Nordic Olympic Committees Fight Match-Fixing

The Olympic committees of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland are teaming up in the fight against match-fixing.

The Nordic Sports Organizations announced Tuesday that it was backing a set of principles and initiatives to safeguard the integrity of sport.

The umbrella body for the five NOCs released a statement signed by their leaders, Niels Nygaard of Denmark, Finland’s Risto Nieminen, Norway’s Børre Rognlien, Swedish Sports Confederation chief Karin Mattsson Weijber and Iceland’s Lárus Blöndal.

They noted the working groups established by the IOC to fight irregular and illegal gambling on sports events. The organization also acknowledged preparation of a convention on the fight against match-fixing under the auspices of the Council of Europe as well as initiatives being taken by the EU Commission and EU Parliament to tackle the issue.

It made a series of recommendations to combat match-fixing, starting by urging sports bodies in their respective countries to "adopt rules regulations or initiatives including education for players, coaches, and other sports officials to fight match-fixing."

"The Nordic Sports Organizations will actively participate in national and international level forums where match fixing issues are discussed by different stakeholders," said the statement.

The group said it would support and actively help national authorities who take part in the negotiations in the Council of Europe on a future international convention to combat the manipulation of sports competitions and also help to implement the convention when it enters into force.

"The Nordic Sports Organizations support that an EU regulation on online gambling should force all betting companies, that are legally operated and comply with gambling legislation in each member state, to participate in a European-wide monitoring of all sports bets," it said.

"Furthermore, the Nordic Sports Organizations support that an EU regulation will limit the type of bets, which can be offered by betting companies. That would be an important step to secure an efficient fight to prevent manipulation of results, and limit the possibilities for criminal organizations to recruit athletes to engage in more severe match fixing."

The Nordic Sports Organizations said it would coordinate its international work related to the fight against match fixing by holding an annual meeting for Olympic Movement stakeholders.

Written by Mark Bisson

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