By Paul Nicholson in New York
November 4 – The first formal steps towards the formation of a worldwide anti-corruption body were announced by Michael Hershman (pictured) in his closing remarks at the Securing Sport 2015 conference.
Hershman, an ICSS advisory board member and chairman of the Advisory Board of the International Anti-Corruption Academy, said that new group would be provisionally called the Integrity Global Alliance and would be led by key stakeholders.
“Key stakeholders met this week who have an interest in integrity and governance in sports. The overall concensus was that there was a need for an international private-public partnership. There is a need for serious, in-depth governance across all sport, and that is particularly true of football,” said Hershman.
“The ICSS will devote time and resources to making this initiative become a reality.”
An ICSS statement said: “The participants (at the meeting) also agreed on the need to develop a sport integrity global alliance, ‘a coalition of the willing’, led by the sporting industry and supported by key stakeholders, committed to using best practice, universal standards and creative global solutions to effectively tackle global problems and usher a new era in the governance and integrity of sport.”
The meeting that was held in New York had a mix of participants from the public and private sectors as well as sports bodies including the OECD, Homeland Security in the US, The World Bank, La Liga, The Premier League, the Commonwealth Games Association, and FIBA.
These are still early days and there is as yet no detail of how the body will be formally constituted, but the first steps have been to get their initial commitment. It is expected that the current group of stakeholders will grow rapidly, particularly as international sports federations embrace the concept and realise the support and problem solving this organisation could provide.
ICSS CEO Europe and Latin America Emanuel Medeiros, one of the drivers of the project, has long been an advocate of an inclusive and holistic approach to dealing with the issues of corruption and governance. The support and backing of ICSS president Mohammed Hanzab has been critical in pushing this forward.
The key next steps will be having the capability to pull together under one banner multiple interest groups that might not all have the same objectives. This is something Medeiros has a proven track record of achieving as a former CEO and one of the founding fathers of the European Professional Football Leagues association.
The following individuals participated in the informal meeting on ‘Addressing the Crisis of Sports Integrity – Building Solutions in a Collaborative Environment’, held on 2 November 2015:
· Matt Andrews, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School;
· Nicola Bonucci, Director for Legal Affairs of the OECD;
· Rt Hon Richard Caborn, Former UK Minster for Sport and Senior Adviser, Quest
· Chip Cotrell, Partner Deloitte; co-Chair of United Nations Global Compact Committee on Anti-Corruption
· Eric Drossart, Former Chairman, IMG
· Chris Eaton, Executive Director for Sport Integrity, International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS)
· Jamie Fuller, Chairman of SKINS and co-founder of the NewFIFANow
· David Grevemberg, CEO, Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF)*
· Mohammed Hanzab, President of ICSS and Chairman of ICSS EUROPE
· Michael Hershman, Chairman of Advisory Board of the International Anti-Corruption Academy; former FIFA IGC member
· Matthew King, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the United States Homeland Security
· Joel Lange, Managing Director – Risk & Compliance, DOW JONES
· Alfredo Lorenzo, Director of Integrity of the Spanish Football League (La Liga)
· Leonard McCarthy, Vice President Integrity of The World Bank
· Rick McDonell Executive Secretary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
· Emanuel Medeiros, CEO of ICSS EUROPE and LATIN AMERICA
· Chip Poncy, President and Co-Founder, Financial Integrity Network
· Michael Pedersen, long serving Head of the World Economic Forum’s Anti-Corruption Task Force; Founder of M INC Change the Game
· Shellie Pfohl, Executive Director of the United States President’s Council on Fitness, Sport and Nutrition
· Sir David Richards, Senior Vice President of the Football Association
· Helmut Spahn, Director General, ICSS
· Markus Studer, COO of FIBA (International Basketball Federation)
· Laurent Vidal, Professor of Law at the University Panthéon 1 – Sorbonne
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