DOHA, Qatar – INTERPOL and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have conducted a joint workshop in Qatar to help develop a coordinated national approach on the integrity of sport.
With Qatar due to host major sport events including the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the two-day workshop (21 and 22 January) was held in close partnership with the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy of Qatar.
It brought together more than 100 representatives from Qatari law enforcement, government, sports bodies and the Olympic movement.
International experts from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Council of Europe, FIFA and the Athletics Integrity Unit reviewed and highlighted existing legislation, international instruments and best practices to protect the major sport events from competition manipulation and other breaches of sport integrity.
“Such initiatives aim at providing a safe environment for the management of safety and security operations in general and in major sporting events in particular. These workshops form part of a global capacity-building and training programme to help countries meet the new criminal challenges posed by competition manipulation, corruption and other threats to the safety of sport,” said Brigadier Ibrahim Khalil Al-Mohannadi, Head of Consultancy Office, Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy.
The event also provided an opportunity for INTERPOL to link up with potential new investigators for its Match-Fixing Task Force for the sharing of information, intelligence and best practices.
José de Gracia, INTERPOL Assistant Director, Criminal Networks Sub-Directorate said: “In recent years, the manipulation of sports competitions has become a mechanism for profit of organized crime structures. One of the key learnings of this training is that cooperation and information sharing is crucial. This is why stakeholders in law enforcement, government and sports have come together to discuss how we can build a global network to tackle competition manipulation.”
INTERPOL and the IOC recently expanded their joint global capacity-building and training programme until 2021 to protect the integrity of sports.
H.E. Jassim Rashid Al-Buenain, Secretary-General of Qatar’s Olympic Committee said: “The IOC and INTERPOL are amongst the top entities we cooperate with to form the umbrella that helps shape honest and fair competition where hard work does not go unrewarded and wrongdoing does not go unpunished. Integrity entails credibility, and the credibly of competition and sports organization is one of the key pillars of Olympic Agenda 2020.”
Established by INTERPOL and funded by Qatar, Project Stadia also facilitated and participated at the event. Project Stadia aims to create a centre of excellence and good practice platform to help INTERPOL member countries plan and undertake security and cybersecurity preparations for major sporting events.