Sports is an industry steeped in scandal and major financial wrongdoing, panelists said at an international conference examining financial integrity in sports.
That dark side recently had a light shined on it, with the recent indictment of six FIFA officials. The indictments, handed down by the U.S. Department of Justice, accuses the six officials from soccer’s international governing body of taking bribes and other financial corruption.
“This is a huge corporate scandal,” said Michael Hershman, who previously served as an adviser with FIFA. Hershman, talking at he Organization of American States in Washington, said the scandal highlights that the sports industry needs more transparency and supervision.
More transparency and financial integrity will require increased governance from the sports industry, Chris Eaton said.
Eaton, an executive with the International Centre for Sport Security, said that while sport has become an “emerging, growing industry” economically, its governing systems are stuck in the past.
“A 21st-century, multi-billion dollar industry cannot be governed in a 19th-century manner,” Eaton said.
But changing that governing system will be a serious challenge, both Eaton and Hershman said.
“[The industry] doesn’t want change,” Eaton said. Given the immense profits, Hershman said there’s a status quo that will be difficult to crack.
Emanuel de Medeiros says he is ready to take on that status quo. The CEO of the International Centre for Sports Security in Europe, de Medeiros has organized a conference that will examine financial integrity and transparency in sports. The conference, to be held in Geneva in September, will attempt to develop a set of global standards to supervise sports.
However, speaking Thursday, de Medeiros said regulation and supervision cannot fix all of the corruption in sports.
He said the industry needs a “revolution of mentalities.”
“It’s just a lack of leadership,” de Medeiros said.
The public also needs to hold the sports industry accountable, Hershman said. He said he believes the public should treat corruption in sports just as it would corruption in any other corporation or business sector.
Hershman said corruption in sports has been swept under the rug too long, as many have ignored its glaring financial impropriety. “We can change, but not by repeating the past.”
All three panelists agreed that increasing criminal prosecution will help curb the problem.
“Sports mean more to society than business,” Eaton said, highlighting the importance of sports to children, in particular. Hershman emphasized that financial corruption in sports sets a bad precedent for children and doesn’t teach them the values that sports should.
And highlighting the importance of sports in relation to national pride, de Medeiros said only a clean, corruption-free sports industry can keep that essence.
