MINUTES - FIFA.com

MINUTES OF THE 63 RD FIFA CONGRESS, MAURITIUS 2013 25
He concluded by saying that the resolution made him feel
confident that the 15 years he spent in prison against
racism were worthwhile and that he was glad to be able
to report to Nelson Mandela that FIFA was taking much
more serious, stricter measures against racism. He thanked
President Blatter for giving him the opportunity to be
part of FIFA’s firm action in showing racism the red card.
11.3 Match manipulation
Stadium and Security Committee member David Sabir
stated to the Congress that match manipulation was
undeniably a global threat to the integrity of football,
and that coupled with corruption in general, it truly
jeopardised the social, educational and cultural values as
well as the economic role of sport. He said that it occurred
at all levels of the game and that the objective of FIFA and
its members was to unite their efforts to safeguard fairness
in football as well as the physical and moral integrity of
the football family. He explained that match manipulation
offered organised crime an easy opportunity for profit
maximisation and money laundering. Furthermore, he
noted that existing legal loopholes created obstacles in
prosecuting such cases, citing the examples of match
manipulation not being illegal in many countries and the
difficulties of providing sufficient evidence that would lead
to prosecution. To protect the integrity of football and to
maintain trust in the unpredictability of football results,
collaboration on combatting match manipulation within
the football community needed to be strengthened by
enhancing the exchange of information and best practices,
overcoming loopholes in legislation, improving police and
judicial cooperation, raising awareness and continuing to
educate players, referees and officials as well as providing
administrative systems with adequate and effective legal
means.
He then presented the FIFA Integrity Initiative, which
had been developed by the FIFA Security Division
and included the collaboration of INTERPOL and
international and national authorities since June
2012. He outlined the areas of the FIFA Integrity
Initiative: prevention, through training and education
programmes; detection, via the FIFA subsidiary
EWS (Early Warning System) which monitors FIFA
competitions and identifies irregular activity on the
sports betting market; information gathering (FIFA’s EWS
hotline for the football community and the confidential
reporting system for the public); investigations, in
close collaboration with law enforcement and with
member associations’ support; sanctions, related to the
FIFA Code of Conduct, FIFA Code of Ethics and FIFA
Disciplinary Code; and the FIFA Integrity Team, which
would assist member associations and confederations
to implement the necessary structures and processes,
and to establish single points of contact to fight match
manipulation.
Furthermore, he stressed that criminals could not be
allowed to infiltrate football and that with the FIFA
Integrity Initiative a giant step was being taken in the
right direction. He said that FIFA not only considered
this impressive start a task but rather an opportunity
for all member associations to involve stakeholders
of football. He called upon the member associations
to implement their own national integrity initiatives
with FIFA’s guidance and support. He concluded by
saying that only by joining together could the football
community send out a powerful signal of immutable
commitment and progress against organised crime,
and urged the member associations to do so for the
game and for the world.
The President added that FIFA and its member
associations could not act alone in their efforts to
eradicate match manipulation and that it was essential
for them to cooperate with the relevant authorities in
each country. He therefore put forward the proposal
that the member associations seek the support of
governments and political authorities to eradicate
match manipulation.