A US sports activities corruption skilled mentioned Thursday that soccer ranks alongside tennis by way of the danger of match-fixing, calling for brand spanking new “integrity” programs to sort out the issue.
Lisa Kihl, an affiliate professor on the University of Minnesota, was receiving an award financed by FIFA World Cup host Qatar for campaigning in opposition to corruption in sport.
Kihl, head of the Global Institute for Responsible Sport Organizations, was one in all seven recipients of anti-corruption excellence awards named after Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.
It is the primary time one of many awards has been given for campaigning in sport, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino on the ceremony in Doha.
Asked that are the worst sports activities for corruption, Kihl advised AFP, “In terms of match-fixing, it’s tennis and football. Now basketball is starting to see more numbers.”
Even because the World Cup began, stories emerged of match-fixing investigations in Asia, whereas tennis’ governing our bodies final yr arrange the International Tennis Integrity Agency to fight corruption.
Kihl mentioned corruption was “ominipresent” and elevated sports activities playing offered fertile floor.
“If you think of all the forms of corruption we have in society, that is happening in sport,” she mentioned.
“And when you open up gambling, it just opens up another avenue where you can have the bribery, money laundering that goes with it. We have got to do a better job to create systems and accountability systems so that crime syndicates don’t see an easy target.”
The Qatar initiative works with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Kihl mentioned she wished to “take advantage of the opportunities of the door opening up to really think about how on the global stage we can address the different forms of corruption in sport”.