Sorbonne, Paris - Sport Integrity Forum 2014

On 15th May 2014 the ‘Sport Integrity Forum 2014’ was held in the prestigious surroundings of the great amphitheatre of the Sorbonne, in Paris. The forum was jointly organised by Prof. Laurent Vidal Chair of “Intégrité du sport” at the University Paris Panthéon Sorbonne, the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS), chaired by Mr. Mohammed Hanza, and with the partnership of UNESCO and the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport EPAS (Council of Europe). Nearly 400 participants attended the forum, including several sport ministers and diplomats, representatives of international sporting organisations, senior sport executives, betting industry regulators, lawyers and other relevant individuals interested in the integrity of sport.

The objective of the forum was to communicate the results of research conducted by the Sorbonne-ICSS on the integrity of sport, which resulted in a multidisciplinary report covering economics, history, ethics and law. The main contributors presented different aspects of the study, focusing on their findings and recommendations in order to improve the effectiveness of measures taken against match fixing and other manipulations of sports competition. Contributors included Prof. Denis Oswald, CIES Director and IOC member, who presented a paper related to the good governance of sports organisations and Mr. Pierre Cornu, CIES Senior Legal Counsel, who considered the challenges facing sport in this area and in the context of criminal law, criminal procedures and disciplinary law (in collaboration with Prof. Hayden Opie, programme Director at the University of Melbourne, Australia). Roundtable sessions later in the day allowed the views of the audience members to be collected and provided a forum to discuss the recommendations contained in the new report.

The CIES has actively participated in this research project for the past two years and will also be involved in the future work of the Sorbonne – ICSS; including this latest report and the implementation of its recommendations.