Isa – CSCF Sport Integrity Group

The final IntegriSport Next awareness-raising session for law enforcement and the judiciary in Tbilisi, Georgia, was lauded as a pioneering event. The project’s closing conference is set for 4 November 2022.

June 29-30, 2022. The 6th session of the CSCF-coordinated ERASMUS+ project on investigating and tackling sports manipulations, this time hosted by the Georgian Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth, marks the end of the project’s implementation phase and will close with a public conference on 4 November 2022 at the FIFPro Headquarters.

The Georgian awareness-raising session marked a groundbreaking and crucial development for Georgian sport integrity with feedback illustrating an immediate impact extending beyond the event itself. Local and international representatives from project partner organizations, including the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth of Georgia, the Parliamentary Committee for Sport Affairs, the State Security Service, the football federation, as well as an international partner, the Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS), the Finnish Center for Sport Integrity (FINCIS) and CSCF experts, FIFPRO as the project’s supporting partner, Interpol and the Council of Europe, all contributed with valuable input to the session.

The event was lauded by Georgian stakeholders as an unprecedented and singular local event having a direct impact on law enforcement, prosecutors and other key stakeholders. Similar positive sentiments had been echoed by all 5 preceding country partners regarding their respective national sessions in Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Cyprus and Malta.

A successful and engaging workshop in Tbilisi

The Georgian session brought together leading international and national decision-makers focusing on the Georgian situation, gathering over 50 local participants and facilitating a lively exchange of knowledge and ideas. The participants, all principal actors working directly or indirectly to combat the match-fixing phenomenon locally and internationally, received educational interventions and had an opportunity to develop early proposals for the next steps in investigations and regulatory actions to combat match-fixing.

Ms. Teo Baramidze – Acting Head of the Legal Department - Ministry of Culture, Sport, and Youth of Georgia – mentioned during the event that although developments are taking place, “the public administrations and all the national and international stakeholders need more effort to fight against manipulations of sport competitions”.

Moreover, Mr. Norbert Rubicsek – CSCF Director and IntegriSport Next E+ Manager – highlighted that “Integrisport is a CSCF-developed concept supporting law enforcement and judiciary in helping them investigate and prosecute criminals who benefit illegally through sports manipulations”.

While the first day focused on the education of various topics related to the manipulation of sports competitions, the second day of the event focused on discussions for the next steps and diverse points of view. Representatives of local law enforcement, judicial authorities, and other stakeholders from the public sector shared their progress and challenges, providing all national stakeholders with a well-rounded perspective of the different procedures and approaches utilized in the fight against this phenomenon. The Finnish Center for Integrity in Sport (FINCIS), Finland’s national platform coordinator, as well as the international speakers, all provided alternative national and international perspectives for consideration by the Georgian beneficiaries, further enhancing the quality of the event.

The event rounded off with a peer-to-peer exchange of views, providing an ideal space for the participants to share best practices and openly discuss points of view regarding setting guidelines, cooperation, collecting evidence and information, and using this information and evidence in investigations of manipulation cases in sport.

Save the date: IntegriSport Next closing conference on 4 November 2022

IntegriSport Next will conclude its second edition on 4 November 2022, with a closing conference on Sport Manipulation and Criminal Activities in Sport, hosted by FIFPro, in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands.

CSCF, together with the conference host, FIFPro, have the pleasure of extending an invitation to you, and we sincerely hope you can join us in person or online.

Places will be limited, so please do register your interest as soon as possible via completing the registration form in this link. https://lnkd.in/gebb9YTG

Updates on the event can be found at CSCF www.cscfsport.com

For more information, please contact: (insert email)

We are happy to announce that CSCF Foundation for Sport Integrity has become the new associate member of The Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS)

Although CSCF and GLMS have been working together for quite some time, this step shows an even greater commitment towards the protection of integrity in sports.
This unique synergy will bring coordinated actions in education, detection, and investigations.
CSCF, with its extensive experience in creating educational concepts and leading programs, will certainly play a key role along with the existing associate members of GLMS.

In a strategic move for both organizations, CSCF is teaming up with GLMS to become its newest Associate Member. Although both organizations have been working together for quite some time, this step demonstrates an even greater commitment to strengthening the efforts and enhancing the specialties of each organization for the protection of integrity in sports. Over the last 4 years, three successful projects coordinated by CSCF have received expertise from GLMS, namely the projects IntegriSport and IntegriSport Next for law enforcement and the judiciary on addressing integrity in sports, and the project Integriball, which developed an educational curriculum on the same topic for children and senior female footballers.

Under the new associate membership, the two non-profit entities earnestly commit to join forces to continue protecting the integrity of sports under a unique synergy that will bring coordinated actions in education, detection, and investigations. CSCF brings to the membership its multidisciplinary educational approach based on its clear mission to help actors in the sports ecosystem with tailored tools to be better equipped to face the challenges arising from integrity violations (sport manipulation, corruption, doping, discrimination, etc.). GLMS is an organization that has earned respect and credibility by embracing a culture of integrity in the specific areas of sports and betting.

CSCF, with its extensive experience in creating educational concepts and leading programs in the domain of sport integrity, will certainly play a key role in enhancing integrity in sports along with the current 43 members, who represent not only state lotteries but also public entities, sports entities, suppliers to lotteries and other entities engaged in safeguarding the core values of sports from corruption, and specifically from the manipulation of sports competitions.

GLMS General Secretary Luca Esposito commented on the new membership, saying: “CSCF has been a valuable partner to GLMS, coordinating three of our successful partner projects and enhancing our cooperation notably with law enforcement and judiciary at a concrete level. Their membership illustrates our vision to expand our membership and include the growing stakeholders involved in the sports and sports betting community. This will help us to achieve our objective of preserving the integrity of sport.”

Likewise, Director and former Hungarian Lt. Colonel and Intelligence Officer at Europol (European Police Office) Dr. Norbert Rubicsek also commented on the membership, saying: “CSCF has been working with GLMS intensively within projects and related activities, and has appreciated the strong relationship we have built over the years, fostering a greater understanding and focusing on concrete activities, notably with regard to law enforcement and the judiciary, as well as in curricula for young athletes. It has been enlightening for our country partners to engage with GLMS and with the GLMS lottery members at national levels, resulting in concrete national actions. Becoming an associate member will further strengthen our collaboration in education and regulatory issues as well as to build a stronger inter-stakeholder relationship, combining efforts and encouraging consistency across domains.”

For more information click here.

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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

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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.

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/

INTEGRISPORT NEXT – Kick-off of the project

Official launch of EU-financed project IntegriSport Next 2021-2022

“Raising awareness about the damages of sports manipulations (#matchfixing)”

The launch of the EU-funded project, IntegriSport Next ERASMUS +, was officially held today at a kickoff meeting, this time online due to current circumstances.

This project, developed and coordinated by the CSCF Foundation for Sport Integrity, is considered the continuation of the successful IntegriSport Erasmus+ project (2019-2020), consolidating itself as an important platform for raising awareness for law enforcement and judiciaries about the damages of sports manipulations in Europe (#matchfixing).

The project represents a joint commitment to strengthen prevention and cooperation on this phenomenon in six countries: Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Malta and Sweden,bringing together the efforts of:

Country Partners Organisations: The Cyprus Police; Estonian Police; Finnish Center for Integrity in Sports; The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia; Malta Police Force; Swedish Sports Confederation

Partner organisations: The Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) & Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven)

Supporting organizations: FIFPRO

The abovementioned is planned to be achieved through the consolidation of a comprehensive awareness-raising program and operational support to law enforcement agencies (LEA) and judicial authorities (JA) in Europe to face this phenomenon under the same collective.

In this way, Integrisport Next (2021-2022) truly generates an ideal space for law enforcement agencies (LEA) and judicial authorities (JA) to debate in transnational meetings and training programs led by recognized experts the use of appropriate investigative techniques, legal instruments, sport policy, sport betting, and virtual currencies in sport at national and international level to be effective in the criminal procedure regarding match-fixing and other sport integrity matters.

For more information, please contact the CSCF Projects Team:

integrisportnext.admin@cscfsport.com

Safeshred and CSCF – Safer, Cleaner, Better

The World Snowboard Federation and the CSCF – Sport Integrity Group take a step forward for the safeguarding of young snowboard riders.

On December 6th 2021, trainers and managers come from all over Europe to Planegg Germany, to participate in an intensive training on integrity topics. These key players will be empowered with knowledge and pedagogical tools to raise awareness among the youngest generations of snowboard riders during local, regional, and national events this winter.

The topics covered during the session were:

•      Manipulation of sports competition
•      Doping
•      Harassment/Bullying
•      Corruption
•      Whistleblowing system
•      Basic human rights

This activity builds on from the findings of the SafeShred project, co-financed by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union.

The relay baton is passed: see you on the slopes!

A special thanks to Snowboard Germany for hosting the activity in such special conditions.

And to the CSCF team of experts:

– Carlos Gutiérrez & Norbert Rubicsek J.D. – Coordinators
– Cassandra Matilde Fernandes, LL.M – Basic human rights
– Pim Verschuuren – Whistle blowing system
– Ainhoa Azurmendi – Harassment & Bullying
– Gatis Berkis – Doping
– Lorraine Pearman – Manipulation of sports competition & Corruption

As well as to the WSF coordinators, Boris Kilvinger and Floriane Poncet.

– Freestyle Snowboard Italy (FSI)
– Snowboard Germany (SG)
– Finnish Snowboard Association (FSA)
– Swiss-Ski (SSKI)
– Austrian Snowboard Association (ASA)
– Swedish Ski Association (SSA)

Integriball Erasmus Plus – keep sport clean for youth and female footballers

“Integrity, the choice between what is convenient and what is right” Tony Dungy

Integrity is a vital part of sport. It helps to guide us to keep sport clean and ensures the natural joy of athletes in performing on the sports field and that of the fans around the pitch. However, we need to work hard to ensure the integrity of sport. Anyone connected to a sports competition needs to learn, understand and apply the rules, including the rules of integrity. Once we understand why rules must be respected, we understand why it is important to work hard to protect its integrity – to protect careers, to protect the unpredictability of nature and to protect the business of sport.

It is important to understand: the rules of integrity are for, not against us!

While football is one of the sports which is frequently threatened by opportunists, and senior male football players are provided more and more education on the dangers of sport manipulation (match- fixing), younger athletes and female players are still generally behind in receiving this knowledge and understanding the threats, the approaches and the impacts. This was proven by interviews of multiple national team and club players across a section of Europe, who often themselves believed that they could not be targets, given the lower media attention they receive. However, as the pandemic showed, lower level and less visible leagues are attractive exactly because of the lower media attention, lower salaries, and lower level of awareness.

These concerns convinced the CSCF Foundation for Sport Integrity, together with the support of 4 federations: the Czech Republic Football Association (FACR), the Malta Football Association (MFA), the Hellenic Football Federation and the Royal Belgium Football Association (RBFA); one players’ union, the Pancyprian Footballers Association (PASP), two institutional partners, GMLS and Ghent University, and two supporting partners, UEFA and the Council of Europe, to develop and implement Integriball Erasmus+, a 2-year project, which provided support to two of the most vulnerable members of the football family: grassroots and female footballers.

The objective of this 2-year project was to “provide customised and dedicated education programmes, focusing on the protection of grassroot footballers (adolescents – U16-18) and female footballers in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece and Malta, from threats of sport manipulation through understanding, awareness and knowledge of approaches, consequences and procedures available to them. This awareness and the guidelines were also adapted to coaches and administrative staff of the participating country federations.We have come a long way since the beginning of 2020, which was not eased by the onset and continued presence of COVID-19. Nonetheless, I am proud to share that we were able to:

– Build knowledge in the participating countries, together with representatives of the participating countries, as proven by surveys prior to, during and after the sessions.

– Develop a knowledge-based useful product which was eventually tailor-made to the sport manipulation situation, level of awareness, actual situation and educational needs of each football federation/football players’ union of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece and Malta; to provide these education tools in the countries to footballers and also prepare future trainers (train-the-trainers), who would be able to further deliver the knowledge for the youth and female footballers in their countries and sustain and transfer know-how.

– Give the opportunity to the motivated persons of our respective countries to make the future generations more cautious about what happens around them and help them to play a clean game and contribute positively to society.

I truly believe that the outputs, that were developed meticulously and delivered widely, will help to prepare not only the participating federation and union football players to be very successful, cautious and knowledgeable sportsmen and sportswomen, but they can also be transferred beyond these countries, thus benefiting the wider society of Europe and beyond.

As the director of CSCF Foundation for Sport Integrity, and the co-ordinator of Integriball Erasmus+, I would like to warmly thank the hard work of the partners of Integriball, as well as the supporting partners, UEFA and the Council of Europe. I would like to especially thank the contribution of the integrity officers of the involved federations, the president of the Cypriot Players’ Union and his team, the experts of CSCF, our ambassadors, all the interviewees of our research and last, but not least, the boys and girls and senior female football players who participated and will continue to participate in the training sessions of Integriball Erasmus+.

You are truly making a difference.

We stand against manipulations in sports.

Yours in sporting integrity,

Norbert Rubicsek

Awareness Raising Session – Sweden

A stimulating exchange of thoughts and ideas on how to fight and prevent Match-Fixing in Sweden

IntegriSport Next has continued with its Awareness Raising Sessions (ARSs). This time, CSCF – Foundation for Sport Integrity co-organised the event with its project partner in Sweden, the Swedish Sports Confederation, which is responsible for combating all forms of sports manipulations in Sweden.

Being the last session of 2021 after successfully completing the ARSs of Estonia and Finland, the event took place in Stockholm on the 24th and 25th of November, where more than 70 people from the law enforcement, judiciary, sport, and betting sectors attended the workshop. The event sparked active debates and discussions about fighting and preventing sports manipulations.

Fulfilling the objective of the project, the session represented a unique opportunity to bring together Swedish law enforcement and judiciary authorities and all the Swedish and international actors who fight against this phenomenon in sport to share ideas, opinions, good practices, and ways to cooperate between them.

Session development

The two-day session was dedicated to giving to the participants a perspective of the situation of sport manipulation at the national and international level, with the participation of first-class speakers who presented their contributions on the following key topics:

Sport integrity Sport betting
Virtual currencies
Related criminal offenses (corruption, fraud, money laundering)
National and international co-operation and policymaking

Among the participant organisations, there were not only representatives from project partners but also other international and local institutions that play a crucial role in the field of sports manipulation, such as CSCF – Foundation for Sport Integrity, the Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS), the Swedish Sports Confederation, FIFPRO, the Swedish Gambling Authority, Svenska Spel, the Swedish Players Union, the Swedish FA, the Finnish Center for Integrity in Sports (FINCIS), the Swedish Police Authority, the Prosecution Authority, and the Council of Europe and INTERPOL, as intergovernmental key stakeholders with an active and important work in the domain. Also, the first day had a very enlightening interview with Kenny Stamatopoulos, a former football player who had first-hand experience with match-fixing, who said no and reported it.

“The Swedish awareness-raising session was an engaging and fruitful workshop, where we, as GLMS, together with our local member, Svenska Spel, were able to share the basics of sports betting, what to look out for when collecting intelligence and preparing evidence, key issues in Sweden related to sports betting integrity and the importance of education and collaborative actions” said Cassandra Fernandes – Legal and Projects Manager of GLMS Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS)

“Addressing the manipulation issues of sport requires a multi-stakeholder effort. At the Swedish Sports Confederation, we want to have an impact on all those actors who can contribute in one way or another to combat this problem. Being involved in this project, we have the opportunity to meet with representatives of law enforcement, the judiciary, the sports movement, and the field of betting, all together raising awareness and understanding different points of view” said Jakob Uddeholt from Integrity Officer – Swedish Sports Confederation

The program of the second day was only for representatives of law enforcement, judicial authorities, and other stakeholders from the public sector with the aim of sharing good practices on how cases of manipulation of national and international sports competitions can be detected and investigated.

Following the latest trends in criminal activity, participants were able to follow two prominent presentations from the Swedish Cybercrime Center (SC3) and CSCF – Foundation for Sport Integrity on how cybercrime and virtual currencies are making their way into society and more specifically, in sports, creating new challenges for those who fight against this phenomenon.

Moreover, the Financial Intelligence Unit of Sweden shared a presentation based on a report on money laundering in the gaming sector in Sweden. This was a remarkable contribution that gave participants insight into the situation based on statistics and real examples of approaches to the issue of money laundering through the gaming sector.

The day was followed by INTERPOL’s intervention as well as the presentation of two specific case studies on the issue, the local AIK – IFK Gothenburg case and a Finnish case. The three interventions shared notable examples of good and bad practices from international investigations on the manipulations of sports, as well as the role of cooperation between organisations to successfully investigate this type of crime. With this part of the session, the participants received an inside look into how the investigation and prosecution of a real sport manipulation case happens, thus receiving important lessons to consider for the future.

The final part of the Awareness Raising Session was an activity that has been one of the pillars of this project, the international peer-to-peer meeting. This time it focused on how to collect and use information during investigations of cases of sports manipulations (match fixing). This was a one-off opportunity for law enforcement agencies and judicial authorities from Sweden to meet peers from other countries to develop the capacity and cooperation in their investigation and prosecution techniques in sports manipulation cases.

The panel in the meeting consisted of key players of the domain of sport integrity, including CSCF Director Norbert Rubicsek, Claudio Marinelli from Interpol, Cassandra Fernandes, Chris Yaakoubian and Benoit Borsato from GLMS, Jouko Ikonen from FINCIS as well as representatives from the Swedish Police, Swedish Prosecution, Svenska Spel and the Swedish FA. What followed was a stimulating exchange of thoughts and ideas on how to develop capacity and cooperation in their investigations and prosecution techniques in sports manipulation cases.

“Sharing information between stakeholders is one of the key tools in fighting sport manipulation, so discussions such as these provide great value to the cause not only of the IntegriSport Next project, but also to the partners such as CSCF [Foundation for Sport Integrity] and our partners’ stakeholders”, said Norbert Rubicsek, Director of CSCF – Foundation for Sport Integrity.

And with this, the Awareness Raising Sessions have concluded for 2021, with our next three sessions being held next year in Georgia (February), Cyprus (March), and Malta (April).

Awareness Raising Session – Estonia

We have finished our first session of the IntegriSport Next Erasmus Plus Awareness Raising session in Estonia!

The IntegriSport Next project has officially started the implementation phase of the project with the Awareness Raising Session for law enforcement officers, judicial authorities of Estonia and other important stakeholders on all aspects of manipulation of sports competitions.

This time, the session was host by the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board and co-organised by CSCF-Foundation for Sport Integrity in the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

During the 2-day event, participants discussed the topics of sport manipulation (match-fixing) related to crime investigations and prosecution activities in Estonia and engaged in a lively exchange on good practices on fighting the phenomenon. The session not only focused on a knowledge transfer, but also actively facilitated national and international cooperation-building to maximise immersion and impact.

Internationally recognised experts in the field of combating sports manipulations from various organisations also contributed to the success of the event through concrete presentations, as well as different speakers from other organisations. All of them participated with face-to-face or online presentations.

On the first day, speakers included representatives from project partner organisations such as the Estonian Police and Border Guard, the Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) and CSCF experts, as well as special participation from FIFPRO as the project’s supporting partner.

Moreover, representatives from guest organisations also actively took part in the event by giving insights into the situation in the country, including the Estonian Football Association, the Estonian Center for Integrity in Sport (ETCIS), the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Interior of Estonia.

The first day closed with the presentation of the Council of Europe on the Macolin Convention and international cooperation in the fight against sport manipulation.

On the second day, representatives of Law Enforcement, Judicial Authorities, ministries, and the Estonian Center for Integrity in Sport (ETCIS) shared good practices in the investigation and detection of cases of manipulation of national and international sports competitions.

Among the participants on the second day were our project partners the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board and the Finnish Center for Integrity in Sport (FINCIS) and representatives of key organisations and speakers with a history of experience in the domain of manipulation for sport competitions, which includes INTERPOL, the Prosecution Service of Hungary, and the Judicial Police of Portugal.

At the end of the session, the peer-to-peer meeting was held for members of Law Enforcement and Judicial Authorities in order to develop the capacity and cooperation in their investigation and prosecution techniques in sports manipulation cases.

“Great to be part of IntegriSport Next, since in Estonia sports manipulations are sometimes quite unknown and underground and we are interested in every type of solution, so, thank you for this project and all the support to fight against manipulation in sport.” Remo Perli – Estonian Police Border Guard Board

“I was really happy to see the Estonian stakeholders starting to have a discussion or to continue the discussion on how to fight against sports manipulations.”

Norbert Rubicsek – CSCF Foundation for Sport Integrity

It was a great session full of inspiring points of view and good energy from all the participants who were very open to learn how to act and what steps to take to fight against sports manipulations in Estonia.

The next awareness raising session will be held in Finland in November 2021.

All posts by : Isa