Europe wants convention against match fixing

European governments have taken a major new step in the fight against manipulation of sports results by allowing the Council of Europe to open negotiations on a new European Convention in sport. A convention is a political agreement which is valid as law in the signatory countries.

The new important step was revealed last Friday the 22nd of June at the Sport & EU Conference in Lausanne, by Stanislas Frossard, head of EPAS, the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport.

EPAS is a sports political cooperation between 34 countries under the Council of Europe, but was earlier this month given the mandate to lead the negotiations on behalf of the entire council.

Moreover, the IOC, UEFA and the EU Commission have given their support to the idea of a convention, and in the long run it is envisaged that also countries outside the EU can sign up. This has happened before, for instance in the case of the European Anti-Doping Convention which already in 1989 was one of the first serious political steps in the fight against doping.

The convention against match fixing will also be addressed when sports ministers from the whole world will gather in the framework of UNESCO in May 2013 in Berlin to debate this and other pertinent sports political topics. 

Stanislas Frossard expects that a convention can be ready for the first countries to sign up in about two years’ time.

”This may seem as a very long time, but in a world of governments and public institutions, where decisions should be made by consensus, it is not much,” Frossard said.

At the Sport & EU conference, Frossard gave an overview over all major initiatives against match fixing at present.

You can watch the video of his presentation here (approx. 45 minutes).