Retour Conference on the fight against the manipulation of sports competitions - Promotion and implementation of the Macolin Convention

Strasbourg , 

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the Council of Europe, and to open this international conference on the fight against the manipulation of sports competitions.

I am extremely pleased to see so many participants from, I believe, 45 countries. Allow me to extend a warm welcome to the representatives joining us from outside Europe: from Australia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Qatar and United Arab Emirates. Through your presence you confirm the global nature of the issues we are here to discuss, and of our Macolin Convention, which is open to states worldwide

The Macolin Convention is the first and only international treaty to clamp down on the serious, transnational, organized crime that is match-fixing. A crime which not only threatens the rule of law, but which is especially corrosive for trust in sport because it cuts against our most basic instincts of fair play.

I don’t need to dwell, here, on what the Convention does, in terms of criminalising the acts which enable match-fixing; guaranteeing regulation of the betting industry; and boosting cooperation, across borders and among the many actors involved. Many of you were involved in the original drafting. Indeed, we are lucky enough to have the Chair of the original drafting group, Harri Syväsalmi, here among us. Through your work, you are also the people who are turning the Convention into reality: applying the principles and spirit it sets out, even before it has come into force.

I want to thank you for that work. And I want to acknowledge the huge commitment and personal dedication of the people in this room.

  • Whether you are here from the IOC, FIFA, UEFA, or other parts of the sporting world;
  • Whether you are from national authorities, or law enforcement;
  • We have representatives from the business community, the betting operators, the regulatory authorities and monitoring bodies;
  • And, of course, our international partners – the EU, UNESCO, INTERPOL and EUROPOL – who we are thrilled stand with us too.

We don’t often pause to look around and see that we are part of a powerful community, but we are: a diverse, global movement against match-fixing, filled with wealth of different talents and expertise, and able to shape behavior in our societies in different and complementary ways. And this is the core of our collective strength.

Two years ago, when the Macolin Convention was first opened, it received 15 signatures on its first day. For those of you who do not spend your lives following international treaties, that is an excellent start, by any standards.

Today I’m pleased to say that we are up to 28 signatures, thanks to Estonia, which currently chairs our Committee of Ministers and which signed yesterday. In the circles in which many of us work, the Macolin Convention has become widely recognised as an important legal instrument. And it was very encouraging to hear Commissioner Navracsics express his strong support for EU ratification, speaking next door in the European Parliament, last week.

It is true, however, that state ratifications are taking their time. We have to be upfront about this. We always knew that it might be the case. The constellation of so many different actors, at numerous different levels, makes this a rather complicated business. And, having spent some time reflecting on our progress, I believe that we face an additional challenge, too. You see, despite all of the focus on match-fixing and corruption in sport in recent years, there is still a sense, among some, that, ultimately this is “a sports problem”. That, so long as the media and the sporting world are talking about it, and so long as things are moving forward, even if slowly, we can feel satisfied that reform is underway.

But we at the Council of Europe don’t feel satisfied. We believe that this prevailing wisdom dilutes the urgency that should surround our shared mission against match-fixing – the Macolin mission, if you’ll allow me.

And we won’t be satisfied until we can be confident that all of the good work we are all doing in the fight against match-fixing is safe-guarded, cannot be reversed, and the direction of travel is firmly set.

Getting the Macolin Convention brought into force is the best means we have of protecting the progress which has already been made and advancing onto the next stage. And by giving a frame to our activities it can help us align our efforts, avoiding duplication and maximising our impact so that we are greater than the sum of our parts.

If, over the next two days, we can speak with one voice – saying clearly that implementation of this Treaty is our shared goal, and setting out the steps to get there – that is a clear message that I can take with me to Budapest, in November, when Sports Ministers from across Europe meet. Few things will catch their attention as much as consensus and a clear instruction from the people in this room.

So this is why we have brought you here this week. Our aim is to collate and coordinate all of our ideas and experiences into a single plan for the next phase of our work against match-fixing; a plan that we will present to governments and parliaments; a plan that we hope you will use as a reference for your own work; and which we hope will bring new partners to this ever growing table of ours, too.

So let us ask ourselves…..

What are the most pressing threats to all of our activities, and our results?

How can we better communicate the Convention: what is the most compelling narrative? How can we use major sporting events to demonstrate its practical value? What are the political levers we can pull?

How can we best structure our cooperation with so many stakeholders?

What can we do to build the capacity of the established and soon-to-be-established bodies, including the extremely important National Platforms?

These and other important questions will feature in your discussions. We do not need to agree on every point. With 47 members, we at the Council of Europe understand well that the richest debates are often characterized by diversity as well as consensus. But we also know that the surest way to move forward in the fight against match-fixing – our common goal – is if all of us here can mobilise around our common ground.

So let us set out clearly, in concrete terms, our priorities for the coming months and years. If we can, we will send a powerful message; one that will be heard in our capitals; in this way, I hope, we can go further, faster, with even more conviction and even better results. Thank you.