CBF, ICSS join hands to protect Brazilian football from match-fixing, integrity threats

The Brazilian Football Confederation (Confederação Brasileira de Futebol, CBF) and the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) signed Friday a landmark Cooperation Agreement to protect Brazilian football from match-fixing and other threats to its integrity.CBF President Ednaldo Rodrigues Gomes publicly disclosed last year his plans designed with FIFA and CONMEBOL to work with the ICSS and other stakeholders as well as his determination to put an end to any threat to sport integrity in an open letter addressed to the President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, paving the path towards the implementation of a massive national plan to preserve and promote the integrity of football, asking Brazil to sign the Macolin Convention and establish a National Platform as the key national hub dedicated to the co-ordination of the fight against competition manipulation.As a part of this plan and aligned with FIFA and CONMEBOL, CBF has requested the ICSS to work together on the development of CBF overarching strategy to combat match-fixing, and especially on a national educational and training programmes for the benefit of the Brazilian football athletes, officials, leagues, clubs at all levels and the Confederation itself.The Cooperation Agreement also envisages activities at the grassroots level to instill the values of football within youth and children, as well as the development of an awareness campaign involving influential Brazilian football players and football legends.Moreover, the agreement set the basis for Brazil as an incubator for best practices that can foster joint international cooperation activities in support of other federations and nations willing to strengthen their sport integrity systems.During the signing ceremony CBF President Ednaldo Rodrigues Gomes said: "As I wrote in my letter to President Lula, the CBF adopts the same measures put in place by the main sports organizations in the world for the protection of the integrity of sport and we are structuring, with the reference of FIFA and CONMEBOL, a series of our own initiatives to combat match-fixing, including in conjunction with the International Centre for Sport Safety (ICSS), the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) and an Investigation Task Force to support public authorities in their mission to prosecute criminals who act in the manipulation of sports results. We aim to secure enough resources to make the largest investment in the world that a sport organization has ever made to protect integrity, consolidating the role of CBF as an incubator of good practices in this area.”ICSS Chairman Mohammed Hanzab added: "When CBF told us about their plans to position Brazil, with its over 200 million inhabitants and many more Brazilian Football fans around the world, as an international benchmark in the field of integrity, we understood there was a unique opportunity to put into practice, on the ground, all the knowledge and the instruments we have developed in the last twelve years. Jointly with CBF, we decided to sign our agreement here in Wembley, one of the most symbolic places of football in the world, to highlight the global dimension of our initiative and of the issues we want to tackle.”ICSS CEO Massimiliano Montanari concluded by saying: "It is the second time we have the opportunity to work in Brazil. First time was during the preparations of the FIFA World Cup 2024 and the Olympics of Rio de Janeiro when we implemented jointly with both international and national authorities a multi-year programme to protect children from risks associated to major sporting events. Also, this time, youth and children will be among the main beneficiaries by preserving the purity of the Brazilian football, and making sure they will always be inspired by their idols as role models from a world of football free of manipulations, fictions, and other integrity threats.”The signing of the agreement took place at Wembley Stadium in London, the day before a football match between the national football teams of Brazil and England.