International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has made an urgent plea to Governments around the world to create legal sanctions against criminal activity within sport, adding that current sports sanctions “will not help at all”.
Speaking at the fourth International Forum for Sports Integrity, hosted at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Bach praised the ongoing cooperation between his organisation and Interpol in terms of exchanging information and raising awareness over corruption within sport, but added a warning.
“Always, however, we have to have in mind that after information exchanging the job is not done,” he said.
“What we need are deterrent sanctions.
“As sports organisations we don’t have the tools for really deterrent sanctions.
“What can we do?
“Send someone home from a sports event and say they are not welcome for the next two years.
“This is not really a deterrent to a criminal.
“This is why we really urge governments to make more efforts to harmonise their legislation and then to issue these deterrent sanctions.
“Because without this it’s a little like the fight against the windmills.
“If we are limited to our sports sanctions this will not help much – will not help at all.
“We need these laws from governments and official authorities all across the world so that no criminal can feel safe in any country – or sports organisation.
“These guys have to go to jail.”
Earlier in the discussion Ilana de Wild, director of Organised and Emerging Crime at Interpol, called for greater cooperation to combat corruption in sport.
“No organisation can tackle the problem of match fixing alone,” she said.
“We believe Federations should continue to work in tandem with law enforcement bodies.