By Andrew Warshaw in Doha
March 17 – High-ranking decision makers from across the globe converge on Qatar on Monday and Tuesday for another prestige summit organised by the Gulf state, keeping itself firmly in the sporting spotlight.
Securing Sport 2013 is organized by the Doha-based International Centre for Sport Security, a body that is increasingly becoming an important player when it comes to tackling the integrity of sport, in particular match-fixing and discrimination, currently the most dangerous threats to football with a spate of high-profile cases throughout Asia, Africa and both western and eastern Europe.
Several hundred international experts and stakeholders have been invited to Doha to share knowledge and best practice in sport, safety, security and integrity under the theme of “Advancing the security and integrity of sport to safeguard the future”.
Among the speakers will be Australian Moya Dodd, Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Vice President, recently nominated by the AFC as its candidate for the women’s football representative on FIFA’s Executive Committee.
Dodd, who is up against three other contenders for the FIFA post, makes a flying visit to Doha as she takes a break from an increasingly busy lobbying schedule ahead of the FIFA Congress in Mauritius in May.
Other speakers include former British sports minister Richard Caborn, a leading member of the successful bid team for London 2012; Wilfried Lemke, the United Nations special adviser on Sport for Development and Peace; Chris Eaton director, Sport Integrity, ICSS, who will head a no-holds-barred panel on international betting; and William Gaillard, special advisor to UEFA president Michael Platini.
Conspicuous by his absence, however, will be Yousef Al Serkal of the United Arab Emirates who is running for AFC president in early May. It is understood Al Serkal was on the original list of speakers but had to pull out.
Also unlikely to make an appearance is Hassan Al Thawadi, boss of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organising committee who rarely misses a chance, in his own backyard, to play up the country’s credentials but who is believed to be absent on other business. Like Dodd, the charismatic Al Thawadi is bidding to grab a spot at the top table at FiFA as he, too, vies for an executive committee place.
Even without his presence, however, the two-day conference promises to provide several sessions of hard-hitting debate on subjects that increasingly threaten to undermine the integrity of sport and, in particular, football.
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