Fifa, football’s global governing body, has partnered with the United Nations on Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to launch a new initiative aimed at tackling match-fixing and manipulation around the world.
The Fifa Global Integrity Programme is designed to improve education and build integrity capacity within all 211 Fifa member associations, by sharing knowledge and resources with integrity officers.
Fifa said the core objective of the initiative is to establish sustainable integrity and anti-corruption initiatives at local level, which each of its confederations to benefit from a series of three-module virtual workshop focused on integrity.
“Match-fixing is an issue that is very real and threatens the integrity and credibility of football in many countries around the world,” Fifa president Gianni Infantino said.
“Working in close collaboration with experts at the UNODC and alongside other ongoing efforts that Fifa is taking, the Fifa Global Integrity Programme is another important step by Fifa to protect the integrity of football and will play an important role in educating and building capacity within member associations to help fight match-fixing at a local level.”
To support the programme, Fifa will also launch an Integrity Officers Community Platform, a community-driven online platform dedicated to integrity officers across all member associations and confederations worldwide.
Fifa said the confidential platform will bring together a global network of integrity officers to share their experience and exchange best practice related to preventing and fighting match manipulation and promoting integrity.
The launch of the new initiative comes after Fifa and the UNODC in December of last year announced plans for a new campaign encouraging the football industry to speak out on match-fixing.
The partnership focuses around Fifa’s confidential reporting platforms, with the aim of encouraging players, coaches and officials to recognise, resist and report match-fixing.
