Advocacy and capacity building

The only way to protect sport’s integrity efficiently and in the long-term is to build topic-related capacity and skills across the entire Olympic Movement and at all levels. The Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions (OM Unit PMC) works with the different key stakeholders to raise awareness about the threat of competition manipulation, educate people on the rules and help set up the necessary structures and cooperation models for prevention and tackling cases at national level. Very often, expert organisations support the Unit in this endeavour. Here is a round-up of the activities – undertaken in partnership with INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Council of Europe (CoE) – in the first few months of 2025!

Building national cooperation frameworks against competition manipulations

As part of the IOC-INTERPOL partnership, a workshop was organised in Dakar, Senegal, the host city of the 2026 Youth Olympic Games, on 9 and 10 April which brought together delegations from Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal and Togo. Each delegation comprised representatives from the respective National Olympic Committee (NOC), the government and police. The participants had the chance to further understand the phenomenon of competition manipulation and work and learn together how they could best develop a national cooperation framework.

Following the workshop, the Secretary General of the Senegalese NOC, Omar Saydina Diagne, stated: “The workshop was very helpful for us to understand what competition manipulation entails, how it undermines the credibility of our sport and to determine next steps at national level. We take this threat very seriously and feel education is key for prevention – not only in the run-up to the Dakar Youth Olympic Games next year, but also beyond. That’s why we took the opportunity to already educate all our National Federations during a special session right after the IOC-INTERPOL workshop. We will also organise an Extraordinary General Assembly soon to table the relevant rules for adoption. In addition, this workshop allowed us to strengthen relations with the police and the Ministry of Sport – the foundation to ensure strong cooperation with them in the future.”

Fernando Hessou, Secretary General of Benin NOC who also attended the workshop, said: “Thanks to this workshop I had the chance to fully understand the phenomenon and build very strong relations with the police officers from my country in attendance. My NOC will intensify the awareness-raising activities on the matter and adopt the relevant rules. In addition, our next Athletes’ Forum will be focused on the topic of competition manipulations. Most importantly – together with the police officers who attended the workshop – we are planning to set up a concrete national cooperation model with the participation of all relevant state authorities.”

Turning the Macolin Convention into action

Over the last months, several European nations have signed or ratified the CoE’s Macolin Convention, a legal instrument and the only rule of international law on the manipulation of sports competitions. To make this key document actionable, the OM Unit PMC, in cooperation with the CoE and INTERPOL, organised an onboarding webinar on 21 March for these nations, which included Belgium, Lithuania, Romania, Serbia, Spain and Sweden. Participants from each delegation, comprising representatives from sports organisations, law enforcement and government, were asked to connect from the same location to facilitate interaction on best practices and future initiatives, notably regarding national cooperation. The attendees also worked together on real-life and hypothetical scenarios.

UNODC workshops for Brazil and Ecuador

The OM Unit PMC also supported its partner, UNODC, on a number of activities in the Americas. In January, two workshops on national cooperation took place in Brazil and Ecuador, where the respective NOCs and the Unit delivered presentations and took part in the discussions. The latter mainly focused on how public authorities, betting entities, law enforcement and sports organisations could work together constructively, especially when it comes to sharing relevant information.

Latest NOC activities

On 7 April, the NOC of Guinea Bissau organised a workshop on the prevention of competition manipulation for sports organisations and law enforcement authorities of the country, followed by a session designed specifically for National Federations (NFs). This session aimed at further clarifying the role of NFs, specifically when it comes to coordinating their disciplinary investigations with the criminal ones. Both days were attended and supported by the OM Unit PMC, INTERPOL and the NOC of Portugal.

Recently, more NOCs adopted rules in line with the Olympic Movement Code on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions and, during this process, organised workshops for their NFs and athletes on this topic, supported by the OM Unit PMC. For instance, the NOC of Ghana adopted the rules during its General Assembly on 25 January and subsequently organised a session for its member federations to explain the rules. The NOC of Côte d’Ivoire conducted similar workshops on 1 February, involving both NFs and athletes.

Aminatah Fofana, who deals with the topic of integrity at the NOC of Côte d’Ivoire, stated: “It was a good timing to raise awareness among athletes, NFs and entourage members following the adoption of the rules by the NOC, which was a key milestone of our commitment for clean sports in Côte d’Ivoire. The support of the OM Unit PMC in the organisation and the preparation was significant, and I encourage other NOCs to also proceed with similar activities”

Is your NOC interested in hosting such a workshop? We are here to support you and look forward to hearing from you – please contact us at omunitpmc@olympic.org.

Advocacy

During the 2025 ICE Exhibition in Barcelona, Spain – one of the biggest global gaming industry events, with 55,000 attendees from 170 countries – the OM Unit PMC was part of a panel on “Betting on the Future: A United Team on Sports Integrity”. This panel was on the programme of the Global Regulatory Summit (an official part of the exhibition) on 21 January. The Unit was joined by representatives from UEFA and the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) to explain its activities on intelligence and investigations in front of a large number of regulators and industry representatives. In focus: the Unit’s successful intelligence work around the Olympic Games Paris 2024, its cooperation with the French authorities, and insights on how the monitoring of competitions resulted in the identification of non-compliance situations with the applicable betting rules.

The Unit also attended a meeting of the German national platform on 13 March in Berlin, upon invitation of the German Ministry of the Interior, where it presented its overall mission with a strong focus on intelligence. The Unit detailed the risk assessment carried out for the various Olympic sports before Paris 2024, as well as the learnings that could be derived from this exercise at a national level. Another focus was on the IOC’s Guidelines on Sponsorship by Betting Operators, under conditions of which sports organisations are encouraged to enter into sponsorship agreements with sports betting entities.