The underlying principle of sport is the commitment to solidarity, respect, impartiality and fair play. When more than a hundred years ago the Olympic Movement was initiated, its founders dreamed of educating youth through sport for a better world without any kind of discrimination. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was one of the first global civil society movements formed to achieve this aim. However as more financial resources have flown into sports since those times the Olympics have come to resemble any other commercial activity, where money and influence play a crucial importance replacing, on many occasions, the principle of fair competition.

The sport world has responded slowly and, to date, inadequately. It is as serious a threat as doping; only it has the potential to inflict much greater damage on the sport world and the communities, representing billions of people globally, that support it.

Corruption has been recognised as one of the biggest threats to modern sport which fundamentally undermines all Olympic ideals. Bribing arbiters and decision-makers, betting scandals, corruption in procurement systems and construction of sport infrastructure, sponsors trying to influence sporting decisions as well as the existence of secret doping networks, demonstrate a wide range of possibilities for corruption in sports. Not only does corruption turn the game into a deception of rivals, it deceives primarily the audience and destroys the dreams of millions of fans.

In 2002, for instance, the IOC’s reputation and credibility have been overshadowed by vote-buying accusations in the bidding process for the Games in Salt Lake City. As a consequence some members of the Committee were expelled or resigned but there has never been a conviction.

The rise in popularity of the online sports betting services has opened up a new leeway for corruption and match-fixing. Thus the true competition of the encounter is ruined by financial incentive given for losing against a weaker rival.

The ways of corrupting sport practices are numerous and in the absence of clear legislation for tackling corruption, offenders can easily get away unscathed. Investigations and convictions often prove inadequately trivial comparing to the gravity and scale of the corrupt manipulations, which are then justified as a necessary procedure. The organisation Play the Game suggests that there is a need for “a rulebook that ensures sports leaders can be sentenced with similar penalties to the ones they impose on the athletes.”

Sport is lagging behind in recent advances to achieve transparency by other sectors. While business principles, good governance and corporate social responsibility are on the agenda of big international companies, it is still not the case with the IOC and the Olympic Games.

A new coalition against corruption in sports is needed to gather sports organisations on the one hand and the global anti-corruption civil society movement on the other. It is crucial that corruption in sports be prevented and whenever it takes place, exposed and adequately addressed within the legal framework.

A first step: sports organisations should clearly state their disapproval of and intention to fight criminal manipulation. Such a move would send out a signal to potential criminals and can prompt people who suspect corruption somewhere in the chain to report it.

Sport is an integral part of our world and its aversion to corruption must be brought to the fore of the international debate. Everyone should join efforts to communicate that corruption in sports is unacceptable. Key stakeholders in this process include sport organisations, the media, sponsors, governments, civil society and, more importantly, sport fans.

The global movement of TI is working towards achieving this goal. In 2006 TI Germany established a working group on sport and corruption issues managing to raise awareness and bring the issue to the international level.