleasure to be part of SafeShred and we will come up for sure with more SafeShred Workshops.” Meini

On this occasion, Boris Kilvinger, SafeShred project manager of WSF, and Carlos Gutierrez, operations manager of CSCF, presented the topics of sports manipulation and basic human rights, respectively, to more than 30 young riders and coaches.

“It was nice to see that the workshops developed by CSCF appeal to the youth and that they are a powerful tool to initiate a sustainable improvement for the whole snowboard sport” Boris Kilvinger

“We all know that education is a fundamental pillar to raise awareness about the dangers that stem from sports integrity issues. Having the opportunity to share with young riders the concepts of human rights and how it applies in the context of snowboarding was unique. The interest of the young participants was impressive, and the message was clear: Be alert to human rights violations and don’t hesitate to speak up!” Carlos Gutierrez

This was also the occasion for the project coordinators to discuss the following steps of the SafeShred project: the translation and publication of the SafeShred Handbook, the designing of an E-learning program that will be accessible on the online WSF Academy and the organization of a final conference to present these results among and beyond the world snowboard community.

Stay tuned! The winter might come to an end soon, but there is more to come for SafeShred in 2022!

*The SafeShred project is co-financed by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union.

ARS_Cyprus2022-04-05 at 4.53.06 AM

Match-fixing has been recognized as an issue in Cyprus, which results in our duty to fight it through education and the cooperation of relevant stakeholders with law enforcement and the judiciary.

The fourth Awareness Raising Session of the IntegriSport Next Erasmus+ project on combating sport manipulation (match-fixing) took place on the 5th and 6th of April in Nicosia, Cyprus, and was co-organized by the Cyprus Police together with CSCF – Sport Integrity Group.

The project is intended to increase the awareness of sport manipulation related to criminal investigations, enhance the cooperation among law enforcement authorities, the judiciary and the relevant stakeholders at national and international levels, and thereby improve the efficiency of discovery, investigation, prosecution, and prevention activities in the country.

In Cyprus, match-fixing is recognized as an important criminal and sporting issue that requires changes in order to improve the situation. In order to stimulate effective change, such as in regulation and legislation, awareness and education of the relevant stakeholders around this phenomenon are a necessity.

The event started with a series of welcoming speeches from key stakeholders of important organizations, such a Stylianos Papatheodorou – Chief of Cyprus Police, Norbert Rubicsek – the Director of CSCF Foundation for Sport Integrity, Charis Poyiatzis – the President of the National Ethics Committee, Mary Papamiltiadous – Cyprus Sports Organization, Savvas Angelides – Deputy Attorney General, Claudio Marinelli – INTERPOL, and Sophie Kwasny and Nicolas Sayde – the Council of Europe.

The representatives of the Cyprus Police, FIFPRO, and GLMS (Global Lottery Monitoring System) as partners of the project, and the National Ethics Committee, Cyprus Sports Organization, Cyprus Football Association, the Cyprus Police and a Foreign Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) as participants, had in-depth presentations and were provided with a comprehensive approach on how to combat sport manipulation and how to co-operate with domestic and international stakeholders to tackle the phenomenon in Cyprus.

“The cooperation between law enforcement and sports federations is always the best way to fight against sport manipulation. We at CSCF work hard to involve all the national and international stakeholders in this cooperation to build a better environment for sports.” Norbert Rubicsek – CSCF Director

On the first day, the session covered topics such as sport manipulation typology and the Macolin Convention, betting monitoring and policymaking at the international level, the role and approaches of the sport organizations, and a panel discussion that was held where different footballers shared their opinions and perspectives around match-fixing, and exposing real-life experiences and the ethics behind playing professional football. The players who participated in this discussion were: Savvas Poursaitides – Professional Football Coach of Category A Teams, Vangelis Kyriakou – Professional Football Player Olympiakos Nicosia FC, Neofytos Michael – Professional Goalkeeper APOEL Nicosia FC, Andria Kirkini – ex-International Football Player in women’s teams, and Nectarios Alexandrou – ex-Professional Player, Motivational Speaker, and Coach LFC – as moderator of the panel.

During the 2-day event, international and national participants discussed the sport manipulation and match-fixing situation in Cyprus and engaged in a lively exchange on good practices for fighting the phenomenon. Internationally recognized experts in the field of combating sports manipulations from various organizations also contributed to the success of the event through concrete presentations, including a CSCF expert on virtual currencies, and the participation of the Spanish General Judicial Police (CENPIDA).

“We can only tackle match-fixing if we all work together to bring awareness to the public and work among all the relevant stakeholders. Law enforcement investigations need to be supported by the society as a whole for the benefit of all.” Chryso Angeli – Deputy Director, Cyprus police

A peer-to-peer meeting, held at the end of the event, was dedicated to supporting law enforcement agencies and judicial authorities from Cyprus. The purpose of this meeting was to develop capacity and cooperation in Cypriot investigations and prosecution techniques in sports manipulation cases, as well as to improve the communication between sports federations, the Committee of Ethics and Safeguarding in Sport, the International Criminal Police Organization and gambling authorities in order to better understand the issue and find ways to create a safer environment for athletes and sports in the country.

The event concluded that education, information, and cooperation are key to effectively standing against the manipulation of competition in sports.

The next awareness-raising session will be held in Malta on April 26 and 27 of 2022. Stay tuned for more information.

To find out more please go to https://foundation.cscfsport.com/integrisport-next/