On 13 May at the first FIFA Congress since he was elected president of football’s world governing body, Gianni Infantino claimed FIFA was over its corruption crisis. He also announced the appointment of someone outside football as the new general secretary, Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura from Senegal, a former businesswoman who has worked in various senior posts […]
About Deborah Unger
Deborah Unger is Transparency International’s media contact for sport and manager of the Rapid Response Unit.
Richard Pound: the corruption risks in sport
This week Richard Pound delivered a damning report on corruption at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The former director of the World Anti-Doping Agency cited poor governance and cronyism as the reason corruption took root in international athletics and called for root and branch reform. Pound is a member of the expert advisory panel […]
What made corruption a hot topic in sports
Jens Sejer Andersen is on the Global Corruption Report Expert Advisory Panel. He is the international director of Play the Game, an international communications organisation that has held international conferences on sport, transparency and ethics since 1997, long before the topic became vogue. Play the Game has been at the vanguard explaining the links between […]
Sports governance in the spotlight
The corruption crisis at FIFA, world football’s governing body, over the awarding of the World Cups to Russia and Qatar and the new reforms on the table this week at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have put sports governance high on both the political and popular agenda as 2014 draws to a close. Sport is […]
FIFA: how to win back trust
Recently FIFA vice-president Jeffrey Webb admitted publicly that FIFA still had a lot of work to do to repair its battered image despite introducing a slew of organisational reforms. He’s right. FIFA is often seen as synonymous with scandal and not just for football fans. It is the butt of media satire, Twitter wit and […]
World Cup winners and losers
The 2014 World Cup had it all. Goals galore on the pitch, surprise results, tears and triumphs: a cornucopia of sporting excitement for a worldwide audience of more than a billion, culminating in a deserved win for an exceptional team from Germany. But it also had a series of own goals off the pitch by […]
Efforts to educate players and officials about match-fixing must be increased
Six people were arrested in the United Kingdom this week on suspicion of match-fixing following an undercover sting operation. It’s not yet clear what games were targeted, but one player named is a former Premier League striker, now playing in a lower division. The fixer is alleged to have come from Singapore, the centre of […]
Reaching a tipping point: the fight to beat match fixing
News released yesterday by Europol, the European police organisation, that football is the target of alleged widespread match fixing should come as no surprise. But the match fixing allegations, involving 15 countries, hundreds of games and more than $2.7 million in pay offs to players and officials (mostly originating in Asia), is shocking. What’s the […]
Italy needs strong anti-corruption laws now
With Italy once again awash with corruption scandals and parliament delaying the approval of new, tougher anti-corruption laws, Transparency International’s latest assessment of Italy’s ability to fight corruption and the strengths of its institutions, published on 30 March, was well timed. The scandals, according to Maria Teresa Brassaiolo, chair of Transparencia Italia, should not surprise anyone, which is […]
Paying a high price for transparency – journalists under fire
For two decades, Sri Lankan journalist Poddala was renowned for exposing corruption in health, education and transport. He uncovered one of his country’s biggest ever tax scams. That was until he was abducted and brutally beaten. His fingers on his right hand were crushed and burned severely, making him another tragic example of the brutal […]
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Obituary of Joe Muiruri Githongo
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A growing call from business for company ownership transparency
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Anti-corruption and happiness go hand in hand
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Does Ukraine merit a new handout?
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McDonnell walks. Reforms needed
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The role of the press at the Olympic Games: a first-hand account
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Does Ukraine merit a new handout?
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What to think when Russia walks into the Olympic stadium
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Ireland’s horror week in sport: perpetrators and victims of the unOlympic Games
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Three things to highlight from G20’s new effort on fighting corruption
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