News: September 2015

MINEPS V

Michael PedersenMichael Pedersen spoke at the international expert meeting on match-fixing, convened by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and International Center for Sport Security (ICSS). The meeting, which took place in Doha, Qatar on 16-17 September 2015, was part of the follow-up related to the 5th International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport (MINEPS V). It brought together approx. 60 international experts from across sectors and regions to discuss and develop concrete actions to be considered by sport ministers at MINEPS VI, expected to take place in June 2017.

The presentation given by Michael Pedersen was titled "Handling the Prevention of Match-Fixing as a Sport Governance Issue". In his presentation, Michael appreciated that it takes two to tango and that athletes reflect society with all its beauty and all its flaws. Most importantly, he offered his perspectives on specific systems and procedures, which national and international sport governing bodies can put in place to prevent athletes from accepting offers for match-fixing. The preventive measures highlighted were as follows:

  • Specific policy on match-fixing
  • Communication of policy, systems and procedures to relevant internal and external stakeholders
  • Regular motivational training for athletes and other relevant persons, i.e. coaches and referees
  • Independently run platform for answering questions

While emphasizing that the effectiveness of prevention measures largely depends on effective detective and sanction measures too, Michael Pedersen also suggested that it would be useful to find common answers to the following three key questions:

  • What can we learn from the experience so far in designing systems and procedures to handle doping in sport, including the division of roles and responsibilities at various levels of sport and government as well as the creation of independent systems?
  • Who are the ones at high risk of receiving offers for match-fixing, i.e. athletes in specific sports or countries and/or professional, semi-professional and amateur level athletes?
  • How do you best motivate the right behavior among athletes, for instance in the design of training and carrots and sticks based systems?
MINEPS V

For further information about the international expert meeting on match-fixing, including links to all relevant documents, see the dedicated expert meeting website.