Announcements

EL and WLA, upon invitation of the IOC President, Thomas Bach, participated on February 15 in the 2nd IOC International Forum for Sports Integrity (IFSI), organised in Lausanne. Lotteries joined a wide range of high-level stakeholders from the sports movement, governments, the Council of Europe, the EU and the UN, who flocked to Lausanne on this occasion and had the chance to discuss issues related to match-fixing and good governance in sport.

The Project ASPIRE (Activities, Sport & Play for the Integration of Refugees in Europe), led by the European Non-Governmental Organisation (ENGSO) and co-funded by the European Commission, through its ERASMUS+ programme, was inaugurated on 8-9 February in Brussels. Beyond the European Lotteries (EL), the project comprises a very strong network of partners, including the International Center of Sports Science and Physical Education (ICSSPE), the Council of Europe (CoE), the European Observatory on Sport and Employment (EOSE) and a good number of national sport partners.

On February 2 the European Parliament adopted MEP Hannu Takkula’s (ALDE, Finland) Report on “Integrated Approach to Sport Policy: Good Governance, Accessibility and Integrity” which addresses a variety of topics ranging from relevance and importance of sport’s contribution to the society, economic growth and employment to good governance, doping and match-fixing.The report explicitly welcomes the financial contributions made by national lotteries to grassroots sport.

Major stakeholders in the fight against match fixing, convened in Geneva today for the Sports Integrity Conference, which was part of the two-day International Sports Convention 2016 (ISC) and was supported by the European Lotteries (EL) and the World Lottery Association (WLA). More than 20 international speakers, of a diverse background, discussed the state of on-going work, facts and figures, and lessons learned from past cases and investigations, as well as forward-looking strategies.  

A video of the event can be found here.

As a partner of the European Commission in terms of the promotion of the European Week of Sport, EL has this year again enthusiastically promoted sport and physical activity all over Europe. EL publishes a report on the ways EL and its Members spread out the #BEACTIVE message throughout the continent during the European Week of Sport 2016.

The words of thanks received by the Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) from the Dutch football association regarding the support provided in dealing with match-fixing suspicions against Albanian club KF Skënderbeu, is an important recognition of the value and impact of the lottery association cooperation. Indeed, it demonstrates that reactive feedback can help in some specific cases for an informed stakeholder decision.