Media statement on the Closing Conference of the Integrisport Next Project on Sports Manipulations and Criminal Activities behind Sport, co-ordinated by CSCF Foundation for Sport Integrity

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“The IntegriSport Next Erasmus+ project (2021-2022) came to an end with its final administrative partners’ meeting and the Closing International Conference on “Sports Manipulation and Criminal Activities Behind Sports” on 3-4 November 2022 in the Netherlands.

Results, impact and positive outcomes for law enforcement and judicial awareness-raising in the field of sports manipulations.

The project, co-funded by the EU Commission through the Erasmus+ Sport Programme, was the 2nd edition of a unique CSCF-developed training program concept that began with IntegriSport (2019-2020) followed by Integrisport Next (2021-2022). The project has been funded for a 3rd edition starting January 2023. Project co-ordinator CSCF welcomed almost 100 participants to the event hosted by supporting partner FIFPRO, representing international organizations, national law enforcement and judiciary, sports organizations, academia, and the betting sector. Thanks to the project, several immediate impacts were revealed as well as the signatures by project partners of a Joint Statement committing efforts to fight efficiently against sports manipulations.

Being the first of its kind, the IntegriSport concept was conceived as a response to the need for in-depth knowledge about sports manipulations of a stakeholder group that is not traditionally linked to sport - the national law enforcement and judicial sector. In that way, over the last four years, CSCF Foundation (part of CSCF Sport Integrity Group) has been coordinating and providing expertise with the main objective of offering support to Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), Judicial Authorities (JAs) and other relevant stakeholders to fight against sport manipulation and corruption in sport, using expertise inhouse, as well as that of the partners and collaborating stakeholders.

The conference: an ideal setting to share outcomes and highlight the progress made by law enforcement and judiciary in tackling sport manipulation in recent years.

The conference highlighted the far-reaching impact of the project’s 2nd edition, with the work and determination of project partners and CSCF sport integrity experts. IntegriSport Next has served as a vehicle to raise awareness and triggered cooperation in the 6 European countries of the partners (Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Malta, and Sweden), leading to customized action plans for each partner organization and benefitting over 300 law enforcement officers and judiciary representatives with direct training and over 117 stakeholder organizations linked directly or indirectly to this specific project. The presence at the conference of partners and collaborators from the 1st edition and the future 3rd edition of IntegriSport was a testament to the long-lasting impacts of the concept.

The public Closing Conference served as the ideal setting during which the partners (See list below) presented their experiences and learnings throughout the project, discussed success stories, exchanged best practices and shared with relevant stakeholders in the domain.

Norbert Rubicsek, director of CSCF and project manager of IntegriSport Erasmus+, added: “Most of the time the fixers of a sport event are outside the jurisdiction of the sport federations. We at CSCF and the partner organizations believe that to investigate these perpetrators, the involvement of law enforcement and judiciaries is inevitable. Therefore, we need to provide knowledge for these stakeholders on the issues of sport manipulation and in the framework of IntegriSport. This is why we have been sharing such knowledge with these important stakeholders for 4 years”.

Partners share significant immediate impacts of IntegriSport Next


During the conference, project partners shared the immediate and ongoing impacts of the activities of the project, highlighting the quality that CSCF and its experts delivered in the past 2 years. The partner countries, namely the law enforcement agencies of Cyprus, Estonia and Malta and the public authorities of Finland, Georgia and Sweden, as well as partner organisations ULIS (formerly GLMS) and KU Leuven, highlighted several immediate impacts of the project, including:

The full reports and project practical guide are due to be published by CSCF in early 2023. 

A joint statement to tackle manipulations of sports competitions

During the administrative session of the project, the partners discussed and evaluated the final outcomes of the project activities and administrative issues, as well as the sustainability of the project, drawing a link to the upcoming IntegriSport 3.0 project (2023-2024) and ratified their commitment to tackle this phenomenon with greater strength via the signature of the Project Joint Statement.

Additionally, all the partners of the project expressed in the Joint Statement that “We welcome this opportunity to be part of the group of the 17 European country partners and international partner organizations that make up the IntegriSport Community since its first edition in 2019 as a massive step forward in the implementation of coordinated actions and integrity policies against the manipulation of sports competitions”.

Expression of views from athletes and national and international organizations

In addition, on 3 November in the evening, CSCF, with FIFPRO’s support, organized a special teaser event for project partners with an emotional insight into the athletes’ perspective in investigations. CSCF’s Project Coordinator Carlos Guttierez and Legal Expert Cassandra Fernandes moderated an exchange with guest speakers Panu Autio (former Finland Futsal national team captain) and current Executive Director at the Finnish football players’ union Jean Fridolin Ngambe-Ngambe, a Cameroonian-born footballer playing in Finland, who is also currently an ambassador of the players’ union. Both speakers shared their personal experiences of dealing with law enforcement in match-fixing investigations and spoke about the vulnerabilities that can lead to match-fixing.

The main event on 4 November also welcomed the participation of invited speakers and panellists from beyond the partner organizations, including Interpol, the International Olympic Committee, the Football Players Association of Finland, the Spanish Football Federation, the Dutch National Platform, and the European Commission, as well as the presence of a +70 audience of representatives of various organizations such as Europol and Eurojust from 18 countries that currently play a key role in the development of policies that seek to strengthen and care for sport integrity on and off the playing field.

Looking forward: IntegriSport 3.0 (2023-2024)

However, the Final Conference is not the end of IntegriSport as a program. While the 2nd edition comes to a successful end, pending the publication of the final report, it opens the next chapter of the program that will continue, following the recent EU Commission’s funding approval for IntegriSport 3.0 (2023-2024) in six more countries - Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, Estonia and Greece  - with new organizations and new partners, namely:

This brings the number of countries and organizations involved in the European implementation of the IntegriSport concept to 17. CSCF would like to thank all participants for being part of this initiative and for their support and collaboration on this project. The IntegriSport program would not have been possible without the EU Commission through the Erasmus+ Sport Programme, as well as ALL PARTNERS and other organizations indirectly involved!

We all stand against manipulation in sport!


ABOUT INTEGRISPORT NEXT (Jan 2021- Dec 2022)

The IntegriSport Next Erasmus+ project acted in six countries (Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Malta, and Sweden) from 2021-2022, bringing together the efforts of 10 European organizations that recognize the complexity and seriousness of this phenomenon, the danger it poses to the development and credibility of sport at national and international levels, and the need to cooperate closely to tackle it effectively:

ABOUT CSCF

CSCF is committed to the integrity and values that sport has, which are rarely found in other activities of society and, therefore, must be preserved, monitored, and protected. That is why all our efforts endeavour to help the actors of the sports ecosystem with tailored tools to be better equipped to face the challenges coming from integrity breaches that, although they are not new in sports, have become a growing problem at different levels in recent decades, ranging from unethical to illegal behaviour, including but not limited to:

-        Sport manipulation (match-fixing)

-        Corruption

-        Doping

-        Different kinds of violence: Discrimination, hooliganism, racism, or sexual abuses, etc.

-        Human rights violations

-        Lack of governance

-        Omerta and fear of reporting wrongdoing

For more pictures request to integrisportnext.admin@cscfsport.com

IntegriHUNBasket- Educational programme on sports manipulation and doping

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27 OCTOBER 2022. Racism, doping, sports manipulation, harassment, corruption - all concepts that have rarely been discussed in Hungarian sport. The Hungarian Basketball Federation (MKOSZ) has made a point of talking frankly to young basketball players about the dangers they face in the world of sport. They are also enlisting the help of an expert company.

The CSCF Sport Integrity Group has been providing education and consultancy services for more than 5 years, helping sports federations, police forces, and national and international organisations to protect the integrity of the sporting world from negative influences, including doping, sports manipulation, corruption, (sexual) harassment and racism.


CSCF has produced educational programmes for the International Volleyball Federation, the International Snowboard Federation, and the Belgian, Czech, Greek and Maltese Football Associations, among others. In addition to 23 police forces and prosecutors from 11 countries, the Hungarian Police and the National Tax and Customs Office have participated in Integrisport, an educational programme for police forces and prosecutors on crime in the world of sport, over the last 4 years, along with more than 70 other public and private organisations dealing with the subject.

In these programmes, CSCF cooperates with UEFA, FIFPro, Interpol and the Council of Europe.

Leading the way in sporting purity

The Hungarian Basketball Federation is committed to preserving the purity of the sport, which is probably one of the reasons why we have not yet seen any professional or even junior problems in our sport," said Peter Bodnar, secretary general of the association. At the same time, we have to realise that there have been attempts so far, and there will probably always be attempts, so we would like to prepare teams and young people on how to do the right thing.

The aim of the cooperation between CSCF and MKOSZ is to map the purity of the Hungarian basketball scene and, based on the information gained, to prepare a tailor-made prevention programme for MKOSZ against sports manipulation and doping. Doping and sports manipulation are the most comprehensively understood topics, but the importance of betting and insider information and how to combat these harmful phenomena are also included in the research and educational material.

The educational material is already in preparation

In the first phase of the project, CSCF carried out a wide-ranging survey of more than 400 players and professionals involved in Hungarian basketball to find out their opinions and knowledge on match-fixing and other negative phenomena affecting the sport.

- After the completion of the preparatory and research phase of the project, our partner will prepare an educational programme, which will be shared with a wider audience of the Hungarian basketball scene through online learning material and live lectures, thus helping to preserve the purity of the sport of basketball. We would like to have the e-learning platform for our programme, IntegriHUNBasket, available this year.

Thanks to the cooperation between CSCF and MKOSZ, fair play in domestic basketball is guaranteed in the long term, according to Dr. Norbert Rubicsek, director of the CSCF Sport Integrity Group.

"Unfortunately, sports manipulation, doping and other phenomena against the purity of sports life can be found in today's sports all over the world. In the IntegriHUNBasket programme, we are working to keep this phenomenon as far away from Hungarian basketball as possible and to create as much space as possible for clean basketball," added Dr. Norbert Rubicsek.

Click here to read The National Protective Service of Hungary communications statement

CSCF delivers expertise at awareness raising on sport manipulation and related criminal activities for Hungarian law enforcement

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20 September 2022, Budapest. The National Protective Service of Hungary organized, together with CSCF Sport Integrity Group, a symposium on manipulation in sport and related criminal activities for investigators of the Hungarian Police and the National Protective Services.

CSCF Sport Integrity Group, namely, Director and former Hungarian police officer, Norbert Rubicsek, and content officer Alban Zohn, together with CSCF-appointed experts, delivered a comprehensive seminar to over 100 participants on different aspects of sport manipulation and corruption, as well as other criminal activities in sport.

CSCF Sport Integrity Group’s experts were joined by specialists from the Hungarian Prosecution Service, the Portuguese Judicial Police, the Hungarian Basketball Federation and Szerencsejáték Zrt, and the Hungarian state lottery. The presenters introduced participants to the crimes inherent in the manipulation of sport, the growing risk of e-sport manipulation, and betting issues associated with manipulation. The presenters also shared methods of best practice derived from cases in Hungary and Portugal.

Norbert Rubicsek, director of CSCF Sport Integrity Group, who was the moderator and one of the sport manipulation experts on this event, commented: “When we connect wrongdoings to the sport domain, we may be tempted to leave sport to protect itself with no external support. Looking at the issues international sport has been facing in the last decade, we can see that this approach, while generally effective with regard to disciplinary measures, leaves a caveat with regard to non-disciplinary actions. Sport organisations should not be expected to be equipped to fight against organized criminal groups alone. This would endanger athletes and sport management, expecting them to take on, in some way, the role of law enforcement. Outside the disciplinary jurisdiction, taking on such criminals is the duty of law enforcement.

The key to this endeavour being successful is awareness and knowledge: the investigators should know not only that there is an actual crime allegedly committed but they should also understand it and be able to relate it to the modus operandi they have already likely seen in other areas. Our aim through this symposium was to facilitate understanding by law enforcement officers of the potential crimes through misuse of sport and to understand the background and underlying issues”

CSCF highlighted topical integrity issues in sport and emphasized e-sport in particular, given the unique risk factors that make it a tantalizing target for criminal activity. E-sport has rapidly evolved from an entertainment platform with minimal following. The popularity, revenue, and betting now rivals, even surpasses, that of traditional sports. The disjointed regulatory scene will continue to be abused by criminals who, throughout history and across culture, prove themselves adept at changing tactics to exploit vulnerabilities in other contexts.

The symposium is the first edition of the educational pathway that will prepare the Hungarian law enforcement for sport manipulation and sport related criminal activities. The next event takes place in November 2022.

Click here to read The National Protective Service of Hungary communications statement

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

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  • 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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FAIR PLAY – FAIR RIDE

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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.