INTERPOL TV INTERVIEW - Michaela Ragg, Head of INTERPOL's Integrity in Sport unit
Channel: INTERPOL
Date: 2013-01-21

INTERPOL's Integrity in Sport unit

Integrity in sport is under threat from corruption — including scandals, fraud, rumours and criminal investigations — infiltrating various sports associations around the world. Many of these issues are caused by the manipulation of sports events for monetary gain through regular and irregular betting channels.

And with the sophistication of Internet gambling networks international sports gambling has become extremely easy and accessible. Estimates on the amounts of money made through illegal betting alone run into hundreds of millions of Euros each year.

The problem of match-fixing poses a danger to more than just the reputations and livelihoods of sports professionals and associations involved; with relatively little risk for criminals to be detected match-fixing has now become a global threat with large amounts of money involved used for other illegal activities.
INTERPOL's response

In May 2011, INTERPOL entered into a 10-year initiative with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to develop and implement a global training, education and prevention programme with a focus on regular and irregular betting as well as match-fixing.

To achieve this goal we launched a dedicated Integrity in Sport unit to develop and implement the training which will be the basis for the creation of a training wing within the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation in Singapore.

The objective of this program is to improve key individual's awareness and understanding of the phenomenon, the strategies used by its perpetrators and the methods to detect and counteract them.
Programme goals:

    To educate and train key actors in football on how to recognize, resist and report attempts to corrupt or fix matches
    To better prepare law enforcement officers on  how to investigate and cooperate in corruption or match-fixing related cases.

In order to deliver on the programme goals, INTERPOL has identified three vital areas:

    Training
    Education
    Prevention

Training: to focus on the protection of the identified Key Actors by ensuring that they have undertaken certified anti-corruption training sessions and that law enforcement officers are better prepared to cooperate and share information related to these investigations.

Education: to build a knowledge base on anti-corruption/match-fixing related issues ('center of excellence'), to provide a better understanding of the issues, and to design updated  training content addressing the identified needs. This will be the basis for the delivery of training and the development of prevention strategies.

Prevention: to enhance Key Actors awareness of the problem and empower them to recognize, resist and report attempts to corrupt or fix matches.

The Integrity in Sport team are in the process of developing target oriented e-learning programmes which will be coupled with in-person training for the key target groups (players, referees) of match-fixers.

In order to start this process and to ensure that our plans meet the real needs of the respective target groups, regional and national workshops will be hosted in a number of pilot countries to better understand the current status and possible challenges in maintaining integrity in sport. The results will form the basis for the training package.