April 28 – Following a meeting of EU leaders and government ministers in charge of sport, SIGA chairman Franco Frattini and CEO Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros have written an Open Letter to the meeting participants encouraging them to ensure sports integrity is part of the package of support that the EU is planning to provide to member states.
In the letter SIGA commends the participants “for recognising the invaluable social, educational and cultural role of Sport, as well as its positive economic impact”, as well as congratulating the EU “for their proactive offer of support to the Member States and the Sport sector.”
“Never has there been a better opportunity to harness the positive power of Sport as an enabler of mental and physical health, social cohesion, human development and economic recovery,” says SIGA.
“We therefore welcome the European Commissions’ and EU Member States’ willingness to allocate public funds to stabilising Sport as a viable industry and enabling it to do what it does best: to motivate, inspire and drive mentally and physically healthy and productive societies; and to act as a catalyst of economic growth, employment and human development. We therefore trust that a specific chapter on Sport will be included within the “Recovery Fund” that the President of the European Commission, Dr Ursula von der Leyen, is expected to present on May 7th.”
However, SIGA points out that with money comes danger and “that poor governance, poor regulation, lack of oversight, and lack of inclusive, action-oriented and result-driven cooperation, at both national and international level, facilitate threats to Sport Integrity, which increasingly involve transnational organised crime.”
Accordingly SIGA calls for any allocation of public funds to come “with absolute transparency, accountability and oversight”.
“It is only through transparency that Sport can break free from the restraints of corruption, money laundering, tax evasion, opaque broadcasting and sponsorship deals, child trafficking, and the many other threats it currently faces,” says the letter.
In conclusion Frattini and de Medeiros encourage the EU to engage with and adopt SIGA’s Universal Standards as well as push federations to undergo the SIGA Independent Rating and Verification System (SIRVS) benchmarking.
The letter is the 114th “boosting measure” of the #SIGASTRIVES Action Plan.
SIGA – Open Letter to the Croatian EU Presidency European Commission and EU Member Sates (28.04.2020)
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