Sports federations should work more closely together to combat corruption

This was the essence of a short exchange of opinions during the IOC Session today in Copenhagen about measures and finances in the fight against corruption, match-fixing and the betting problem.

Francesco Ricci Bitti (Italy), President of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and IOC member, talked about the problems related to betting:

“Since the costs of the Anti-Corruption program we have in our federation are very high, in education, monitoring and investigation, I recommend a better coordination with all international federations to make the program more effective and less cost involving. I believe that this is a must for the future and I recommend strongly going further in the future.”

IOC President Jacques Rogge then quoted article 41 of the Olympic Congress recommendations which says:

“The legitimacy and autonomy of the Olympic Movement depends on upholding the highest standards of ethical behavior and good governance. All members of the Olympic Movement should adopt, as their minimum standard, the Basic Universal Principles of Good Governance of the Olympic Movement as proposed by the IOC. All members of the Olympic Movement must always demonstrate integrity, accountability and transparency, as well as the highest standard of management skills.”

Rogge added:

“We have indeed established such a document and we recommend it as the basic document for all the members of the Olympic movement”, said Rogge, referring to article 41 to 49 in the congress recommendations touching the issue of governance. 

“We do understand the high demand on human resources, on money, but also on time and energy in this very difficult fight against illegal betting. As you know the IOC has established its own monitoring company for the Olympic Games. This is something that will continue in the future.

We have an agreement with the major bona fide betting companies; we are working closely with Interpol. And we are also working closely with various international federations among which your federation, Mr Ricci Bitti, is leading, because you have been one of the very first ones and strongest one in fighting against this. We are working also with FIFA and UEFA. But there might be a broader alliance of people being involved which will definitely reduce costs and give a better efficiency.”

Francesco Ricci Bitti told Play the Game later this morning: “In our sport we set up an integrity unit. I am very pleased to know that even the IOC is starting thinking about this.”