ICSS Journal Vol 1 | No 2

ICSS Journal – Vol 1 | No 2

ICSS

I N T E R N AT I O N A L C E N T R E FOR SPORT SECURIT Y

Vol 1 | No 2

Match-fixing Securing sport

Pulling the strings of sport

Securing sport

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Contents

Contents Vol 1 | No 2 June 2013

Alamy

Introduction 5

Mohammed Hanzab President, ICSS

News and comment 6

A review of events and developments Reporting on the revelations of doping in racehorsing and cycling, and looking into how security and safety is being ensured at major sport events

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Nurturing and safeguarding the economic value of sport Dr Shaun McCarthy, ICSS Director for Research and Knowledge Gathering, examines the threat that match-fixing and betting fraud pose not only to the integrity of sport, but also to national economic development

The criminal subversion of sport 18

How matches are fixed Terry Steans examines the recent increase in match-fixing in sport, focusing on the methodologies used by the fixers and the areas of vulnerability that exist within sports organisations and among individual athletes

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How bets are laid to exploit fixing The illicit gambling sector is a complex network, and numerous means are used by crime groups to exploit betting operations for fraud. Michael Pride reports on the nature of the grey and black gambling markets

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Contents

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Undermining authority; defeating ambition Keir Radnedge explores corruption in sport and how it damages reputations, undermines trust and destroys the aspirations of both athletes and officials

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Incentives to avoid match-fixing Identifying policies to limit supply and demand and disincentivising corruption could help stunt the match-fixing market, as Professor David Forrest explains

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Government action on match-fixing Chris Eaton, ICSS Director for Sport Integrity, relates the importance of action at governmental and transnational levels, identifying a model for sport integrity

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Winning and losing on a small island Using Malta as a case study, Dr Gary Armstrong explores the interactions that exist between football, politics and society

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Sport needs ethical leadership in an era of fixing Strong ethical leadership by governing bodies is an essential part of the strategy mix to drive match-fixing out of sport, argues Haroon Lorgat

Integrity 52

Channelling role models: setting standards in sport Rick Festorazzi, Director of Training at the ICSS, argues for greater development of sporting role models in setting an example for the younger generation

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Football: a sporting barometer of European integration policies The football pitch has become an important tool for integration and a useful indicator of how well integration policies are working. James M Dorsey reports

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Security and safety 68

Lessons in response and resilience from the Boston Marathon bombing Video surveillance, layered security and community and crowd awareness can all help better secure open public sports events. Kiersten E Todt investigates

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Africa Cup of Nations 2013: an assessment of safety and security David van Vuuren, Security Manager for the Local Organizing Committee at AFCON 2013, analyses the performance of security and safety planning

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Challenges for event volunteer programmes Ronel Mitchell reports on the planning and operation of volunteer programmes during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2013 Orange Africa Cup of Nations

Technology 92

Simulating crowds at sporting events Chris Aaron, Editor of ICSS Journal, considers the significant role that simulation technologies can play in improving safety at major events

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Cyber risk management: an operational perspective Major-General Jonathan Shaw CB CBE discusses the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which highlight best practice in cyber risk management

Last word 102

Save the Dream award Long-distance runner Iván Fernández Anaya received the inaugural award

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Introduction

Mohammed Hanzab President, ICSS Dear Reader,

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llow me to highlight a few milestones in the growth of the ICSS in recent months. Since our annual Securing Sport 2013 Conference in Doha, we have hosted a Chatham House-styled ‘Security Expert Summit’ in Vienna in May. During this event, graciously hosted by the Austrian Ministry of Interior, we focused on five key areas that impact securing sport: (i) best practices to address fan behaviour, (ii) the challenges of securing live sites – an issue that was extremely relevant in the wake of the unfortunate and tragic attack against the Boston Marathon, (iii) safety and security considerations in sport infrastructure design, (iv) developing a sport security index as a diagnostic mechanism in helping countries to develop sustainable sports sectors and, (v) validation of the attributes and practical application of the ICSS Security, Safety and Integrity Model.

I am pleased to report that the results and recommendations from these efforts are being carried forward in deed by the ICSS. For example, an ICSS team attended the 2013 Confederations Cup in Brazil to observe matches in all venues, being in close contact with FIFA and the Local Organizing Committee. We successfully finalised peer reviews of important new infrastructure projects in Doha for the Qatar Olympic Committee. Our Executive Director has again been appointed as one of the Security Officers for the UEFA clubs’ flagship competition, the Champions League Final in London. We are currently in dialogue with the Provence Partnership to sign a memorandum of understanding to engage the City of Marseilles as a pilot candidate in the Security Index and work with them to develop a sustainable sports sector. On the sport integrity front our collaboration with governments continues. The International Sports Ministers’ Conference, known as MINEPS and managed by UNESCO, met for the fifth time in Berlin last month at which the ICSS Director for Integrity, Chris Eaton, was the appointed Expert Speaker to MINEPS on sport integrity. I am pleased to draw your attention to his speech, which appears in edited form in this edition (see page 36).

Sport Integrity was one of only three items on their agenda and arguably the most significant. Following the positive decision of MINEPS we have high hopes that a cooperative global platform will be created to tackle sport corruption head on at the international level.

Finally, we are proud to announce the establishment of the Save the Dream Office, which also houses an ICSS office in the city of Turin, Italy.

This is another milestone in our efforts to Save the Dream. I hope that you will derive value and insight from this, the third edition, of the ICSS Journal.

Yours sincerely, Mohammed Hanzab

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News digest

Investigations reveal scope of doping

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(BHA) in London, Mahmood alZarooni, the Godolphin trainer, was banned from horse-racing for eight years on 25 April, just five days after the BHA’s investigators tested 45 of Zarooni’s horses, finding 11 that had been given either ethylestranol or stanozolol, both banned anabolic steroids. Zarooni admitted giving anabolic steroids to 15 horses at Moulton Paddocks outside Newmarket, which he has run since March 2010, saying in a statement read on his behalf: “I accept that it was my responsibility to know the rules regarding the use of prohibited substances in Britain. I can only apologise and repeat what I said in my statement earlier in the week.

I have made a catastrophic error.”

Zarooni is in the process of appealing against the duration of the ban.

Paul Bittar, the chief executive of the BHA, said on the subject: “We believe that the eight-year disqualification issued to Mahmood al-Zarooni by the disciplinary panel, together with the six-month racing restriction placed on the horses in question by the BHA, will serve to reassure the public, and the sport’s participants, that use of performanceenhancing substances in British racing will not be tolerated and that the sport has in place a robust and effective anti-doping and medication control programme.”

In a separate UK case, trainer Gerard Butler has admitted to using a veterinary product called Sungate, Zipi/Corbis

Doping in sport has continued to hit the headlines in the past three months following the conviction of Eufemiano Fuentes in the Operation Puerto case, and the revelations of racehorse doping at the Godolphin stables in the UK. Fuentes was given a one year suspended jail sentence for breaking public health laws when conducting blood transfusions on athletes.

“Fuentes carried out this activity by planning a system of extractions and re-transfusions and coordinating it with their physical preparations and the competition calendar with the double aim of optimising results and avoiding detection at anti-doping controls,” the court said. “Extractions and retransfusions were not always carried out in authorised centres, but, on occasions, in hotel rooms that did not meet required standards of hygiene,” the court added.

Fuentes was barred from medical practice in sports for four years. The court also sentenced cycling official Ignacio Labarta to four months in prison, but found Yolanda Fuentes, Manuel Sáiz and Vicente Belda to be not guilty.

During the trial, Fuentes testified that he treated athletes from football, tennis, boxing and track and field, as well as cyclists, but the trial judge ordered that remaining evidence should be destroyed, so other athletes may never be identified, although anti-doping bodies have appealed this decision.

The conviction came seven years after Fuentes’ Madrid laboratory was raided and the evidence seized. At the time, Spanish law did not ban doping, hence the public health charges. However, on 13 June Spain passed a new anti-doping law, with increased fines and possible life bans, to deter doping in sport and to reassure the world community that Spain will not tolerate such activities: a stance that is all the more important given Madrid’s July pitch to the IOC to hold the 2020 Olympic Games.

After rather pacier proceedings at the British Horseracing Authority

Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes arrives at court for his trial over blood doping

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that contains stanozolol, on nine of his horses. He faces a charge that he breached six rules of racing. Further investigations are being pursued by the BHA into the Sungate case and the Godolphin doping scandal.

Meanwhile, not all has been happy in Hong Kong, where 15 horses tested positive for Zilpaterol in June.

An investigation is underway by the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), but the banned substance is thought to have come from a registered feed product first imported by the HKJC in 2009. The case illustrates the importance of maintaining a transparent audit trail for all inputs and good forensic methodologies so that doping investigations can be carried out cost-effectively.

The issue of resources was raised by the outgoing head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), John Fahey, who in June told a French parliamentary committee that “if you want to protect the health of our young athletes and the dreams of everyone who plays sport cleanly, you’ve got to increase our sources of finance... How can you fight effectively with a budget of $28 million?” Fahey also advocated the criminalisation of doping, noting that “the Norwegian parliament has just criminalised the consumption and possession of doping products and I congratulate them. The more laws are restrictive, more the fight is effective.” The French committee’s report is likely to form the basis for a new French anti-doping, which is bill due to be introduced by French

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News digest

Trainer Mahmood al-Zarooni has been given an eight-year ban for administering steroids to horses

with regard to horse racing. Each US state currently has its own antidoping regulations. However, Pitts argues that it is time to “put a single body in place that would come up with a national standard”.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act was written after research

Doping increases the breakdowns of race horses and fatal accidents sports minister Valérie Fourneyron towards the end of 2013.

New legislation is also being pushed in the United States, where Republican congressman Joe Pitts is sponsoring a bipartisan bill to augment the powers of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)

into how doping increases the breakdowns of race horses and fatal accidents. The act would authorise USADA to carry out anti-doping education, research, testing and adjudication programmes for horse racing, end race-day medication, set a medication policy framework

for all races with interstate betting, and allow lifetime bans. In the event of a failure by a racetrack to implement USADA’s rules, penalties would exclude them from participating in interstate betting: in 2012 more than $10.8 billion was bet on horse racing at US tracks.

The US is also to go to Australia’s aid, in the form of sports lawyer Richard Young. ‘’We confirm that [Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority] ASADA has engaged Richard Young to assist us in our investigation [into doping in the National Rugby league and Australian Football League],’’ ASADA said.

Young drafted the World AntiDoping Code and played a leading role in the cases against Marion Jones, Floyd Landis, and Lance Armstrong. The ASADA doping investigation has been underway for more than five months.

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News digest

Hungarian authorities issued international and European arrest warrants for Singaporean Tan Seet Eng, aka Dan Tan, in May, following his indictment on international match-fixing charges along with 44 Hungarians. Chief Prosecutor Imre Keresztes said that 32 local and international soccer matches are thought to have been manipulated by the suspects, including players, referees, team owners, an agent and a coach. According to the indictment, a Hungarian suspect and his associates joined an Asian-based match-fixing organisation in 2010.

Singapore remained in the spotlight in June, as a court sentenced Lebanese football referee, Ali Sabbagh, to six-months in jail for corruption, and gave his two co-accused three month jail terms.

Sabbagh, Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb, pled guilty to accepting sexual favours from Singaporean Ding Si Yang in return for fixing matches. The officials had been due to referee a third April Asian Football Confederation Cup game in Singapore between Tampines Rovers and East Bengal.

While match-fixing concerns tend to focus on football, the vulnerability of all sports was demonstrated in June, when Russian tennis player Sergei Krotiouk was banned for life and fined $60,000 after being found guilty of 41 match-fixing charges. The Tennis Integrity Unit, a joint initiative of the Grand Slam Committee, the International Tennis Federation, the ATP World Tour and the women’s WTA Tour, said: “The life ban applies with immediate effect and means that Mr Krotiouk is not eligible to participate in any tournament or competition organised or sanctioned by the governing bodies of professional tennis from the date of this statement.” Krotiouk played mainly on the lower level Challenger and Futures circuits.

India’s Justice Minister Kapil Sibal is proposing new legislation to tackle match-fixing in Indian sport.

In the wake of the new spot fixing

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Match-fixing

Referee Ali Sabbagh was sentenced to six months in jail for fixing football matches

allegations in Indian and Bagladeshi cricket, the minister indicated in June that the situation could not be left to state law, as currently stands, or rely on existing gambling laws, but required a new national legislative response. At the same time, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is pushing for betting on sport to be regulated, rather than banned.

FICCI argues that regulation would reduce cases of match-fixing and money laundering and raise taxes.

They estimate the treasury loses $3.5 billion dollars a year in taxable revenue through black market betting on sport. A tax on gambling could fund sports development, social protection or welfare schemes and infrastructure development plans, the FICCI has said.

Nigeria is responding to matchfixing concerns by setting up a special team within its Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Bribing referees to favour home teams is a common complaint in Nigeris’s football league, and

Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi declared in June that “anybody found to be involved in any form will be treated as a criminal and dealt with accordingly. We must restore integrity and credibility to Nigerian League. Fans must go to the stadium not believing that the game has already been fixed in favour of the home team.” Abdullahi added that “South Africa is regarded as sixth biggest league in the world. They do not have our population, nor our talent or football history. There is no reason they should have the kind of League that they have and Nigeria [should be] without a sponsorship.

This is unacceptable and is what all of us involved in football should be embarrassed about.”

Meanwhile, back with football, Swedish club Syrianska Kerburan reported itself to police over “suspicions of match-fixing” at a home match against Kvarnshedens IK. The club was alerted to unusually large bets being placed on its opponent, to the extent that betting was suspended by bookmakers.

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News digest

Security and safety at major sports events in 2013 and 2014 At the opening game of the Confederations Cup, Rousseff was booed by parts of the 70,000 crowd, expressing discontent with the economic situation in Brazil – rising inflation and living costs – and the amount of money being spent on major sporting events. Mass protests have taken place in cities across Brazil, and particularly in São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, sparked initially by a hike in public transport fares.

FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, tried to separate sport from Brazil’s domestic politics, saying on television

together fans from Besiktas, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray in concerted protest against heavyhanded policing and government intransigence. That the fans response may be influenced by their own anger about overly forceful policing at football matches, as much as by political solidarity with the aims of the Gezi Park protesters, only highlights the way that ‘football’ issues can transmogrify and combine with other ‘political’ protests.

That sporting events are an attractive platform for political

Protests have taken place in cities across Brazil, and particularly in São Paolo station Globo TV: “I can understand that people are not happy, but they should not use football to make their demands heard”.

Fans, however, show little desire to isolate politics from football, whether they be in Brazil, Egypt, Argentina or Turkey. The violent clashes between police and protesters in Istanbul in June had a powerful unifying effect, bringing

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On the eve of the 2013 Confederations Cup, President Dilma Rousseff opened Brazil’s new security command and control centre in Brasilia, the hub of the country’s Major Events Integrated Control System.

The command centre serves to link Brasilia with similar centres in Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte, as well as smaller command centres in host cities around Brazil, along with other mobile centres.

Rousseff said that the system would provide “a safer Confederations Cup, World Cup and Olympic Games, and... will leave a great legacy to the population: the integration of public security agencies of federal, state and municipal governments.”

The command centres use highdefinition monitors capable to display feeds from hundreds of cameras, as well as integrating information feeds from non-visual sources. The centres will co-locate officers from the Secretariat for the Security of Large Events (SESGE), the Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police, the National Public Security Force, the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (ABIN), and the Armed Forces. Brazil has invested approximately €700 million on security systems in the run-up to these major sporting events.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff watches a 2013 Confederations Cup match at National Stadium

protest was demonstrated again in Paris at the final of the Roland Garros tennis tournament, when some protesters started chanting in the stands, and one man lit a flare and tried to run onto the court. The protesters were rapidly evicted from the venue, and play quickly resumed.

Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, Presidents Obama and Putin signed an understanding to coordinate and share information to counter terrorism, particularly with regard to the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014, but also more generally.

“We have a shared interest in countering terrorist violence, and we are continuing to strengthen our cooperation on this issue,” said President Obama at the G8 Summit.

In a joint statement, the two leaders also stated that “the United States and Russia intend to continue to develop their counterterrorism partnership with the business community, including in the field of protecting the tourist sector,” The UK and Russia have also recently smoothed over difficulties in the relationship between their security services, in order to cooperate on security issues relating to the Winter Olympic Games.

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Comment

Nurturing and safeguarding the economic value of sport

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port not only has the ability to unite communities and to deliver hope and inspiration to millions of people, it has also become a driver of economic activity and growth in the past three to four decades.1 Professional sport has become an integral component of the economy in many countries.

As an industry sector that is valued at approximately $620 million worldwide, professional sport plays an increasingly important role in the economic development of countries, while also having a positive impact on society.

Each major sport code has its own economic cluster that comprises rights holders, clubs, sports management, sports medicine, stadia, media and

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advertising, sports equipment manufacturing, support services, memorabilia and security and safety professionals, in addition to providing cross-business pull-through for a variety of broader industry sectors such as tourism, hospitality and transportation.

When managed in a structured and coordinated manner by a coherent national development or economic and competitive strategy, sport can be a powerful driver of economic development. There are secondary benefits as well. The promotion of sport in society helps to generate healthier populations, foster community spirit at local levels and greater national identity at state levels. Conversely, however, sport can also be seen to favour certain sectors of society over others, which can lead to sport, and to

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Dr Shaun McCarthy examines the economic value of the sports sector, the need for embedding sustainable principles and highlights the threat that match-fixing and betting fraud pose to national economic development as well as to the integrity of sport itself

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be specific, major sporting events, lending themselves as opportunities for human activism. While some observers may argue that this is a negative aspect of mega sporting events, others may well argue that in spite of this critique, mega events inadvertently act as powerful agents of political change as an unintended consequence. Therefore, the key challenge for national planners who are seeking to reap the full benefits that sport can offer is to develop a sustainable sport sector.

Integral to a sustainable sport development strategy are fundamental considerations such as legacy, which requires a concerted effort and deliberate strategies to achieve enduring, sustainable benefits for host countries of major sporting events such as the Olympics or world football championships.

Preparing to host major international sporting events also contributes to the host country’s security and safety capabilities and expertise; social inclusion and cohesion – where sport as an activity is actively used to foster universal acceptance of all individuals irrespective of race, colour or creed, and where sport is leveraged to help communities in conflict to discover the ‘humanity’ in the ‘other’; and to bridge prejudices and mutual hostility and suspicion of an adversary. Numerous initiatives are being pursued by organisations such as Right to Play, Kick-it-Out and Peace and Sport in this regard.

Protecting sport as a sustainable sector Less has been done on an organised basis to combat crime in sport. However, an increasing number of state and non-state actors are becoming more aware of crime in sport as a consequence of match-fixing scandals, and are therefore more involved in combatting this criminal behaviour. In recent months there have been a number of major conferences in the United States, Singapore, Qatar and Brazil devoted to this issue. Another major event, the Seventh Annual Conference and General Meeting of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA), will address the theme of the ‘Rule of law and anti-corruption: challenge and opportunity’ in Panama on 22 to 24 November 2013.

Developing global partnerships is one of the original eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the United Nations and World Bank designed to work towards an overall reduction in extreme poverty and deprivation. Six of the eight MDGs relate to children. Sport has the power to help influence positive attributes such as fair play, meritocracy and respect, as well as to inspire children and to give them hope. There is a need to explore how sport as an activity and indeed sport security, safety and integrity can be better focused on creating or further enabling global partnerships. One key step here is for the public and private sectors to form partnerships that unite their efforts against the corruption and subversion of sport.

For those countries that aspire to host a major international sporting event, considerable work needs to be carried out to address a range of fundamental institutional capabilities in order to bid confidently.

An important attribute is to have in place a sustainable

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Figure one Indicators for the evaluation of progress towards developing a sustainable sports sector

Economic INDICATORS

RISK FACTORS TO MITIGATE

Master national development strategy – a forward looking strategy that addresses socio-economic and political development over a 15 to 25 year period

Political and strategic continuity, Lack of consensus, emergent rather than planned strategy

Quality of stakeholder engagement – an ability to effectively engage across a wide range of key stakeholders, both nationally and internationally

Lack of transparency, accountability, inclusivity, and communication

Levels of entrepreneurship – the extent to which the notion of national competitiveness underpinned by competition and innovation is encouraged

Lack of entrepreneurial culture, and cronyism. Systemic barriers

Efficient land management/ stewardship – administration and the provision of land for developmental purposes across all sectors

Corruption, fraud, cronyism, lack of spatial planning, forced resettlements

Improvements in human capital and operational excellence – education and talent retention strategies

Lack of timely and proper planning and infrastructure, systemic barriers

The application of physical capital – the effective deployment and management of financial and physical assets

Asset management, mismanagement, waste, lack of divestment strategy

Sound investment stewardship – effective national and FDI management

Risk of Inadequate Strategy and Resilience, Transparency and Governance

National event security and safety capabilities – a history of planning for and hosting major international events

Violent acts, terrorism, protest, dangerous and disruptive individuals or groups

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Social INDICATORS

RISK FACTORS TO MITIGATE

Sustainability

Systemic barriers and lack of timely and proper planning and of continuity

Social cohesion – bonding, bridging and linking communities

Erosion of trust, rigid rights holders, social unrest, global brand crowds out Local opportunities and loyalties, lack of social mobility

Penetration – Professional v Amateur to Grass Roots Sectors

Lack of will, entrenched social barriers, excessive leakage/ risk of no trickle down effect, systemic barriers

Engender a National sporting culture

Lack of government interest, apathy to the event, national strategy not fully inclusive

Environmental INDICATORS

RISK FACTORS TO MITIGATE

Environmental management

Unpredictable climate, disaster, poor waste management plan, lack of planning for mitigation, resilience, corruption

Sport sector balance

Imbalance of sports types which negatively impact the environment or deprive communities at large from natural resources, habitat etc

Governance INDICATORS Governance and transparency – strong legislation, effective and consistent levels of enforcement

RISK FACTORS TO MITIGATE Systemic barriers, inadequate legislation and regulation, poor enforcement and lack of effective deterrence

The above list is not exhaustive, and further work to refine the above indicators, as well as identify the underlying associated metrics is ongoing

and well developed sport sector. Countries seeking to develop sustainable sport sectors need to focus their efforts on economic, social, environmental and governance issues related to the sports sector, not only to build sport as an economic vector, but also to protect the integrity of the sector.

During its most recent Expert Summit in Vienna in May 2013, which included sports economists and security experts from the international community, the ICSS identified a range of indicators that can help countries to evaluate their progress in developing a sustainable sports sector. These are listed briefly under four categories, which are shown in Figure one.

One recent example of how sport has played a major role in the economic rejuvenation of a city is Manchester City Football Club and its iconic asset, the Etihad Stadium.

Together with the football club, the stadium and under the visionary stewardship of the City Council, Manchester has embarked on a deliberate strategy to leverage the stadium and the club as the nucleus around which a whole range of sporting codes and support activities, such as cycling, fencing, football, sports medicine, education and media have been developed into a sports cluster.

The ICSS is working with a few cities in pilot projects in order to assist them in developing a sustainable sports sector and trial the diagnostic process. This will further refine the most appropriate indicators and metrics, and quantitative and qualitative analysis tools can be developed and applied, while the requisite intervention initiatives can be introduced to enhance sport as a vector of economic competitiveness.

Where and how the value of sport is at risk However, while sport has the potential to unite and enrich communities and populations, the commercial value of sport and the ethos of sport are both at increasing risk of subversion even while sport has a growing commercial importance. The infusion of big money in the form of asset (player and club) ownership, media rights, advertising and sponsorships, has had a positive and a negative effect.2 For as many of the positive forces at work that make sport an economic driver, there are also negative forces.

These emanate mostly from criminal activities, such as betting fraud predicated on match-fixing, the use of banned performance enhancers (doping) and the impact of counterfeit memorabilia and sports apparel. Calculating the negative impact of illegal activities is as much of a challenge as calculating the economic value of sport itself.

Yet sport is not only at risk as a consequence of illegal activity, its reputation as an untainted social activity is also threatened by politics. We have witnessed an increasing trend whereby some regions of sport are becoming a focal point for political violence and flashpoints for human rights activists. This contributes to the erosion of the ethos and integrity of sport.

The behaviour of role models is also a factor to be considered. Individuals who reach the pinnacle of success in their sport sector, whether a professional golfer, athlete,

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Figure two: a typical sports economy in European football

Hospitality and tourism Sports medicine Healthcare

Local ancillary commercial stakeholders

Local sponsors

Local advertisers

atch otball m EPL fo

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ana

tm Even

Sp rt

Government

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gues Game develope rs

Agents TEAM OWNERS

Player endorsements Other service providers (accountants, lawyers, etc) Stadia owners Teams Players Professional Football Association (PFA)

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Education Media Entertainment

Official sponsors

Broa

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ting

Society a

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fans ctators/ Viewers/spe

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Logistics

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Bookmaking

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cricketer, sumo wrestler, cyclist, referee or board member, serve as role models for younger generations. How they lead their lives on and off the field of play, including how they display their success – the products they wear, cars that they drive, are powerful factors in shaping the values of younger athletes who aspire to success.

Organised crime groups often utilise the same resources for human trafficking and money laundering as they do for illegal betting and the corruption of sports adjudicators (referees, linesmen) and athletes. In many instances, they are simply able to exploit lack of awareness by licit industry players to leverage their illegal activities. Therefore governments and industry share the burden of responsibility to harden their systems and render them more impervious and resilient to leverage and infiltration by organised criminals. Failure to do so will result in the gradual compromise of legitimate business processes, which would further undermine and erode licit commerce in the countries where they operate.

The current lack of an international legal framework is a key factor that hampers greater, effective collaboration between law enforcement agencies in investigating and thwarting criminal activities in sport. Failure to recognise the increasing magnitude of illegal activities that undermine sport would be short-sighted for the following reasons: ■ The erosion of the integrity of sport will have a negative effect on the behaviour of sports fans, with a potential eventual loss of interest in the game altogether; ■ Tax revenues from the sports industry sector will be lost; ■ The potential spread of corruption among athletes and officials; and ■ National reputation could be damaged.

Calculating the exact or potential magnitude of what is at risk to a country as a consequence of illegal activity in the sports sector is a complex task. The first challenge is to determine which core and related activities make

advise that whatever the approach, the calculus should be based on expenditure and not include incomes that are derived from sport related activities. This advice is based on avoiding ‘double counting’ and using multipliers such as tourism, for example, which is almost impossible to do and thus leads to inaccuracy.4 Therefore work has to be done in order to arrive at the appropriate, accurate and relevant units of measurement for the determination of how sport contributes to economic value.

The impact of events on a country’s GDP Adding further complexity to deriving a normalised calculation are instances when countries host major international sporting events such as the Olympics or World Cup football matches. These events increase income in the short term, but may have a longer term detrimental impact on a country’s GDP as a consequence of the extraordinary investments required to renew or build new stadia, facilities and related infrastructure.

The public protest during the Brazil Confederations Cup being a case in point. Where society at large hold other social grudges such as despair at endemic levels of corruption, major sporting events which involve the awarding of tenders funded by public tax revenues become focal points around which growing public discontent is focused. This phenomenon is steadily percolating and it is the author’s view that all stakeholders involved, host governments, rights holders and commercial sponsors can no longer afford to ignore the problem. Therefore approaching sport from a set of sustainable principles which address a range of indicators underpinned by metrics, including the need for greater transparency and governance is fundamentally important.

The above caveats notwithstanding, on average it would appear that sport as an industry sector can contribute between 1.2 per cent and 3.7 per cent of a country’s GDP. In addition, there are indirect benefits, such as the contribution that a healthier population makes to GDP. In Australia it is estimated5 that a healthier population can contribute as much as one per cent to GDP or AUD12 billion ($11.4 billion) a year. Another indirect benefit is the economic contribution as a consequence of labour by volunteers. This was estimated to be another AUD4 billion.

Not until law enforcement authorities arrive at a deeper realisation that illegal activities that pose a risk to the integrity of sport also threaten the fabric of societal morality and national economic interests, will they take a more proactive and direct intervention. It is, however, not up to the police or law enforcement authorities to decide what the national legislative priorities are. That is the responsibility of government or the legislature. Law enforcement agencies, however, need to take their cue from the legislature and develop appropriate detection and investigation techniques so the judiciary can apply the law.

However, as Keir Radnege points out in his article in this edition (see page 26), persuading governments

The commercial value and ethos of sport are both at risk of subversion up the sports industry sector, including those underlying support and associated activities that in terms of national competitiveness doctrine can be considered as clusters.

The diagram on pages 16 and 17 offers insight into what can be called a typical sports economy in the domain of European football. Calculating the precise economic contribution that sport makes to a nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) is not straightforward. This is because countries tend to include extended activities or sport under a variety of other sectors, such as education and culture, services sector, tourism and entertainment. Sports economists and consultants, such as those at AT Kearney,3

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Comment

There is a need for law enforcement agencies globally to further develop appropriate detection and investigation techniques for the illegal activities that compromise sport

that match-fixing should be a criminal offence has been difficult. This is the greatest challenge facing sport today.

If it is to maintain its competitive credibility it must both educate its ‘family’ and impose rules and regulations to try to ensure ‘clean’ competition. It is not enough to focus on national or local deterrent capabilities. Illegal betting and match-fixing transcend national boundaries, as Terry Steans points out in his analysis of match-fixing (see page 18). This means that both the intelligence and law enforcement agencies need to find ways to share intelligence and cooperate in the investigation of those offenders who seek to influence the outcome of sport in foreign jurisdictions. The ICSS is working with ParisSorbonne University to address the challenges that are associated with international jurisdiction and law. This only works in political environments that are greatly transparent and where good governance is in play. As Gary Armstrong has pointed out in his case study (see page 40), in those countries where the politics of patronage are prevalent, expecting government to take the lead and other stakeholders to address the challenges effectively would be unrealistic.

Furthermore, technology is a key enabler of criminal activity, thus an effective cyber-crime strategy – one that combines detection, investigation and intervention measures – is an essential to an effective law enforcement strategy. We need to adequately embed a greater sense of operational awareness of the risks that lurk in cyber space and how these impact all economic sectors, including sport. It is therefore necessary to be able to implement operational safeguards rather than relying overtly on counter-technical solutions. As outlined by Major General Jonathan Shaw (see page 98), it is both the operational

and technical, approaches to cyber security that need planning, and lessons can be learnt in this regard from what went right and wrong at the London Olympics.

The responsibility for safeguarding sport is not that of government alone; federations and clubs need to play their part as well. Creating and ensuring credible and reliable whistle-blower systems to encourage disclosure and prevention is also necessary. Then there is the individual responsibility of sports professionals, who, as Rick Festorazzi points out (see page 52), need to behave in a manner befitting role models for the younger generation.

David Forrest explains that economic models can be used to determine the best interventions to prevent matchfixing (see page 30). As the author pointed out earlier, the role of the government is to create a climate that is conducive to economic growth. This includes facilitating the growth of a sustainable sport sector and ensuring that the sector is adequately protected. In the case of addressing risks or threats to the sustainability of sports sectors, governments have the primary responsibility to initiate action. Policies that reduce the benefits of matchfixing and betting fraud, and increase the costs to the perpetrator, would be an appropriate start.

References 1

Cornelissen, S, Crafting Legacies: The Changing Political Economy of Global Sport and the 2010 Fifa World Cup, Politikon, 2007, 34(3), pp 241 -259

2

Chadwick, Simon, Corruption in Sport, Economist, April 22, 2013

3

AT Kearney, The Sports Market, 2010

4

Chan, J, Economic Value of Sport, University of Pretoria/GIBS, 2010

5

The Economic Contribution of Sport to Australia, Frontier Economics, 2010, p 2

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How matches are fixed Terry Steans examines the recent increase in match-fixing in sport, the methods that are used to fix matches, and the areas of vulnerability that exist for sports organisations and individual athletes

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riminal corruption of football matches, sporting competitions and the people who have an official function within sporting organisations is currently subject to unprecedented levels of investigation and detection by both national law enforcement authorities and international sporting bodies.

The available evidence and information indicates that criminals have infiltrated all levels of football, and sport in general, over the past decade, from the regional to the national and international levels.

This criminal infiltration crosses all jurisdictional boundaries and at present can realistically be described as endemic.

Italian prosecutor Roberto Di Martino, who stated that his investigation of match-fixing in Italian football showed no signs of coming to a conclusion anytime soon, has highlighted the extent of the problem: “The investigation is a bottomless pit. It’s a huge investigation and the figures allow you to paint a picture of the match-fixing phenomenon. There are almost 100 matches under investigation, 160 people and 200,000 phone calls between those implicated.”

internationally, and has seen a significant shift in economic liquidity to countries where gambling is highly popular – Asia generally, but especially China.

The critical reasons that criminals feel comfortable infiltrating football, and sport in general, are threefold.

Firstly, sporting organisations generally have inadequate statutes and practical defences against criminality, and often avoid taking responsibility for such problems, usually deferring to governments or superior organisations within the sports governance hierarchy. In effect, few want to take concerted, preventative and investigative action, and fewer still want to be responsible for paying for it.

The rise in criminal infiltration The primary criminal purpose of this infiltration is to cheat gamblers and betting organisations by fixing the outcome of a match. The amount of money that is bet globally on football, and is therefore vulnerable to fraudulent appropriation by criminals, is counted in the billions of dollars weekly, most of which is transacted immediately after the fixture, electronically or in cash.

The determining cause of the dramatic increase that has been seen in the criminal infiltration of football is the enormous upsurge in internet and other global communications-based betting, which now represents the vast majority of bets wagered

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Secondly, global investigations and prosecutions against transnational criminals involved in illegal gambling operations outside of regulatory frameworks are generally poorly coordinated and slow. Such investigations are also often exclusively focused on confidential evidence collections for national prosecutions of the criminals responsible and the seizure of assets, as opposed to regional and global prevention of the crimes themselves.

Thirdly, betting at the global level is, generally speaking, poorly regulated, being reliant on uneven national regulations at best and deliberately lax regulation at worst. There is also a large, completely uncontrolled betting market.

Taking all of the above into account – especially the transnational nature of match-fixing and the fact that traditional policing methods are limited by jurisdiction – and given that sporting bodies are not themselves law enforcement agencies and are thus devoid of the tools that are used by police agencies

Alamy

Fixers use intermediaries to approach the people they want to corrupt

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to detect, investigate and prosecute criminals, it is relatively risk-free for criminals to fix results.

So how and why are results fixed? Clearly, matchfixing is not new. In 1898, Stoke City FC and Burnley FC reportedly played out a draw that saw both of the teams promoted. This type of fix still exists today: an agreement between clubs about the outcome of a match that will benefit each team involved in some way. It could mean that they avoid relegation, gain promotion, finish in a Champions League position that brings more money and television revenue or, as with West Germany and Austria at the 1982 FIFA World Cup, qualify for the next round of a tournament. It should be remembered that any such agreement between two clubs always has an impact on other teams in the league or cup competition; it fixes the outcome of not only a match but the future revenue streams of all the clubs involved in that competition.

In 1915, a match between Liverpool and Manchester United ended with United winning 2-0. The match was considered suspicious because Manchester United was fighting relegation and playing against a Liverpool side at the top of its game. Liverpool was expected to win and the lack of effort by players led the crowd to voice their displeasure at the players and the referee to report the

parents and offer education and training for their child.

They may simply offer the parent something they need, such as a washing machine or a power generator. Social and cultural elements play a part in countries where often the talent pool comes out of abject poverty. Each method that is employed by the criminals works, especially when the target knows the group with whom he or she is dealing. Fear of the group or organisation and an isolated position make targets especially vulnerable.

Criminals persuade athletes and players to behave in a certain way, which may stand out to observers. In football, match fixers may ask the player to simply give less than 100 per cent, not to chase back when he loses the ball, give a poor pass, not make a tackle, miss a penalty kick or get a red card. Fixers may ask athletes in other sports just to underperform. Whatever they are asked to do will benefit the criminal syndicate. It can be as simple as running slower for a sprinter, or dropping a set in tennis; in cricket a batsman may give his wicket up, a bowler bowl no balls or lack his usual pace and accuracy.

Gaining access to sportspeople The fixers use established relationships, such as a former player who knows the members of the team and so can identify who can be corrupted. Fixers use intermediaries all the time to approach the people they want to corrupt. Agents of players are always useful, as are sports administrators, such as members of a referee selection panel. These people always seem to have a good reputation and appear clean, most are, some are not.

It is easy for a senior person acting as a mentor to smooth the path for the corruption of athletes or players. They have travelled the same road and understand the mentality of the player or athlete. They can reassure them of the risks they will take: they will tell them the risks are minimal and that everyone is doing the same thing anyway. These people in and around the sport are able to spot the vulnerable, those who are weak and have problems with money or drugs.

Then there are those players or referees who may be at the end of their career and desirous of a big payday.

The corruption of sports administrations is another method fixers use. Once you control an organisation you can dictate who will play a game, when and where they play it, and, most importantly, what the outcome will be.

Zimbabwean football was rocked by the ‘Asiagate’ scandal in which the chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA), Henrietta Rushwaya, was accused of corruption over matchfixing. ZIFA banned players, coaches and officials from professional football in the wake of the Asiagate report.

Rushwaya was sacked in October 2010 after ZIFA’s disciplinary body found her guilty of “conduct inconsistent with her duties, mismanagement and insubordination” and while she was not prosecuted for match-fixing, she is currently on trial for allegedly concealing transactions from a principal that relate to matches played in Asia.

Match fixers have flourished because they have operated unhindered for well over a decade game to the Football Association (FA). The FA launched an investigation that found seven players guilty of matchfixing. They had bet on odds of 7/1 that Manchester United would win 2-0. Four players from Liverpool and three from United were implicated, with Jackie Sheldon, a Liverpool player and former United player, acting as the go between.

The above examples serve to show that match-fixing has been with football for over a century. I suspect that an authority on horse racing would say that the sport has experienced the manipulation of races and horses for more than two hundred years.

Exploiting vulnerabilities The methods employed to fix an event or a match are well known. If fixers approach a player or referee it can be as direct as a gun to the head, though very often they study their target and seek out vulnerabilities. It may be a drug habit they can feed, or an athlete may have financial problems, or be vulnerable to blackmail, or simply be greedy such that criminals can hook him or her financially.

Either way, the pressure is applied to the target.

Different organised crime elements have different methods. Some prefer the direct approach of physical threats and intimidation, others prefer to wine and dine the target then offer a sum of money. Some approach

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Henrietta Rushwaya (centre) was sacked from her role as ZIFA chief executive following the Asiagate scandal

The Bolivian Football Federation was in financial difficulty when a fixer from a Singapore syndicate approached them with a proposition. A front company used by a Singaporean syndicate, known variously as Footy Image International, Footy Sport International, and Footy Media International, approached the cash strapped federation and offered them $50,000 in return for the right to organise a mini international tournament in Antalya, Turkey. Latvia, Bulgaria and Estonia accepted the invitation to take part in the tournament. The matches were played at the Mardan Sports complex in Antalya Turkey. The two matches had seven penalty kicks given by referees provided by the front company. The referees were banned for life, the Bolivian, Latvian, Estonian, and Bulgarian federations were duped.

Controlling organisations Criminals can also fix a game by means of controlling an organisation. Control the person who appoints umpires and referees, and you can decide when and where your own referees or umpires are appointed.

If you control the referee and his assistants you can influence the game and the times that major decisions are

given. By corrupting key players, such as the goalkeeper or central defenders, or maybe the penalty taker or main striker, you can help ensure that your plan is carried out. Corrupt those in individual sports and you have less risk and more chance of going undetected.

Match fixers have flourished because they been able to operate unhindered for well over a decade in an environment that is without adequate powers or protective methods to contain them or subject them to justice. Match fixers operate where protections are at their weakest; they actively seek out the vulnerable and exploit them, whether they are associations, confederations or individuals.

They focus where security protocols are lax, where authorities have inadequate powers or legislation, and where there is a lack of knowledge, expertise and skill sets to administer the game properly.

Match fixers are criminals who destroy the dreams of young and aspiring athletes and players in many sports.

Terry Steans is a Director and the Head of Sports Corruption Investigation and Intelligence Gathering at the Sports Data Group

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How bets are laid to exploit fixing

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Michael Pride examines the nature of the grey and black gambling markets and the methods that are used by crime groups to exploit betting operations for fraud

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o better understand the nature of the illegal gambling industry a distinction should be made between the different types of betting market and their varying levels of legality.

White market gambling describes betting that takes place under licensed and regulated conditions in which bettors are legally permitted to place bets at, for example, a bookmaker or an online casino.

Grey market gambling concerns betting that takes place either without a regulatory infrastructure or outside of the law altogether (this is common in countries that ban gambling), but where the gaming establishment itself is hosted outside, and thus is not governed by, the jurisdiction. This occurs most often when a foreign-hosted gaming website offers its services to those in countries that either fully ban gaming, online gaming or foreign-hosted gaming

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services. In many countries that have restrictions on online gaming (or gambling as a whole) the public are, in reality, nearly always free to bet where they please without restriction.

Black market gambling describes totally illegal activity in a region that does not permit gambling.

In this case, the gaming establishment will be within the country in question, operating outside the law; punishments for such activities are likely to be severe.

Nature of the gambling industry The illicit gambling sector is a complex network that functions at various levels. The ‘bookies’ who take the bets from gamblers are just the tip of the iceberg.

The bookies obtain their odds from people above them and then accept bets based on those figures. Their job is to collect the cash from the gamblers and, in turn, provide payments depending on the outcome of the wager. Above them are the people who manage a group of bookies that operate in various parts of a city or state. They receive their information and odds from

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‘Bookies’ are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the illicit gambling network, which operates on various levels

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a different set of individuals who are above them. The nature of the gambling industry means it is structured in a way that makes it extremely difficult or nearly impossible for people on the ground, the bookies, to know who is the person two layers above them in the chain. That is one of the main reasons why authorities have found it extremely difficult to crackdown on the illegal betting syndicates operating in the gambling industry.

As with any business, a bookmaker first needs cash in order to begin operations. The main cash requirements can be split into two categories: money for capital goods, and cash reserves to cover wagering action. The former is a relatively small sum.

The main requirements are telephone lines, a computer and some ‘line’ services to provide the initial odds for wagering. In the case of the latter, this is where the majority of funding is directed. The size of the reserves dictates the amount of activity the operation can sustain.

One US-centric study puts the required cash for set up at $10,000 or less. Costs are likely to vary from region to region, as will the scale of start-up operations.

While a bookmaking operation in its infancy is considerably limited by financial constraints, a bookmaker past this stage can generate a stable revenue base from regular client wagering. Traditionally, a bookmaker can expect between a 50 to 100 per cent annual return on wagering reserves. Rapid return on capital and low operational costs make bookmaking an attractive business.

The size of a bookmaking business is dependent on the size of its wagering reserves and by extension the number of active bets. Bookmaking is a service-oriented industry. As such, it is the responsibility of a bookmaker to take bets and have the requisite number of personnel to service the bettors.

Some illegal betting syndicates offer better odds for a sporting event, which makes the payout for a winning bet highly attractive. If an individual or group wants to place a bet through legal channels in some countries, they need to go to a physical location. With laying bets this way, there is always a chance that the individual or their representatives will be noticed. In contrast, most illegal syndicates operate in a very discreet manner, not least to protect their own identities. Trust is the key here: once a mutual trust has been established, many syndicates will even agree to take bets over the phone and then collect or deliver the cash later on.

Gambling operations During the course of business a bookmaker will constantly take bets from customers or customer representatives, with money and betting slips being collected and dispersed respectively by runners. As mentioned above, bookmaking is service-oriented, so a bookmaker offering a poor quality of service will lose customers. As such a bookmaker must be readily available, easy to deal with and efficient with collection and payments. All of these factors provide authorities with a weak point to exploit.

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Bookmakers need to meet either their customers or their representatives, who themselves will meet with the bettors, once a week. As a bookmaking operation expands the former will quickly become an impractical option. The solution is for the bookmaker to take on more representatives as time progresses. These representatives will typically be anyone who is in regular contact with the public, such as bar or restaurant staff, carpet cleaners, plumbers, repair people and couriers. These types of people are generally inconspicuous and can make pick-ups and deliveries throughout the day without drawing any suspicion or attention.

Image Source/Corbis

Bookmakers’ business

The action Depending on the time zones and event schedules, a bookmaker and his representatives will receive many telephone calls over several hours, often in the evenings.

These calls are inbound wagering calls and calls to collect winnings. Generally, the longer a call, the more action will be taking place between the caller and the bookmaker.

If the action is lop-sided or too large for a bookmaker to handle then he or she will use a layoff and offset the risk using another bookmaker. Other bookmaking operations can be uncovered by working the bookmaker’s

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Criminal syndicates sometimes place lots of small bets in order to avoid the suspicion that a few high-volume bets would attract

with a group of nine people being bankrolled to provide access to IBCBET and SBOBET’s services. It is understood they were connected to a bookmaker in Singapore, and they were earning $30,000 a day. Some 150 bank accounts were linked to the operation.

Illegal betting on fixed matches In relation to the manipulation of matches, bets are laid in such a way as to make detection of individuals or groups almost impossible. The complexity of the illegal betting syndicates operation allows this to occur. The syndicate can exploit fluctuations to organise the bets so that the wagers will not attract attention. For example, there are so many moments in a football match that could swing the game either way, without a fix in place, that suspicion is automatically reduced.

The complexity of the operation can be highlighted by the following example. An illegal betting syndicate, based and organised in Singapore, has match fixers who travel to Lebanon to discuss arrangements for a fixed match that will be played in Italy. There are syndicate members ready to place high-volume bets, timing the surges so the betting market security systems do not detect any suspicious betting patterns. The bets are placed in the Philippines using masked computer clusters from Bangkok to Jakarta.

The communications are spread across many mobile networks and satellites making them almost impossible to trace. The money moves electronically through a hundred different communication channels. No legal system was set up to handle this kind of global intricacy, and the number of intersecting jurisdictions make this an extremely complex crime to investigate.

Several illegal betting syndicates place wagers on fixed games using legal, Asia-based online betting sites via intermediaries in China. For example, in Shenzhen, in southern China, millions of dollars can be placed in a couple of minutes on a game in Europe. The syndicates using these gambling operations employ workers to rapidly place thousands of small online bets ($1,000 to $10,000) on fixed matches. The scattering of small bets, rather than fewer high-volume bets, helps to hide fixes from betting monitoring companies that use sophisticated software in order to alert them to unusual and suspicious betting.

Match-fixing investigations are complicated and the offence is difficult to prove. Proving that players are deliberately underperforming, or having contact with a criminal, is not enough. Hard evidence, including documents containing transactions, is required, but such proof is not easy to obtain when most bets for fixed matches are placed with bookmakers in Asia that are barely regulated.

Simply detecting match-fixing is not enough to deter criminals. Prosecutions are needed in order to raise the risk and cost of their activities, but the challenges to obtaining a conviction remain high.

Several illegal betting syndicates place wagers on fixed games using legal, Asia-based online betting sites layoff and players. Players are often in contact with multiple bookmakers and will often freely discuss them, perhaps even offering an introduction. It is not uncommon for a bookmaker to pay a referral fee to a player who is bringing in new players.

The aforementioned description accounts largely for independent bookmaking operations, but some act as a proxy for other, larger bookmakers. One example is in Thailand, where a call centre was set up in Bangkok to act as an intermediary between bettors in the country and an overseas bookmaker. In this system, the intermediary will set up bank accounts to receive wagers from bettors and then place the bets for them online. In this example it was claimed that the host was receiving $170,000 to run the system, from an unknown source. Another example in Jakarta, Indonesia, involved a similar system,

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Endemic match-fixing in sport will mean the loss of credibility for games and thus the loss of fans

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Dominic Favre/Corbis

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Undermining authority; defeating ambition Keir Radnedge explores how corruption in sport damages the reputation of governing bodies, undermines trust among fans and ruins the aspirations of athletes as well as officials

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ales were legion in Italian football in the 1950s and 1960s about the remarkable results on the last day of the season, when the new league champions-elect might lose at home, against all the odds, to a club fighting relegation.

Such fixing may not have been motivated directly by money, but in other cases it was. In 1964, three Sheffield Wednesday players – including England players Peter Swan and Tony Kay – were banned for throwing a match to suit a betting scam. The London Sunday newspaper The People uncovered the evidence and Swan, Kay and teammate David ‘Bronco’ Layne all went to prison.

That was nearly 50 years ago. Despite all the concern that sport must be kept clean to maintain its credibility for the public, sponsors and broadcasters, the situation now is immeasurably worse; as the amount of money at stake in betting and in the sport sector generally has risen, so corruption has spread.

The Salt Lake City scandal of 2002 was the first sign of problems within the Olympic movement and the host city bidding industry, resulting in several members being expelled from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), clearly damaging the movement’s reputation.

Over the past three years a stream of corruption allegations concerning FIFA members has damaged the public’s perception of football’s main governing body.

In cycling, the Lance Armstrong case has embroiled the International Cycling Union (UCI) in a public row with the United States and World Anti-Doping Agencies over its efficacy in confronting doping allegations.

In 1999, the IOC was galvanised into action by a general fear that the Games were losing credibility (and thus sponsor revenues) through widespread doping practices. East Germany no longer exists and is easier to pinpoint for blame than other countries that continue to sit at the top table. Also, the East Germans kept such meticulous records that the system which created a record-feeding frenzy – not only in athletics but swimming and other individual disciplines – has been laid bare.

Hence the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which has been remarkably successful. Most important of all has been its persuasion of governments – as evidenced by the rush to adherence via UNESCO – that sports doping falls within the ambit of drugs criminality.

To be fair, most governments needed little persuading because drugs and drugs trafficking were already illegal

It is not only the sports family that needs to appreciate its responsibility to society

Galvanised into action The crux of the issue is that governing bodies tainted by any association with corrupt practices come to lack the moral authority to lay down and enforce laws on corruption further down the sporting chain. At a coaching and competitive level, that means doping and match-fixing.

in the vast majority of jurisdictions and already subject to judicial, security, customs and tax pursuit.

One major blot on the sporting landscape has been the sad fact that Spain is only now bringing its legislation into line with WADA requirements.

As one bid industry executive told this writer: “The IOC should lay down in future that no city may even consider bidding in the first place if its national anti-doping legislation is not WADA-compliant.”

If that had been the case Madrid would not even have been allowed across the starting line in the present race to claim host rights to the 2020 Olympic Games.

However, persuading governments that match-fixing should also be a criminal offence has been much more difficult. This is the greatest challenge facing sport today.

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I will be upgraded to European champion from last year as a result of Arzhakova being banned.

But it makes me sick that I was denied the opportunity to do a lap of honour

I am sure that when we went down it was because there were agreements between other clubs for determined results...

Everyone knows it

– British 800m runner Lynsey Sharp, on learning of the Russian’s dope test ban

– Augusto César Lendoiro, President of Spanish football club Deportivo La Coruña

If it is to maintain the competitive credibility it must both educate its ‘family’ and impose rules and regulations to try to ensure ‘clean’ competition.

Only if sport can be seen to be cleaning up its own nest can it hope to persuade governments to act against the international criminality that capitalises on human avarice and the simplicity of results fixing for the purposes of both multi-billion-dollar profits and international money laundering for a wide range of other illicit operations.

Michel Platini, President of the European football federation UEFA and a vice-president of FIFA, has no doubt that match-fixing is a far greater threat to sporting credibility than doping.

Platini’s words and sentiments have been echoed most recently by the new President of the Spanish league, Javier Tebas. He came into office earlier this year leading on a pledge to root out match-fixing in the Spanish game, which has been plagued down the years with rumours of illicit payments in the last rounds of matches.

Tebas told Spanish football newspaper, Marca in April: “The most important thing is the subject of match-fixing.

If there can be rotten games, it means the competition is not in order. From the league to the media we are not supporting this as it needs to be.”

But as a lawyer, Tebas also appreciates the need for sport to become far more proactive in calling on judicial and legislative support. “The problem [thus far] has been the gap between legal proof and the real truth. In La Liga we need to make a further step in denouncing what is going on. It is isolated incidents, but it happens,” he says.

“More than one player [has told me about fixed games]. I have spoken with the AFE [the players’ union] and with club directors. There is a type of corporate defence, a misunderstood feeling of companionship...

We must get rid of this.”

more vulnerable, simply because they don’t earn the same amounts as the top players. There will always be temptation in life, but it’s our job to educate our members and make sure they understand and appreciate their responsibilities to the game,” says Taylor.

Friedrich Stickler, head of European Lotteries and ex-president of the Austrian football federation, believes it is not only the sports family that needs to appreciate its responsibility to society at large; so do governments.

He says: “This is really frightening. This is not second division and leagues in countries no one has heard of, this is big business and even qualifying matches for the Europa League and Champions League, so it’s something

Reuters

The personal view

Vulnerable players Football match-fixing generates the largest volume of criminal revenues through the internet-driven betting rings. The assumption remains that players at the highest level earn so much money they are beyond bribery.

But Gordon Taylor OBE, Chief Executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, is among those who warn of the risk of the cancer spreading up through the game from the ‘soft underbelly’, which is represented by players who are poorly or only infrequently paid at more modest levels. “Players at a lower level are

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An effigy of Lance Armstrong that criticises his doping offences, which embroiled the International Cycling Union in a row over its efficacy in confronting doping allegations

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It’s a bottomless pit... this match-fixing phenomenon. There are almost 100 matches under investigation, 160 people and 200,000 phone calls between those implicated

I have apologised on numerous occasions to the UCB, the cricketing public and most important to my former teammates. I deeply regret my actions and wish to apologise to those I caused harm

– Italian investigator Roberto Di Martino

– the former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje

we cannot underestimate. For example, in China the population has lost trust and confidence in our sport completely and the stadia are almost empty. Nobody there is interested in football anymore, so you can see the huge danger and the threat and that’s why we call for real action and not only discussions.”

Sports at risk

Reuters

Football is not alone and exposed. Every sport is at risk.

The downfall of South Africa’s Hansie Cronje in 2000 is not considered as representative of the country’s sporting ethos, but it will take many years before Pakistani cricket teams emerge from the long shadow cast by scandals going back to the 1990s.

Former international cricket player Saleem Pervez, who died earlier this year, once confessed to having paid top players to fix matches on behalf of bookmakers as far back as 1994. Three players, including former captain Salman Butt, were jailed by a London court in 2011.

Activists praise disgraced late cricketer Hansie Cronje for admitting he had taken money from bookmakers

Haroon Lorgat, former CEO of the International Cricket Council, has expressed a concern that driving the fixers out of the international arena has merely pushed them into domestic competitions where such activities may be even harder to police. Last year, after the conviction of former Essex bowler Mervyn Westfield for spot-fixing, Lorgat said: “What we’re finding now is there is not much going on around the international game. It has moved.

“My own experience from back in South Africa is: secure your own home... You’ve got to be careful about the high-profile leagues in the domestic game… But we can’t play the role of governments and legislate and bring in regulations.”

Keeping fixing scandals at bay Most sports have had some kind of fixing scandal, but not every sport has woken up to a need to invest heavily in trying, as best it can, to keep the cancer at bay.

As Platini told this writer: “If the public starts to think that the match is fixed, that the result has already been negotiated in advance, then he or she will not cross the road to pay for the ticket or even turn on the television.

Then our sport will lose its credibility and you cannot get it back. Also, you cannot get the sponsors back either.”

Platini might have been talking for all sports.

In the meantime, while efforts to bring governments into the action continue to move forward, sport has to fight its own fight for its own sake.

As the Italian-football ‘whistleblower’ Simone Farina says: “[Club management] cannot leave players isolated and afraid to speak out when they are confronted by the wrong individuals. Players need to feel empowered and supported in order to be able to report what they need to when they are approached by organised syndicates.”

It says everything about wrong-headed endemic attitudes to match-fixing with sport that Farina now works in a community liaison role for Aston Villa in England.

After he exposed certain match-fixing activities of teammates in the lower divisions in Italy, no one else there would give him a job.

Keir Radnedge is a columnist and former editor of World Soccer magazine. He spent 20 years with the Daily Mail and other newspapers, and is an analyst of international sport for CNN, Al-Jazeera, the BBC, Sky and other international broadcasters. He can be found on Twitter: @KeirRadnedge, and at www.KeirRadnedge.com

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Incentives to avoid match-fixing

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anipulating events on the field in order to facilitate illicit gains on the betting market has been a problem since the earliest days of organised sport. However, from the sheer volume of cases that have come to light, few doubt that there has been a step increase in the prevalence of fixing in the past 12 years.

What can be done? To organise thoughts, it is useful perhaps to start with an economic model. Since the pioneering work on the economics of crime by Nobel Laureate Gary Becker, economic models have been employed successfully to help us understand trends in crime-rates and to identify policies that might work to reduce offending. Applying such models in the context of match-fixing is therefore likely to prove fruitful in generating ideas for action.

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A starting point is to think of a fix as something that is bought and sold in a marketplace, albeit an illegal one that is usually well hidden from view.

In this marketplace there are sellers and buyers: there is a supply side and a demand side, as there is in any other kind of market.

On the supply side are the sports insiders, who most commonly are players or referees. Other possible candidates for delivering a fix, and therefore for trading in this market, include owners, coaches and even the medical staff of a sports club. All these groups have the ability to influence the probability that their team will win the match.

The demand for fixes comes from criminals for whom a fix enables profits to be made on the betting market that operates alongside a sports event.

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David Forrest examines the market for match-fixing, identifying policies that could be adopted to restrict supply and limit demand, and explores how reward systems could be designed to disincentivise corruption

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For the volume of fixes to increase there needs to be an increase in either supply or demand. The most obvious explanation for the current increase in sports corruption is that there has been a rise in demand for fixes because it is now possible to make much bigger betting gains from a fix than it was in the past.

The key to how much money a criminal can make by fixing a match is the size of the bet he can place.

This is determined by the amount of liquidity in the betting market. According to data from CK Consulting, the size of the global sports betting market tripled between 2000 and 2010, as the industry and the product were transformed in the new online world. The depth of betting markets on even relatively minor competitions became sufficient to support very large bets that would win very large sums. For example, a report published by the Paris-based think tank IRIS suggested that betting agents in Asia could place bets amounting to more than $260,000 – spread across different operators – on the result of a football match in the Belgian second division (a competition of somewhat modest stature) without attracting undue suspicion and without unduly driving the odds against the bettor.

Volumes in Asian markets are therefore now sufficient to support very large bets. Moreover, these markets are non-transparent and are unmonitored by regulatory authorities, such that in the event of any suspicion arising around a sports event, investigators could not subsequently trace the bets back to their source. In the well known criminal case in which a gang based in Bochum, Germany, was found to have fixed more than 300 football matches across 13 countries, prosecutors estimated that the group had won tens of millions of dollars betting on Asian markets in just one year.

It is a reasonable story to account for the epidemic of fixing to say that huge growth in betting volumes in markets without effective regulation has made fixes more economically valuable than they used to be. The increased value of fixes has drawn more criminal groups to the market – there has been an increase in demand for fixes. An increase in demand pushes up prices and more participants are then persuaded to fix.

Three policy options After the ‘demand shift’ we have a new equilibrium.

It appears to feature a dangerously high level of fixing, enough perhaps to lead to loss of confidence in the sports product. What policy options exist to push the prevalence of fixing down?

As in other markets for illicit commodities, such as those for drugs, there are, logically, just three categories of policy action available: ■ Policies that seek to disrupt the functioning of the market, for example making it difficult for transactions to take place by limiting the opportunities available for buyers to communicate with sellers; ■ Policies to reduce demand, for example trying to take liquidity out of the betting market so

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that criminals cannot make as much money from the bet behind the fix; and ■ Policies to reduce supply, for example paying referees high wages so that they would have a lot to lose should they agreed to fix and their offence were detected.

Of these, the onus in the first approach of disrupting trade would likely fall largely on law enforcement agencies.

But there are some measures that sport itself can take in this category. For example, tennis has banned cell phones from player changing rooms, and the US National Basketball Association (NBA) names referees only shortly before a match in order to minimise the time available for a fix operation to be organised.

Policies in the second category largely lie beyond the influence of sports federations. Indeed, even national regulators of betting markets, for example in Europe, are constrained to the extent that the bulk of liquidity in betting markets (even on sports events taking place in Europe) lies in Asia, outside of their jurisdiction. Of course, they still need to guard against domestic fixing, where the

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Getty Images

Ante Sapina speaks with his lawyer in a courtroom in Bochum, where he is on trial for fixing 43 football matches as part of a criminal gang that is alleged to have rigged a total of 300 matches

Some of the sports most at risk have invested in integrity and intelligence units instigators probably lie close to the sport itself and the confederates organising the fix do not have the knowledge to bet outside their territory. But this is not the style of fix that is driving the recent apparent explosion in fixing.

The scope for sport to take action The category of policies where sport itself can take the lead is the third one. Although it is only legislators and the judicial system that are able to provide some forms of deterrent (for example prison terms for offenders who are caught), there is still considerable scope for sport itself to implement policies designed to make players and others less able or less ready to supply fixes.

Referees can, in some sports and to some extent, be taken out of the pool of potential suppliers of a fix by

reducing their ability to influence outcomes. For example, key decisions by referees/umpires in boxing/cricket are now subject to instant review, made possible by sophisticated video technology. In ice skating, the number of judges in major competitions has been increased, reducing the influence of any one individual.

These are useful policies to address potential corruption by some actors in some sports. Other sports might consider whether there is scope for similar systems to be put into place. But these are not universal solutions.

For all sports, the fundamental issue is whether they can take measures that make players less likely to accept a given inducement to fix. Designing measures to modify individual choices requires a framework for understanding how these choices are made in the first place.

Economists in many settings have gone a long way by representing those who make choices as weighing up the benefits of a course of action against the costs. In our context, if an athlete is offered a bribe of a certain amount,

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Macedonian football club FK Pobeda was banned from UEFA competitions for eight years following a math-fixing enquiry, but UEFA’s ban on former player Nikolce Zdraveski was later overturned

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To summarise, the expected cost of participation in a fix will be greater the greater the chance of being caught, the greater the future earnings put at risk, the greater the loss of sporting glory from what is required in return for the bribe, and the greater the moral qualms he or she has.

Sport can influence the individual decisions of sportspeople by working on each of these components.

As in all crime, increasing the probability of detection is important and some of the sports most at risk (by virtue of the level of betting interest associated with them) have invested in integrity and intelligence units that can make a difference here. However, addressing the other factors influencing the decisions of players requires a wider range of policies that are all related to good governance. For example, part of good governance is to treat players fairly. In many historic cases of fixing, such

EMPICS Sport/PA Images

he or she will ask, “is it worth it?”. So what are the costs to be weighed up against the money on the table?

The costs are in fact uncertain because the athlete does not know whether or not he or she will be caught and punished. They will have to think in terms of ‘expected cost’. In the general case, this will have three components.

The first component relates to expected loss of earnings should their offence be detected (this is converted to ‘expected loss’ by multiplying the sum in danger by the probability they are caught). The second relates to the value that they place on loss of sporting reputation or glory from underperforming during the match; for example, losing a match may deprive them the chance of obtaining a trophy. The third cost relates to moral anguish from knowing that he or she has betrayed the principles of sport, the fans, and so on.

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as the infamous throwing of the baseball World Series in 1919, players had apparently well-founded grievances against the owner and this would have made them feel fewer moral qualms about cheating him. In contemporary European soccer, clubs in some leagues regularly fail to pay wages on time. A survey by the international players’ union, FIFPro, established that players in clubs who had missed wage payments were much more likely than average to record that they had been approached to fix matches (they were not asked whether they had actually fixed matches). Presumably, fixers understand that they will be more successful in buying a fix if they target players who feel resentful.

In this respect, sport is just like other sectors in which corruption is an issue. Any workforce in which outside agents have an incentive to offer large bribes are vulnerable if pay is low. Of the matches discovered to have been fixed in European soccer, the largest number were in second-tier divisions in which pay is modest and potential bribes are high, because liquidity in betting markets is still sufficient for large bets to be placed.

The Canadian journalist, Declan Hill, summarised the importance of pay with a memorable turn of phrase: “Many soccer players are faced with a choice between serving the interests of those who pay them badly to play well and the interests of those who would pay them well to play badly.”

In one of his academic articles, Hill pointed to an instructive historic episode where widespread corruption in English football appeared to fade away following the abolition of the maximum wage rule in 1960.

There have been several instances of players reporting having been offered bribes to lose matches in the early rounds of even very high-profile tennis tournaments.

The proven cases of fixing in football have featured quite a high number of matches in the early stages of the UEFA club competitions and even the early rounds of the FIFA World Cup itself.

Why are early rounds of elimination tournaments at such risk? Most of the matches offer little prize money for advancement to the next stage. Moreover, it is typical that even when a player or team is the favourite for that match, they or it has no reasonable prospect of progressing further than one more round. Therefore, the cost of cheating to lose is low in terms of prize money and potential for sporting glory. This framework for thinking about how players make decisions suggests a high-integrity risk in this situation if the betting market on the match has enough liquidity to support large bets.

The Macedonian football club FK Pobeda was excluded from UEFA competitions for eight years following a fix in 2004. In this case, the idea of the fix came from the club’s president. Players were instructed to lose (and

Any workforce in which outside agents have an incentive to offer large bribes are vulnerable if pay is low

Pay and prize structures Increasing pay is not always an option for financially challenged clubs and leagues, and high pay is not effective insurance against fixing for all players. For example, veterans have little to lose from fixing because they place little future income at risk if they offend.

Sport here could borrow from economists’ ideas on corruption generally. In the 1970s, Edward P Lazear proposed that a wage structure where a significant part of workers’ pay is deferred offers significant deterrence against corruption. In some jurisdictions, an unusually high proportion of remuneration to police is in the form of a pension to which entitlement is lost in the event that the officer has a ‘dishonourable discharge’. While such an arrangement for players and referees would raise a potential for legal challenges in individual cases (since fixing is often hard to prove), sports might consider the applicability of Lazear’s idea in the context of how they pay their employees.

In many sports, rewards come in the form of prize money rather than pay, and in all sports, the dream of glory is also a powerful motivation. Given this, incentives also have to be considered in terms of the structure of prize money and, indeed, tournament design more widely.

did lose) a Champions League first qualifying round tie that they had been expected to win against a team from Armenia. The information that FK Pobeda would lose was sold to organised crime for almost $400,000, and exceptional sums were subsequently observed to be staked in Asia on this outcome. Had FK Pobeda progressed to the next round it would almost certainly have lost, because clubs from stronger countries join the competition at that point. Further, its profit from the one extra round would have only been some $40,000.

The gap between $400,000 and $40,000 is a substantial one. The incentive to offend will have been strong, and similar situations face many players and teams during the sporting calendar. Could their behaviour be tilted? Could the redistribution of a tournament’s prize money towards greater rewards for progression make a difference? In designing tournaments, many considerations apply, but with threats from betting-related corruption so real, sport must at least be prepared to include thinking about incentives against fixing in all its decisions. In the decisions it takes on tournament design, it should attempt to make success for players and teams more important in as many matches as possible.

David Forrest is Professor of Economics at the Salford Business School, University of Salford, specialising in the economics of sport and gambling

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Government action on match-fixing Chris Eaton, director for sport integrity at the International Centre for Sport Security, discusses the importance of taking action against match-fixing at governmental and transnational levels

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iven the alarming number of investigations by police and other organisations into corrupted sport competitions around the world, and the grave warnings issued by leaders of sports bodies such as UEFA, FIFA, the IOC and the ICC, it is clear that international sport today finds itself in a seriously dangerous state of affairs.

Around the world, there is a collision between three international economic giants that is creating a perfect storm of damage to international sport, and it seems that only leadership from world governments can contain it.

These colliding global economies are international: 1 sport; 2 betting on sport; and 3 organised crime.

What the results from this unfolding collision will surely determine is the social future of some sports, as promoters, sponsors and fans vote with their feet. In some countries, many have already done this.

What are the circumstances that have created this perfect storm of damage to international sport? First, sport is increasingly a medium that vast numbers of people around the world wish to gamble on, seemingly regardless of whether their government permits it or not.

This will not change. Indeed, all forecasts indicate that it will continue to expand, perhaps even exponentially.

Second, sport is being manipulated – corrupted if you prefer – internationally by criminals for the purpose of committing betting fraud. This is now universally acknowledged as a massive problem at the global level.

Third, many individual governments and national regulators around the world are closely looking at how to protect sport. However, this effort is uneven across jurisdictions. A collective global strategy led by world governments seems necessary, and urgent.

Fourth, overall the global betting industry invests very little in the protection of sport compared with its global financial throughputs on sport.

Fifth, the sport betting industry is vastly more divided than it is united. There is no single voice for global sport betting. It has a market-driven morality. In fact, the majority of gambling on sport in a world context is either illegal or under-regulated. Significantly, there is little hope for a united global gambling industry approach to the antimatch-fixing effort in the absence of a collective global government intervention and a collective global strategy.

Sixth, only governments have the mandate and the resources to combat transnational organised crime.

Finally, the last circumstance that has created this perfect storm of damage to sport is that unlike sport betting, sport bodies and governments can unite in a common effort. The basis for differences and disguised intent is vastly less than it is with global gambling, which has a competitive market-driven morality. But as of today, the rhetoric for a united sport and a united government approach has not really been matched in action.

Global, not merely national or regional, leadership is not only essential today, but time is clearly running out for some sports. There are in fact two inextricably linked international problems that need to be considered together: match-fixing, or the corruption of sport competitions; and betting fraud, or theft from sports gamblers and bookmakers offering sport globally.

In many ways, these two linked problems of matchfixing and betting fraud are either seen too simply or in too small a context. However, this situation can be changed by governments, and by doing so governments can protect international sport from this dangerous collision of circumstances, which are essentially wrought from its own international success.

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The global betting industry invests very little in the protection of sport

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In May 2013, ahead of UEFA hearings, fans took to Trafalgar Square in London to demonstrate against a match-fixing case that shook Turkish football. As a transnational criminal issue there is room for cooperation between sports bodies and governments

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Today, match-fixing is not simply an opportunistic and occasional corruption of a few, by a few. Nor is it merely the manipulation of relegation or competition table systems. More often, it is criminally planned; truly transnational; and it is driven by long-term investments in the corruption of international sport – including athletes, administrators and referees or umpires.

Today, the real intention of transnational crime in match-fixing, and in betting fraud, is the institutional corruption of organisations and systems rather than merely the compromise of a few individuals.

Fraud on a global scale International betting fraud is not a simple theft. It is sophisticated, technical and disguised criminal cheating and fraud on a truly global scale. It is the vulnerability of international betting to large-scale theft that inspires and pays for modern match-fixing. It is also a cash bonanza for the criminal organisations that are seeking to take control of both match-fixing and betting fraud.

These critical issues of match-fixing and betting fraud are not only often seen too simply, but also in too small or simple a context. They are too often considered only as national or regional problems confined to just one of several sports or betting operators, or thought to only apply to minor competitions. More menacingly, some feel

fully effective. Pressuring and supervising sport without pressuring and supervising betting on sport is focusing on the primary effect, and not on the primary cause.

Strengthening national legislations, sport regulations and inter-agency cooperation without the context of a fully collective international approach will leave gaps and safe havens within the global environment, thereby essentially nullifying the effort.

Dealing with one sport, one country or one region in isolation at best shifts and evolves the problem, or at worst dilutes it to ineffectuality within the global oceans of both sport and betting. Labels and slogans, such as ‘play clean’, ‘respect’ and ‘fair play’, must be backed up with serious integrity machinery and with real consequences for doing the opposite.

Because of a heightened awareness, the sport integrity field is becoming increasingly crowded, with many new players and interested parties entering. While this is a strong indicator of the seriousness of the overall problem, sport integrity solutions must be as big, global, organised and as harmonised as the criminal predation itself. To do otherwise is ultimately to fail, leaving the next generation to pick up the global problem.

Around the world, the betting integrity field is patchy at best and non-existent at worst, and in truth focuses on protecting betting rather than protecting sport, except as a by-product. It is not focused on identifying the criminals who commit the crimes of betting fraud. However, you cannot reasonably expect such a global industry to police itself. That is why you have betting regulators, at least in some jurisdictions.

Moreover, national police struggle within a difficult international investigation environment. They naturally focus on the collection of evidence and on national prosecutions instead of on disrupting the multinational criminal enterprises involved and not as a matter of course on cooperating with sport and bettingin order to prevent match-fixing in the first place.

There are not many preventive police investigations on match-fixing that these global problems can be fixed alone by sport, governments, police, regulators or betting organisations.

These twin problems are just too big, too global and too organised for anything but collective and multifaceted solutions to be successful at a global level.

The plain truth is that the corruption of competitions is marked by an absolute internationality in its commission, and by a vigorously growing influence from transnational organised crime. Moreover, theft from sport betting is stealing from a massive, essentially uncontrolled, international sport-gambling economy, which is primarily, but not exclusively, situated in South-East Asia. As betting on sport is now a global activity, with many betting businesses operating from offshore locations offering bets on all forms of sport from internet, mobile and social network platforms, and still innovating newer platforms, the regulation and supervision must ultimately be global. Because these two issues are often viewed too simply and in a context that is too small, the solutions proposed are also far too simple and far too small.

For instance, anti-corruption training and awareness education within sport is essential, but requires proactive preventive investigation of sport and monitoring of both field play and progressive betting movements to be

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Formally recognising the problem There are not many preventive police investigations on match-fixing or betting fraud. Most such investigations are either retrospective or coincidental, in that police come across match-fixing while investigating unrelated organised crime.

So what is there to be done by governments around the world? First, ministers and governments could formally recognise that there is a serious existing international problem with the corruption of sport competition results and with related betting fraud.

Second, they could formally recognise that this is a global phenomenon that should be solved by global action that is consistent and collective.

Third, governments could formally recognise that the problem actually, or at least potentially, crosses all sports on an international level, meaning it has a huge impact.

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Finally, and most importantly, governments should formally recognise that an independent and neutral international platform, or global compact of some design, that draws together key stakeholders for their collective protection should be considered. It should be an international platform that assists collective and collaborative action by facilitating global information

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■ Promote for a single agency monitoring international gambling to detect betting fraud for all sports ■ Sport specialists monitoring play to identity suspicious matches ■ A procedure to advise and guiding sport bodies on global corruption threat | | ■ In-play corruption-prevention | | procedures for urgent match| | | corruption alerts |

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■ Harmonised disciplinary and integrity systems across all sports ■ Internationally standardised consequence delivery to corrupted persons in sport ■ International database of persons complicit in sport corruption |

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exchange, develops and recommends consistent preventive actions and policies, and identifies and reports on any substantive international gaps or incapacities across jurisdictions.

Such an international platform would prevent the perfect storm that is gathering over the world of sport from wreaking havoc in the games and the economies that governments are here to try and protect.

Chris Eaton is the Director for Sport Integrity at the International Centre for Sport Security

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Winning and losing on a small island Gary Armstrong explores the interactions of football, politics and society in an intimate world, using Malta as a case study

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n 1983, the Maltese national football team lost three European Championship qualifiers in little over a month. This was not a surprise. As a nation of just over 400,000 citizens, defeats at an international level are expected. These three defeats – all away from home – were, however, unusually heavy: an 8-0 drubbing by the Republic of Ireland followed a 5-0 defeat to the Netherlands. Days later, Malta lost to Spain by a 12-1 margin. The defeat was expected, but not the scoreline.

Accusations that the match was fixed came primarily from the Netherlands, who lost out on a place in the finals on goal difference to Spain, but similar accusations came from within Malta where football fans, long accustomed to accusing their co-patriots of throwing games in the domestic league, now had to contemplate the possibility of unsporting behaviour at the national level.

The scoreline caused consternation in UEFA circles, and even provoked calls in Maltese political circles for the national team to withdraw from international competitions.

The Spain defeat had two consequences.

The first was the establishment in Malta of a commission that is designed to examine the possibility of bribery and corruption around the fixture. Chaired by a lawyer and consisting of Malta Football Association (MFA) representatives, journalists and supporters, the commission concluded that the defeat was due to inadequate preparation and fitness.

In seeking explanations for the scoreline, many factors were put forward: the Maltese players’ skill levels and stamina were nowhere near those of their Spanish opponents; and the players were tired due to playing three games in fewer than three weeks.

A second consequence of the defeat was a new beginning for Maltese football, with

the creation of the Professional Scheme. This public-private funding initiative embodied a determination to pull together the island’s 20 top players who would be freed of work obligations to train together four times a week, and be recompensed for doing so. While results at the international level did not improve as much as hoped, it was more than 25 years before another accusation of match-fixing at the national level occurred.

In that same time period, at the domestic level, accusations of match-fixing occurred monthly. Anyone asking why has to look beyond the obvious: the seeking of financial favours in return for fixing the scoreline is an obvious motivation, but not the only one. A variety of socio-cultural factors are at play in Malta; not all outcomes are reducible to predatory betting syndicates or organised criminal networks.

Sometimes, the very nature of civil society offers a sense of legitimacy to those seeking to affect the outcome of a football match.

When in the mid-1990s a British-born manager of a Maltese Premier League club returned to Britain publically criticising the corruption he had encountered in his position in Maltese football, he was vilified in sections of the Maltese press as an ignorant foreigner who had misunderstood the nature of both Maltese football and society.

The island is polarised around two political parties and around Anglo-Italianate football rivalries. There are few political and footballing neutrals in Malta. This polarisation, when it is combined with what we might best term the ‘intimacy of the nation’, makes for intrigue.

What we can term ‘the public sphere’ in Malta is less attenuated than in larger nations.

In this small and densely populated island, public figures, rather than being distant personalities that are known through the mass media, are intimately known as friends, patrons

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Malta’s 12-1 loss to Spain in December 1983 led to accusations of match-fixing, and provoked calls in Maltese political circles for the national team to withdraw from international competitions

and neighbours. Such intimacy brings with it issues that are not easily understood by those who enjoy the anonymity of large nations; most notably the dualism of concealment and disclosure.

In 2002, a Public Broadcasting Service television presenter was suspended from his position for suggesting the existence of dubious practices in the local football leagues – issues that many close observers privately admitted to exist. This raised an issue crucial to accusations of match-fixing: what could be said, and with what consequences, and what could be proven?

Reciprocal social networks The preoccupation with disclosure might best be linked to the Catholic sensibilities of the Maltese and the discernment of God’s action within those of his followers1.

It is certainly linked to a view of society and government that assumes there are no arbitrary acts, coincidences or chance occurrences, but rather an integrated ‘systemless system’2 in which reciprocal social networks of ‘friends

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of friends’ and ‘patrons and clients’3 govern all possible outcomes of human activity, including football matches.

The former President of the Republic, Dr Censu Tabone, described Malta’s political system thus: “In Malta, even if some groups may share friendships, ideas or interests, there are no open factions, and any criticism of the leader would risk branding the critical or dissenting thinker as a traitor. The hegemony and longevity in leadership… is seen as a decidedly negative factor, working in favour of the power-wielding caucus of ‘inner sanctum’ secretaries, advisors, businessmen, politicians and other confidantes to the exclusion of all others in the wings. A static sameness in authority aids and abets time-serving, parasitic elements [who] appropriate power, even if they represent no electorate; it emarginates talent and potential, while simultaneously reducing vigour and enthusiasm.”4 In such a political milieu dominated by nepotism, favouritism and clientelism, it is not surprising that there is a widespread belief that football is open to corruption.5, 6

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However, there are few cases in which a footballer has been prosecuted for match-fixing. In the 1950s, Alfred ‘Effie’ Borg was convicted by the Maltese courts of corruption and sent to prison. The same happened to Maltese international Lino Farrugia, who during the same period was reported to the MFA by his own club, taken to court and jailed. In 1993, one player was banned from the game for life and he and a colleague jailed for two months.

A decade later in 2003, one player attempted to offer a financial inducement to another prior to a fixture while the conversation – unknown to the protagonist – was recorded on a mobile phone. The player was banned from the game and his club relegated a division.

This paucity of convictions has not, however, lessened the belief among fans, journalists, coaches and club presidents that football matches – indeed championships – in Malta are bought, not won7. The more prominent chants at the football grounds over the past 30 years have included references to corruption. When a player fails to make a particular play – misses a tackle, misses

a goal or a save – the calls are accusatory: mafja (‘mafia’), hallelin (‘thieves’) or Bil-guh (‘hungry’, therefore easily ‘bought’). The latter two phrases connote a willingness to put personal and financial gain above the collective good of the team and, implicitly, the neighbourhood they represent. The former makes a blatant suggestion that organised crime has decided the outcome of the game.

But the game might also be said to manifest the wisdom that Maltese citizens receive in their upbringing: suspicion and criticism of the political milieu existing alongside praise for those who know how to work it.

A variety of proverbs and adages recommend how to get on in the ‘systemless system’. One states ‘without saints you will never enter heaven’, which metaphorically describes the need for well-placed patrons or friends to achieve one’s aims in life. Another advises that ‘he who cannot leave by the door will leave by the window’ – possibly admiring the craftiness of people who get what they want. Another informs that ‘for every bone there are 100 dogs’, which acknowledges the inherent competition for local resources and the need for good connections.

Limited resources require people to learn the contours of the system; in a win-lose culture such as football, the winning is a limited resource. To succeed in life and in football personal relationships are needed, and this brings demands for reciprocity that complicate issues of ethics and avoidance.

To many Maltese, public accountability is a myth.

Politicians are expected to declare assets but there is no independent scrutiny. Political party funding is not recorded. Late payment and tax avoidance is widespread; the Parliamentary Secretary to the Finance Ministry announced in 2005 that 35 per cent of citizens evaded tax, equating to hundreds of millions in lost revenues.

The political milieu that sees elections won and lost on narrow margins stifles attempts to balance the budget.

In 1987, shortly before an election, some 8,000 potential voters of the opposition were given jobs working for the state. These sinecures cost the nation millions, but they were effective in winning votes for the incumbent party and also the election.

The intimacy of the nation militates against debates about impartiality and compromises those tasked with adjudicating. That which is true for politics also applies to football. As one player memorably explained in the 1990s: “How can they say the referees are impartial when in Malta everyone’s related to everyone else?…

When I used to play, one of the linesmen was the best man at my wedding!”

Reflections of values The true extent of corruption within Maltese football is not as important as the perceptions that exist, in as much as these reflect prevailing values. Questions on this topic in 1997 produced the following three diverse responses, which centred around the psyche of the Maltese. One is totally dismissive of claims of corruption, arguing that such claims result from an inability to accept the weakness of a fan’s own team. “No one accepts a defeat

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Recent match-fixing charges

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he Maltese national team was the subject of match-fixing allegations around a 2007 Norway-Malta Euro 2008 qualifier played in Oslo, which saw a 4-0 Norway victory. Three goals were scored in the last 18 minutes. An inquiry by the Maltese police began when a match-fixing trial in 2011 in Germany revealed that a Croatian national, who was part of a betting syndicate, was accused of having met with five of Malta’s players in an Oslo hotel before the game.

An anonymous letter sent to the president of the Malta Football Association (MFA) named the five players. In the subsequent inquiry some 30 individuals living in Malta were interviewed by the MFA Integrity Office, who then sent an 800-page dossier to UEFA’s Control and Disciplinary Board.

The outcome was one Maltese player – international Kevin Sammut (pictured right) – receiving a 10-year worldwide ban from the game, having been found guilty of match-fixing. Two other Maltese players were acquitted. The banned player denied any wrongdoing.

in Malta. It’s always either because the ref was corrupt or the players were,” observed one Maltese-born professional football coach.

A diametrically opposed view held by many is that everything on the island can be bought, and that has always been the way. “It cost me £4,000 a year in illegal payments to rival players and referees to win the championship,” recalled one club committee member, reminiscing about the late 1940s.8

A culture of gambling Others offered causation in the Maltese penchant for gambling. “There’s a café in Valletta where they all meet; they would bet on two flies walking down a glass bottle,” observed one interviewee.

Gambling provides a constant focus for discernment, whether reading the numbers to look for future outcomes

His testimony did not reveal anything incriminating and the teammate he roomed with in Norway testified that he had never left the hotel at the time he was accused of meeting the fixer.

The testimony of the Croat was crucial. He claimed to have fixed some 500 matches and was working for a man he had never met in person who gave orders from Sarajevo, Bosnia.

The description he gave of the convicted Maltese player did not remotely match the man. He also claimed to have met him in Malta when he worked for a betting company there and that the

wagers on the results of local games. The criteria for transactions was a knowledge of where to place a bet and an assurance that winnings would be paid. Others took a punt with brokers who for decades occupied a corner of the national stadium. Players were assumed to be in on the deals and be capable of sending messages to those involved in the process. With the arrival of global television broadcasting, betting on European games – particularly Italian games – became more prominent than betting on the local matches. Such games are not controlled by Maltese betting syndicates, but many in Malta believe they are controlled by someone, and speculation as to who is in control and which players are bribed is rife.

At the same time, many argue that domestic matchfixing has very little to do with gambling syndicates and everything to do with the nature of Maltese society, in particular the notions of patronage and parochialism – the ‘systemless system’.

“It’s not down to betting syndicates.

The problem is club committee men – they approach a rival player to lose a match; they play, do their job and get a bonus for losing and the committee men are heroes for bringing a trophy back to the village,” one local told a journalist in 1999.

Historically, many of those involved in political activism or seeking parliamentary power were also senior figures in football clubs. From the 1980s, political life became more hectic and Malta’s economic liberalism produced a new strata of nouveau riche entrepreneurs.

These people grew rich by working in oil, construction, tourism and supermarket retailing, and became presidents of the top Maltese football clubs – a position that gave them an electorate without a constituency. Some then pursued political office, with football as their springboard to politics. At the top level, Maltese football has, since the 1990s, been a rich man’s hobby; the game is totally dependent on their largesse to pay the players’ wages.

This produces what anthropologist Julian Pitt-Rivers would term a ‘lop-sided friendship’ between the presidents and the players and coaches.

The domestic game still gives its governing body cause for concern of the national lottery, or predicting football results by ‘analysing’ behind-the-scenes machinations rather than the on-pitch ability of teams.

This took place in a society that until 2004 banned gambling on local matches. The Maltese gambled on games elsewhere. From the 1950s until the late 1970s punters would bet illicitly on the English leagues via the English Football Pools system. The procedure relied on British Services personnel living on the island who circulated the coupons from the pools within and beyond the barracks. Those who won tended to keep quiet as the government could confiscate their winnings. Thus Malta had a widespread culture of gambling, and even the state-owned lottery was subverted for decades by an underground system offering more attractive odds. Illegal bookies operated out of bars where they would receive

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player was a waiter. The flaw in this claim was that the player was never a waiter. The player was actually substituted at half-time when the Maltese were 1-0 down.

Interestingly, for such a process UEFA decides which witnesses are considered relevant to the case and does not reveal what evidence is used to make the decision to convict. For such reasons the player at the time of writing is taking his appeal to the Court of Arbitration in Sport.

The president of the MFA, Norman Darmanin-Demajo, believed the game

was fixed and cited a figure of some €200,000 bet on the game’s outcome.

He also opined that a player need not be on the field of play to be in some way part of the match-fix deal.

In April of this year, the MFA banned for life four players after an inquiry revealed match-fixing in Malta Premier League games during the 2011/12 season. The Integrity Office began the inquiry after allegations were originally made by a club president. Interestingly, the same man retracted the allegation, but by then the inquiry process was too far gone and the verdicts were passed.

Some presidents act as mentors to their players, some become godparents to the children of players, and some lobby selectors for their player to represent the national team. If the president’s monies and machinations bring a trophy to the village such men are feted as saints, but if they cannot deliver on the promises made to the football club committees that appoint and support them they face the prospect of being replaced by those who can. They are the prime candidates for the processes of corruption. The payments they make to players – both their own and the ’positive incentives’ many offer rival teams before crucial fixtures with opponents other than their club – blur the boundaries between licit and illicit. All deny involvement in such processes, and all believe their opposing presidents are guilty of them. They are caught in a dilemma of appearing ‘clean’ – having a moral character of impeccable integrity – while having to bring success to their team and the village. This presents them with a variety of options. To shy away from all potential routes to success would be seen as a dereliction of duty.

Somewhere in this process, the desire to please the electorate, be it actual or potential, meets with the desire to make money. The Maltese game brings no money to the clubs’ coffers, but the clubs that qualify for one of the two UEFA tournaments live in hope of progressing beyond the preliminary rounds to gain a prime tie against one of the great clubs of Europe.

They would also gain concomitant income from the sale of broadcasting rights and prize monies.

Away from home, matters can get very curious.

In 1998, one Czech-Republic-born player of Sliema Wanderers was suspended from the game by UEFA on allegations of attempting to bribe the goalkeeper of the Hungarian opposition. The latter claimed the player came to his hotel room offering financial inducements to throw the game. The accused claimed he was simply delivering tourist brochures promoting the president’s hotels. He was eventually found not guilty of wrongdoing.

The Maltese case presents a microcosm of the issues affecting any global inquiry into match-fixing and corruption in sport. The Spain fixture, despite manifesting

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the most ludicrous of results, did not involve any reference to gambling syndicates or criminal fraternities. The issue was analysed in terms of the national shame it created, which may well be the correct one.

The Norway fixture was not a preposterous scoreline and the instigation of an inquiry in Malta resulted from revelations made in a German law court. The subsequent inquiry – years after the game – was thorough and proved consequential for one individual. However, justice was not done in the eyes of many people in Malta. The individual who was accused may yet have the decision against him overturned on appeal.

The domestic game still gives its governing body cause for concern, and while a club president can break ranks to reveal what he knows, his subsequent retraction of the accusation leaves the matter in the hands of the football authorities, whose integrity must be above question.

Dr Gary Armstrong is Reader in the Sociology of Sport at Brunel University References 1

Tonna, B, Institute for Research on the Signs of

the Times, Malta Trends, Malta, 1994 2

Mitchell, J P, Corruption and Clientelism in a

Systemless System: The Europeanisation of Maltese Political Culture, in South European Society and Politics, 2002, pp 43-62 3

Boissevain, J, Friends of Friends: Networks,

4

Frendo, H, Censu Tabone: The Man and his Century,

Manipulators and Coalitions, Blackwell, Oxford, 1974 Maltese Studies, Valletta, 2001 5

Baldacchino, C, ‘Glory and Upheaval’ in Goals, Cups and Tears, 1886-1919 Vol.1, Bigelli, Valletta, 1991

6

Baldacchino, C, ’The Post-War Period’ in Goals, Cups and Tears. Vol. 4, Bigelli, Valletta, 1993

7

Armstrong, G and Mitchell, JP, Local and Global football; Politics and Europenaisation on the fringes of the EU, Routledge London, 2008

8

G Armstrong and R Giulianotti (eds), Football Cultures and Identities, MacMillan/Palgrave, Basingstoke, 1999

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Sport needs ethical leadership in an era of fixing Haroon Lorgat argues that strong ethical leadership by governing bodies is an essential part of the strategy mix to drive match-fixing out of sport and protect it for future generations

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Recently, the powerhouse of world cricket, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), faced the shock of uncovering spot-fixing at home in the Indian Premier League (IPL). This was discovered by the Delhi police and was followed by fallout in the boardroom. It was revealing when Inderjit Singh Bindra, a former President of the BCCI, criticised the BCCI for its response to the scandal.

He wrote on his blog that “the administrators should set the example by agreeing for public probity, thus standing up for ethical behaviour and higher moral standards”.

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short while ago I read an article on ethical leadership written by former colleagues from the professional services firm where I was once a partner. It reminded me of the desperate need for leaders in sports organisations to embrace, not just in words but also in strong actions, the highest ethical standards, and for the leaders to set a clear example of honest and uncorrupt behavior from the top.

Sadly, my experience in cricket administration and my working knowledge and reading of other sports bodies suggest that the top echelons are not as focused on this issue as they ought to be. The obvious question is: how can we as leaders demand and ensure that the playing field is as pure as it should be? Surely, the behaviour of leaders is mirrored elsewhere in the organisation and the playing field will not be exempted.

To quote my former partners, ethics concerns itself with the moral principles that govern behaviour and accordingly good ethical behaviour results when one does not merely consider what is good for oneself, but also considers what is good for others.

It is in this respect that I believe there is more than a casual link between standards of ethical leadership in sporting bodies and the concerns we all have about corruption, including match-fixing. I have always held a belief that there is a direct correlation between the standards set in the boardroom and performance on the playing field.

One always sees the value of ethical leadership most clearly when it is lacking; its absence often results in an environment where greed, fraud, dishonesty, tension, confusion and the struggle for power prosper. We have seen this in the business world, and in politics, and unfortunately we can also see it in some sporting bodies.

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There is no doubt in my mind that sound ethical leadership will filter all the way down as it ultimately becomes the culture of the organisation. Unfortunately, in sport administration, good governance is not always evident and this does not create a good platform for dealing with the menace of corruption on the playing field.

With the advent of superior technologies and the ease with which bets, whether legal or illegal, can be placed in modern times, the integrity threat to every sport is real. When one combines greed with a lack of ethical leadership, it is no surprise that the threat of corruption on the playing field is at dangerous levels. No matter how much we may disapprove of betting on moral or ethical grounds, we will not be able to wish it away. It is therefore necessary for all sports to be prepared to face the reality and without doubt it would be helpful if betting markets were regulated and appropriate controls established to minimise risk to the integrity of sports.

We must encourage countries to introduce strong rules to regulate the betting industry as betting in unregulated circumstances poses serious danger. Clearly, no one will be willing to watch or bet on a corrupted sport.

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Lack of adequate legislation A significant disadvantage to fighting the menace of fixing in sport in most countries is the lack of adequate legislation against cheating. We need strict laws to deal specifically with sports corruption, making such activity a criminal offence. Even basic laws would be a lot better than no laws and it is something that sports bodies must press and work towards achieving. Sporting bodies only have jurisdiction over their players, officials and other support personnel who would have expressly signed up to its rules and regulations. By design the governing board is not a law-enforcement agency and cannot tackle the ‘bad guys’ who are outside their jurisdiction. So if there are ways in which a nation’s legislative framework can help to protect the integrity of sports, then naturally sports bodies must encourage and support that. The fight against corruption is the responsibility of everyone concerned and, in the case of cricket, this must include the ICC as the global governing Board, the various Member Boards, players, governments and the police.

In November 2010, the ICC, having recognised the threat of fixing moving more purposefully to the domestic

Mohammad Asif arriving for his spot-fixing trial over the 2010 Lord’s incident, which caused much consternation among commercial sponsors

make. As a result, governing bodies have no choice but to allocate as much resource as is needed to protect the integrity of the sport. There can’t be anything more important. However, without essential rules, regulations and people resources, you will simply not be in a position to protect and prosecute when necessary.

It is fair to say that some member cricket boards may have failed to believe the threat to their domestic leagues was a reality, and that their leagues were indeed the next avenue for the bad guys. The ICC had provided each member with template anti-corruption codes, and despite this, it took even some senior boards a long while to be convinced of the need to introduce the necessary capability at a domestic level.

Perhaps the human failing of ‘it only happens to other people’ applied.

However, after the Westfield case in England and the more recent events in the IPL and the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), I am sure all domestic administrators have realised that the threat is real and would readily accept the risk is omnipresent, even at the domestic level. In crime circles, the theory of ‘displacement’ is quite simple.

With strict measures operating at international level, perpetrators will naturally move to easier ‘markets’ to ply their trade. With the emergence of attractive and less

The fight against corruption is the responsibility of everyone concerned level, instructed all full members to introduce anticorruption capability at their level by no later than 1 April 2011. The logic was simple. The corruptors would not go away, they would simply find another hunting ground.

By nature the ‘bad guys’ are very creative in the ways that they ultimately get to the dollars that they wish to

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Cricket suffered greatly as a result of the matchfixing scandal surrounding Hansie Cronje in 2000

controlled domestic T20 leagues, it was opportune for these bad guys to move to easier targets. We should never forget that any televised sports match in the world is a particular target for corruption.

The role of players Ultimately, for there to be effective eradication of corrupt fixing in sport, the athletes themselves must play a proactive role. My first-hand experience at international level has convinced me that the vast majority of cricketers have the necessary integrity and wherewithal to do the right thing. They are true sportspeople interested in competition and high performance. After all, this is what drives them. On each occasion when corruption was uncovered on the playing field, we have found a few bad apples who caused untold damage to the rest of the sport.

It was encouraging in 2011 to note from the players’ survey their belief that the bans issued to the three players found guilty of the spot-fixing at Lord’s in 2010 was not steep enough. In fact, it took the ICC some effort to convince many players that a judge deciding punishment must be proportionate in doing so, otherwise the sanction will be reduced on appeal. This indicated

to me the desire of players to rid the game of those who are corrupt. The challenge is for the sports administrators to build trust and confidence with the players so that they will be forthcoming.

A clear prerequisite has to be ethical leadership.

There is undeniable evidence proving that corruption of any kind has a destructive impact on the sport and no one can refute the evidence from either the infamous Hansie Cronje scandal in 2000 or the spot-fixing incident at Lord’s in August 2010. Cricket suffered hugely from both these incidents and had it not been for the decisive manner in which these cases were dealt with, the repercussions could have been much more devastating and perhaps even permanent. After 2000, it took years for many fans to overcome the disappointment and even today I still come across people in my home country [South Africa] who do not watch the game because their hero had let them down. How can they trust others whom they don’t even regard as their hero?

Commercial partners were amongst the first to register their genuine concern at the corruption scandal in 2010. It is not surprising that renowned corporate entities do not want to be associated with corruption of

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any kind as they have their own global reputation and integrity to protect. In my experience they are far better at living their set of values than sports bodies do. I recall a brand new sponsor that we had reached agreement with, save for the actual signing of contracts, immediately advising us of their intention to withdraw. Fortunately, the decisive manner in which we went about dealing with the matter impressed them sufficiently to return to the table and they eventually signed the contract. They were satisfied with our actions to enforce our stated goal of zero tolerance on corruption.

At the same time as this new global sponsor voiced their displeasure, many of our existing commercial partners raised their concerns too. In particular, our

With strict measures operating at international level, perpetrators will naturally move to easier ‘markets’ to ply their trade broadcast partner informed us in writing of the damage they were already suffering as a result of the ‘spot-fixing’ breaking news. They wrote “…we have been informed overnight… of advertisers immediately pulling their campaigns following the breaking of the story”. It was by then evident that the impacts were going to be profound and the threat of severe damage, commercial and otherwise, was immediately apparent. The broadcaster went on to say: “It is likely that more fallout will follow elsewhere as the story unfolds.” In short, the broadcaster had signalled to the ICC that their ability to monetise broadcast rights by attracting sponsors, advertisers and ultimately viewers was being impacted negatively. In their world, corruption was the most commercially destructive force facing the sport of cricket. In their words, it had a direct and quantifiable impact on the efficacy and value attributable to their rights. To witness the strong reaction of sponsors, we need look no further than the recent examples of Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong.

The imperative of swift action As Chief Executive, it was clear to me that there was no alternative but to tackle the issue swiftly and head on.

The ICC investigators and legal team set about in earnest and within five days of the news breaking had secured sufficient evidence to draw up individual charge sheets and provisionally suspend the three players involved.

Apart from this swiftness being some sort of a record, we were fortunate in that a year before we had the foresight to update our Anti-Corruption Code so that the rules allowed the ICC to provisionally suspend players.

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The ICC code is widely regarded as the most comprehensive of its kind in international sport.

With the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 no more than six months away, it was clear to me what needed to be done. We needed to act fast and we needed to conclude before the World Cup started or face serious distractions. Amongst other fundamentals, the success of the Cricket World Cup depended on it, and this World Cup had more challenges riding on it than ever before.

For one, the future of the 50-over cricket format was being constantly grilled by naysayers who believed its time was up. They were calling for it to be scrapped.

But, knowing that the time frame was indeed tight, we set out with purpose to clean up the spot-fixing mess before the World Cup commenced in mid February 2011.

Apart from having to deal with officials and a media that was driven by emotional Pakistani fans who could not believe their heroes were capable of cheating, we

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Cricket fans burn posters of the players involved in the Indian Premier League spot-fixing investigation

were additionally challenged by the fact that this incident was also a criminal case in the United Kingdom. We had to be especially careful not to affect the police investigation.

I was personally cautioned by the Metropolitan Police of the danger of ‘obstructing justice’ as they were pursuing their own criminal investigation. I can assure you there were many uncomfortable nights during this entire episode. In the end, through detailed planning, painstaking investigation and a determination to bring any culprits to book, the ICC was successful in proving guilt beyond reasonable doubt and banning the culprits.

Thankfully, a few months ago this matter was finally put to rest when the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the ICC’s independent tribunal’s verdict and punishment by ruling against the appeals that were lodged by two of the players. I am convinced that the ICC has a very strong capability and an independent process to deal with player corruption. The case demonstrated clearly the ICC’s zero-

tolerance approach to on-field corruption and also that the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Code is a model that can be replicated in other sports.

Vigilance and ethical standards Now that the 2010 spot-fixing scandal is over, it is time for us to move on, but clearly the menace of corruption will not leave us. Strong vigilance and adherence to the highest ethical standards among all stakeholders, especially the players but also officials and board members, must continue. Our game is truly great and we must protect it for future generations to enjoy.

Haroon Lorgat was the CEO of the ICC between July 2008 and June 2012. He is now a professional consultant and an independent non-executive director on corporate boards. The views expressed here are those of the author alone and do not reflect those of the ICC or the ICSS

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Channelling role models: setting standards in sport

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he sporting world is engaged in many areas of youth education and development programmes across the globe, both in developed and developing countries.

These programmes address the fundamentals of education and provide springboards for those who wish to advance, while at the same time helping to encourage and develop the sporting prowess of the young people involved.

While one absolutely understands and supports these initiatives to the full, education is not enough.

We must address the aspect of social conduct and the values that govern human interaction on all levels.

In fact, a large proportion of anti-social acts and misconduct is perpetrated by those who have enjoyed the full benefit of an education.

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From childhood, our social conduct is influenced by older members of society around us; initially our parents, but as we grow old enough to take note of other adults we are also influenced by pop stars, movie stars, models and athletes who are paraded in front of us on a daily basis by the world’s media.

Whichever adult a young person may choose to hold in high esteem will become the role model for that child. They will play a role in the child’s development and have an influence on their behaviour to some extent, albeit perhaps from afar.

This is borne out in time and again throughout society, and we need only look at the process from a few different spectator events and age groups to see how role models can influence mind sets and behaviour in all age groups.

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Rick Festorazzi argues for greater development of role models in setting an example for the younger generation

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Brumbies players applaud the British and Irish Lions as they leave the field. Sport has an important role to play in teaching young people how to deal with defeat

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Alamy

Fans socialise after a Wales-South Africa rugby match. Rugby games often have a party atmosphere between both sides

In the world of music there are many and varied groups and artists who attract equally varied groups of spectators to their events. The likes of boy and girl pop bands attract a young fan base to concerts due to the age group they are pitched at, the type of music they play and their overall image. We can also safely say that many of the fans of these bands will arrive sporting the very latest band haircuts and, due to the nature of the band’s act, the concert will be very lively with many fans singing and dancing on their seats and in the aisles.

At the other end of the spectrum, for example at a classical music concert, you would expect to see a far more sedate affair – a smartly attired audience that is sitting respectfully in its seats while being entertained by musicians who are formally dressed.

All of this means that the spectator dynamic changes depending on both the age of the spectator group and the behaviour of those performing. It therefore follows that different control plans must be put in to place in order to deal with the different dynamics.

Differences between rugby and football In the sporting world we also have our influences, and on the whole these are positive. However, there are some very negative ones as well. Take the differences between rugby and football. For example, the fans: both sets of fans attend an enclosed arena where, on the field of play,

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they will witness two opposing teams battling it out in a fast-moving and often passionately fought spectacle.

The way in which these two audiences approach the viewing experience are poles apart.

The rugby spectator embraces the experience as not only a sporting event, but as a very social one too. Come match day, especially at international level tournaments, the car parks surrounding the stadium are turned into picnic areas from as early as breakfast time.

Fans set up stall and invite anyone passing by to join in the fun. A party atmosphere, which does not differentiate between the two opposing sides, welcomes all. Alcohol is consumed at these events, both at the picnic stage and during the game. Indeed it can be purchased within the stadium for the duration of the match. It is considered a part of the tradition and culture of the match day experience. However, this consumption has little bearing on the conduct of the spectators within the confines of the stadium, and in general adds to the experience as a whole.

Because there is no need to ban alcohol from the stadium, for the most part rugby spectators are in place and ready for the action on the field well before the start of the game. This helps considerably to manage the influx of supporters in terms of there being a steady flow into the stadium, as opposed to a last-minute rush.

For football, fans will arrive at the stadium just prior to the beginning of the match, having had little or no social

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interaction with the opposing spectators and having spent time in the surrounding pubs and bars rather than at a picnic. Often, fans will drink quickly prior to the match, because once at the turnstiles alcohol is confiscated and once inside there is restricted access to alcohol. This holds true for football events across Europe.

Command of the game There are reasons for this. There are no picnics due to the fact that football fans have a history of violence and hooliganism and therefore fan segregation is seen as an important and sometimes crucial part of crowd control measures.

Alcohol is banned because it has been seen to play a role in the anti-social behaviour sometimes carried out at football gatherings. Once in the stadium, and with the game under way, the players are in the spotlight and in full view. This is where personal conduct and attitude is amplified and seen by those attending and those watching through the media.

Again, there are comparisons to be made.

You could be forgiven for thinking that within rugby, a sport that involves hard, physical contact between players,

violence and lack of discipline would be a part of the equation; but it is not. In the rugby scenario we see two teams battling it out in a cauldron of hard tackles, knocks and blows, but these are all legal and governed. The rugby player is trained to accept that this is part of the game, but that gratuitous violence and ill discipline have no place within the rugby world.

Of course there are times when, in a moment of passion, tempers become frayed, and this is the domain of the referee. Indignations and transgressions on the pitch are dealt with by him in no uncertain terms.

Again, rugby players are schooled to accept that the referee is there to govern the game, and that he and his decisions are to be respected and adhered to at all times.

In fact, respect for the game and the referee are so instilled in the players that it is quite normal to hear him being addressed as ‘sir’ by the players, and any player who demonstrates a lack of restraint in the heat of the moment and challenges the referee risks punishment for the whole team in an advantage being awarded by the referee to the opposing team.

EMPICS Sport/PA Images

Rugby players are schooled to accept that the referee is there to govern the game

Liverpool FC’s Daniel Sturridge celebrates in front of fans after scoring a goal. Players’ behaviour on the pitch can be picked up by fans

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David Beckham, with son Romeo. Beckham, who announced his retirement from football in May 2013, has long been considered a role model for his work both on and off the pitch

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This respect for hard play and the referee’s command of the game keeps tempers in check and is transmitted to the spectators. This defines the way in which the game is both played and supported.

Unfortunately, football does not have such welldefined respect. It seems to be considered acceptable behaviour for players to argue with the referee, not only as a matter of course, but quite often en-masse. Further, it is not uncommon for a group of players to seemingly intimidate the referee by surrounding and jostling him during a player’s remonstration of his decision.

What is the management, who are watching from the sideline, thinking while this behaviour is taking place on the pitch? Sadly, they are quite often to be seen screaming their own indignation at the referee’s decision at him from the sideline.

What can we expect of our aspiring younger generation when they are witness to this behaviour?

We need only stand on the sidelines of school or youth football pitches and local leagues to see the answer to that question, for this behaviour is replicated most weekends in most countries. This was seen at its extremes with the death of a volunteer linesman at a Dutch youth match in December 2012. He was kicked and beaten by a group of players and died of his injuries. The players were 16 to 17 years old.

Influence from the field

Managers must accept more responsibility for their conduct and demonstrate this through leadership to those they lead. I particularly aim this sentiment at football coaches and managers. They must be more influential in controlling the players under their wings and there must be stricter methods of governance and demonstrations of zero tolerance for indiscretions.

Portraying positive attitudes The football world receives much media coverage, and it is incumbent upon all involved to portray a positive attitude both on and off the field that can be followed by all before they can rightly be called a role model.

Only then may we see a difference in the way in which supporters conduct themselves.

Education is not just the responsibility of the role model; after all, they cannot be in the home or at the pitchside for school matches or local leagues. This is the domain of the parent, guardian or relative, and is an area where influence cannot be over emphasised.

Due to this wide-reaching influence, programmes that are aimed at the youth of today must also incorporate the older generation, because they influence the foundation of every child’s learning.

We owe it to our children to teach them to be the very best that they can be

It is the attitude of those on the field of play that to various degrees influences the behaviour and conduct of those watching the game. This influence does not just confine itself to the event, but can have a widerreaching effect; one that can shape the way people react and behave socially at events and generally in their day-to-day lives. Social education is the area that needs to be addressed in conjunction with programmes of academic education.

There are many fine initiatives that are trying to address the issue of attitude within sport. The Great Sportsmanship Programme is one such initiative, which is committed to bringing sportsmanship back into sport with the production of storybooks and videos that depict moments of great sportsmanship. The Save the Dream project is another initiative, developed by the Qatar Olympic Committee, aimed at the younger members of society and promoting the integrity of sport. At the recent ICSS conference on Securing Sport 2013, Save the Dream awarded its first trophy for honesty and sportsmanship to Spanish athlete Iván Fernández Anaya.

Society has long recognised the value of the role model, but there must now be a push to involve all those who are associated with sport to ensure that the role model is displaying the correct attitude and behaviour that will equip our young people with the right tools to become positive and productive members of society.

This process has to start at a grass-roots level and must be carried through to senior level and beyond.

I recently attended the Doha Goals conference in Qatar, at which there was a wide variety of sports stars, and had the pleasure of listening to Carl Lewis who made a very valid point. He mentioned the fact that schools, and in part society, are setting our youngsters up to fail. He was addressing the fact that we are encouraging younger generations to believe that everyone can achieve, and that there are no losers or second places.

Thinking that we can all achieve is a philosophy that is hard to digest when the reality of adult life sets in and young people find that in fact there are second and even third places to be filled in life.

We need to educate and prepare our young people for the fact that we can’t all be first in life. We need to teach them that having done the very best that they could, to be gracious in defeat. We must teach them to accept that those who beat us do so because they are better than us on the day. We should celebrate their victory with them, and try next time to achieve the number one position.

We owe it to our children to teach them to be the very best that they can be. We need to look towards those that are in a position of influence to promote this education, and this falls to the men and women who are projected as role models to our society from whatever profession they are engaged in, but particularly those within sport.

Rick Festorazzi is the director of training at the ICSS

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Football: a sporting barometer of European integration policies James M Dorsey reports on the successes that football teams have had in helping immigrant communities to integrate with wider society, observing that football can be a useful indicator of how well integration policies are working across Europe

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Dalkurd, one of three Swedish clubs that have fielded Europe’s most successful immigrant teams, was founded in Borlänge, a small iron and paper mill workers’ town of some 50,000 predominantly ethnically Swedish residents 220 km north of Stockholm. The club was initially launched as a project to create jobs for the youth. Dalkurd’s Swedish identity is clearly identifiable on maps; its minority Kurdish identity is not. That makes Dalkurd as much a product of the social and economic challenges facing immigrants in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe as it is of the carveup of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th

Scanpix/PA Images/Alamy/iStockphoto

he phones ring continuously at Kurdish football club Dalkurd FF, a hot team for agents and players. In 2009, it signed Bosnian international Nedim Halilović and upcoming Algerian-Swedish star Nadir Benchenaa. More prominent signings are in the works. Started in 2004 with the support of top Swedish football club IK Brage as a project to create jobs for Kurdish youth, Dalkurd’s meteoric rise has put it on the international football map and turned it into a model of how a Middle Eastern immigrant community can address its social and economic problems and project its identity.

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century that turned Kurds into the largest nation without a homeland, and scattered them across the Middle East and the globe. It also highlights Sweden’s relative success in integrating minorities from southern Europe and North Africa who in the 1960s and 70s began immigrating to western and northern Europe, which at the time were encouraging labour migration.

Dalkurd, like other immigrant teams and players, turns football into a prism through which to view how Europe is being shaped by significant Muslim migration and uses the game as a barometer of successes and

players in the continent’s national teams. Of the 2,600 professional players in the five top European leagues – England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France – 800 are expatriates born and recruited in an often Muslim country, and another 500 are immigrants or their descendants.

The three Swedish teams formed by Kurds or Assyrians/Syriacs – two groups that faced off with each other in the early 20th century in rugged eastern Turkey – thrive in a country that is the most welcoming in Europe to non-EU immigrants. Sweden stands out at a time of economic crisis as a nation that has been able to maintain

Goals scored in major European competitions in recent years

Foreign-born players or players from immigrant families

Players in Europe’s national teams

Foreign-born players or players from immigrant families

On a continental scale, a third of all goals in major European competitions were scored in recent years by either foreign-born players or players from immigrant families, who account for almost half the players in the continent’s national teams

failures in integration policy. It also spotlights football’s ability to encourage bonding and the development of separate, often multi-layered, identities that help groups to find a common ground and also to differentiate themselves from one another.

National teams, international squads On a continental scale, a third of all goals in major European competitions in recent years were scored by either foreign-born players or those from immigrant families. These footballers account for almost half of the

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a welfare state and pay for it too.1 As a result, Sweden hosts more than 25 Assyrian/Syriac clubs alone2 as well as a score of less-prominent Kurdish ones.

Dalkurd’s initial players were Kurdish migrants and refugees, and their descendants. Kurdish immigrants moved to Europe in search of more fertile economic pastures and to escape the suppression of their cultural identity and political rights in Turkey. Elvan Cicen, Dalkurd’s co-founder and sports director, says that, instinctively, the founders thought of naming the club Kurdistan, but on reflection opted for Dalkurd: Dal for

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Dalarna, the region where Borlänge is located, and Kurd for Kurdistan.3 Dalarna’s famous wooden horses frame the yellow sun on the red, white and green Kurdish flag that the club adopted as its own.

“We are both Kurdish and Swedish. Football is our tool to integrate people. We took kids off the streets and away from the gangs. Everybody blamed the kids. But the real problem was the parents, who often were analphabets.

The kids lived in different worlds in school and at home.

The parents didn’t see what was happening and the kids weren’t integrated. We started involving the parents,”

England

Spain

They socialise only with the Kurdish part of Dalkurd.

I’m trying to learn from both cultures. Having two cultures is being richer. We would lose if we were only a Kurdish team. They call us the Kurdish national team.

That is not a problem but we don’t close the door to other people,” Cicen says.

Cicen’s philosophy is backed up by research that shows that sport serves as an integrative tool, or in the words of sports anthropologist Paul Verweel, an enabler of social participation5 through clubs that have an open culture and ideology6 with football being a sport more

Italy

Germany

France

2,600 professional players

31% 800

Expatriates recruited abroad

19%

50%

500

1,300

Immigrants or their descendants

Indigenous

Of the 2,600 professional players in the five top European leagues – England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France – 800 are expatriates born and recruited abroad, another 500 are immigrants or their descendants

Cicen says.4 Dalkurd players have become role models in local high schools. They have sparked a cultural revolution, inspiring girls to form their own team with the support of Dalkurd managers who seek to overcome the objections put forward by conservative parents.

Dalkurd’s leadership, much like that of other immigrant communities, draws a distinction between integration and assimilation. “Integration is not assimilation. It’s learning a new culture without losing one’s own. Even if we had Kurdistan, I wouldn’t move there. Sure, my parents didn’t come here to be Swedes.

obsessed with ethnicity than many others.7 That open culture is further encouraged by the fact that both Dalkurd and the Assyrian teams appeal to a fan base that is not purely local but includes a regional, and even global, diaspora. Their self-image as teams that represent a nation rather than just a local community means they are rooted both in the municipality that hosts them and a more geographically diverse community. The internet allows them to maintain bonds across boundaries by broadcasting their matches live on the web and including far-away supporters in their fan networks.

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For Kurds, the dream of nationhood is a more realistic one than it is for Assyrians. While Assyrians acknowledge that their hopes for a home state are likely to remain a dream, Kurds can point to an Iraqi Kurdistan as a state-in-waiting with all the building blocks in place.

Tumultuous events in Syria are likely to result in Kurds gaining more rights and the government in Turkey has been willing to negotiate with guerrillas who fought a war over almost two decades in which at least 40,000 people died. Nonetheless, Dalkurd is making its mark not in Iraqi Kurdistan, Iran, Turkey or Syria, but in Sweden, where it has won league after league as a Swedish team with a dual identity. Half of its players are the sons and daughters of parents who sought relief from economic underdevelopment and suppression; the remainder are Swedes and other foreigners. Even so, its fans largely include refugees, and their Swedish-born descendants, who fled religious and ethnic discrimination in Turkey and Iran, and Saddam Hussein’s ethnic cleansing of Kurds in northern Iraq. Dalkurd’s sponsors are predominantly Swedish-Kurdish businessmen.

Kurdish members of Dalkurd’s board do not hide their empathy for the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), the guerrilla group that fought Turkish security forces in south-eastern Turkey. The PKK has, in recent years,

to those of FIFA. VIVA competitors are teams that hail from a tribal area, an agricultural province, an occupied nation, a semi-autonomous region, an ancient city-state, a disenfranchised minority enclave or a nation that is not recognised by football’s international governing body.

“The goal is ideological,” says Jean-Luc Kit, vice president of the New Federation Board, VIVA’s organiser. “It’s about allowing peoples to exist through sport.”8 In VIVA, Iraqi Kurds, who are the closest to statehood than Kurds have ever come, and hosted the VIVA tournament in 2012, join fellow aspirant nations, such as Provence, the former Roman province of Raetia in Switzerland, Occitania, the Western Sahara, Darfur, Northern Cyprus, Zanzibar and Greenland – a country that FIFA does not recognise in part because it is too cold to grow adequate grass there.

The goal of integration If Dalkurd advances into the UEFA Europa League, the club would also achieve another goal: it would symbolise Kurdish integration into Sweden in much the same way that the country’s two other top performing immigrant teams from the industrial town of Södertälje, 35 km south of Stockholm, did for the Assyrian/Syriac community.

Ironically, the split among Assyrians in Södertälje, where they account for a quarter of the population, over how to refer to their community in Swedish – depending on whether one emphasises religion and church or the ancient national characteristics of the group – reflects the degree to which they have integrated into their adopted homeland. Assyrians, unlike Kurds, immigrated to Sweden in the knowledge that they were unlikely to ever witness the resurrection of their homeland as a national entity. “We were born here. We don’t know exactly what happened over there.

Sweden is good. It is our country. We have no other country. I would never want to live in Turkey. I go there on vacation and come back. Turkey is not for our people.

When we play there, they stamp our passports at the border and throw them at us. They don’t like us,” said Syriac football player Robert Massi.

The split within the community has sparked two rival football teams. Each sees itself as the national squad of a disenfranchised nation. There are also two satellite television stations that broadcast in multiple languages, two churches, and a playground for criminal and foreign interests. The differing interpretations of history and identity are highlighted in symbols and chants during Södertälje’s derby.9 Assyriska FF fans boast tattoos of the Assyrian god Ashur while those of Syrianska FC display Christian symbolism or Syriac script on their bare upper bodies. Assyriska fans rolled out a huge flag portraying a medieval patriarch with a sword in commemoration of the mass killing of Assyrians in 1915 and an image of the Ishtar Gate in ancient Babel during the 2009 derby.10 Similarly, fans of both clubs often lace their debates about their teams with historic

If Dalkurd advances into the UEFA Europa League it would symbolise Kurdish integration into Sweden dropped its demand for an independent Kurdish state in favour of full cultural and political rights within the framework of the Turkish state. Officials in Iraqi Kurdistan, where the PKK has bases, suggest that the group has helped fund Dalkurd, a claim the club’s executives deny.

Nevertheless, Dalkurd chairman Ramazan Kizil, a Kurdish immigrant from Turkey, was sentenced in 2010 in absentia to 10 months in prison in his homeland after giving a speech in his native Kurdish and campaigning on behalf of a pro-Kurdish political party. Kizil’s ambition is to take Dalkurd into the UEFA Europa League, where he dreams of unfurling the Kurdish alongside the Swedish flag. Iraqi Kurdistan has long campaigned unsuccessfully to become a member of FIFA with a status like that of Palestine, the only member without a country, or England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, all of which compete separately rather than as the United Kingdom.

The VIVA World Cup In doing so, he would put a dent in Kurdistan’s status as a football outcast. Kurdish players are international stars and Kurdish clubs dominate the Iraqi league, but the Kurdish flag flies only at the VIVA World Cup, a tournament that operates by a different set of standards

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Getty Images

Assyriska and Syrianska, both football clubs formed by immigrants to Sweden, during the Södertälje derby

and religious references designed to prove their differing perceptions on whether the Assyrian kingdom will ever be resurrected and to what degree Assyrians can be distinguished from their church. The differing expressions of support constitute a continuous negotiation of what it means to be an Assyrian or Syriac.11 The football pitch serves as their platform for becoming part of a new society while at the same time maintaining past cultural identity and resisting efforts to marginalise their national and religious roots. As such, the battles on the pitch are an extension of issues Assyrians and Syriacs confront in their daily lives.

If history and cultural tradition defines the Assyrian/ Syriac and Kurdish communities in Södertälje and Borlänge, so does concern about the blood-drenched popular revolt in Syria, intermittent clashes between Turkish security forces and the PKK in predominantly Kurdish south-eastern Turkey, and the spectre of the two

meshing with Kurds becoming pawns in the struggle for the survival of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s embattled regime. Those fears are reinforced by: the influx of Christian refugees from Iraq and, more recently, Syria; concerns about the rise of Islamism and the Muslim Brotherhood in Turkey, Syria and post-revolt Middle Eastern and North African nations; links between some Assyrians and Israel; and the grip of pro-Assad elements on the institutions of one significant faction of Assyrians.

The decision of Ignatius IV Hazim, the late patriarch of Antioch, to back Assad12 highlighted the split in the community and raised concerns that the community might be seen in Sweden as supportive of the Syrian leader’s brutal regime. Football managers fear that such an image could undermine their efforts to project themselves as symbols of integration in a country traditionally sympathetic to their community, which migrated to stay and constitutes an economic success

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trial of 17 people, including two Syrian nationals, on murder, blackmail and other charges involving Assyrian football in Södertälje.14 The fears are most prevalent among officials and supporters of Syrianska FC, the team aligned with the church of Ignatius IV Hazim. Ghayath Moro, a former Syrianska board member who now serves as the unelected head of security, fled Syria in the 1970s and arrived in Sweden aboard a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) flight from Lebanon. Moro’s unelected position of power in Syrianska serves as evidence for its Assyriska rivals that theirs is a more forward-looking, professionally run club in which officials are held accountable. To Assyriska officials and supporters, professionalism is a code word for ‘better

Scanpix/PA Images

story. The community has produced one former minister and a number of well-known journalists. Yet Assyrians and Syriacs, like the Kurds, feel that no matter how integrated they are and how good their Swedish is they continue to be viewed as outsiders by Swedish society. “I have been here for 40 years but I am still a foreigner. They never make you feel a part of their country. I did my military service here, I play golf and I speak Swedish. But because of my name and hair colour, they treat me differently. I’m still thankful,” says Assyriska executive Aziz Jacob.13 The perception that there is support for Assad from a significant segment of the community strengthens Swedish suspicions of links between the clubs and organised crime. These were reinforced by the recent

Assyriska fans in Sweden wear traditional Assyrian clothes as they cheer on their team

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integrated’ in Sweden. Assyriska officials note that their meetings are conducted in Swedish while those of Syrianska are in Aramaic. Swedish football association officials point out that Syrianska is managed by a small core group that has full control while Assyriska has a more professionally constituted board.15 In many ways, the split in the community that has been formalised in rival football teams has become one about the nature and degree of integration, with football as a manifestation of differing perceptions of history and culture. The differing perceptions are also reflected in the Syrian Orthodox Church’s close-knit ties with Syrianska, which are viewed

by Assyriska supporters as a dangerous mingling of national and cultural identity.

Lulu Shanku, a Syrianska star who in 2011 stopped playing for the Syrian national team, freely describes the corruption in Syrian football and the intimidation of players by the Assad regime – until Moro joins the conversation. Replying to a question posed to Shanku about the fate of Mosab Balhous, the Syrian national team’s goalkeeper who initially vanished two years ago after reportedly being accused by the Assad regime of being an Islamist, Moro says: “Mosab disappeared because of one of the gangsters against the regime.”

According to a senior Syrian football official, now a refugee in Jordan, Balhous resurfaced in Syria in 2013, though he could not explain his two-year disappearance.

Using terminology employed by the regime, Moro denounces Syrian protesters and rebels as “gangsters” and accuses the United States, Israel and Al Qaeda of

Germans feted their 2010 multi-cultural World Cup squad as proof integration of Muslim immigrants is succeeding waging war against Assad. “It is clear that the people want Assad,” Moro says. “The gangsters bombed our church in Khaldiye [an embattled neighbourhood of the city of Homs where Balhous originates and where another national goalkeeper is an opposition leader].

Too many Christians died. Christians are 10 per cent of the population. We have two ministers [in Syria].

Christians and Syrians have always lived in peace and had good relations.” He says the siege of Homs has, since the bombing, enabled Assad to “clean” the city.

Younger Assyrians and Syriacs raised in Sweden, with its long history of social democratic government, feel uneasy with Moro’s unabashed support for a regime whose ruthlessness has made it a pariah. They too, however, express concerns about the fate of the Christian minority in a post-Assad era. They feel more comfortable with Moro’s expression of frustration with a perceived lack of acceptance by Swedish society. “The Swedes don’t want us to succeed. We’re ambitious, that is what sets us apart.

We try all the time to build bridges. It is not easy because we are a foreign team and always will be a foreign team.

They don’t see us as Swedes… and the Swedish media do not show our good side,” Moro says, referring to reports on Södertälje football’s links to criminal groups. Describing Syrianiska as a tool to keep youth from drifting into alcohol and drug abuse, Moro blames the city’s criminality on high unemployment and an influx of refugees from Iraq, many of whom are unregistered. He says an increase in police officers had made streets safe again.

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Getty Images

The perception that society is failing to embrace the descendents of immigrants as equals is even stronger on German football pitches. Take the case of Nuri Sahin, for example. He was heralded a future star at age 16. He was the youngest player ever to compete in Germany’s Bundesliga, the country’s premier league. A German-born Turk with an infatuating smile, Sahin had secured his place in Germany’s national football team. The German Football Association did everything to persuade him to grab the opportunity, but to no avail. Sahin, like many top GermanTurkish footballers, was determined to play for Turkey, asserting that he may have been born in Germany but that at the bottom line he was Turkish.16 In his first international game, he scored the winning goal – against Germany.

Sahin’s refusal to play for Germany is the product of a country that until recently refused to give citizenship even to those children of immigrants that were born in Germany. Yet, it shocked Germans, who see their national football team as proof that they are successfully integrating their seven million immigrants. With German spoken almost as much in Istanbul clubs as it is in German clubs, Sahin’s decision and the talent drain it represents are a loss and a tell-tale sign of Germany’s struggle with the integration of immigrants.

At the same time, it also tells the story of football’s cross-fertilising effect, not only in Europe but beyond the continent’s borders. The German Turks bring German virtues to Turkey and badly needed talent to European clubs. Football further bridges identities and constitutes a sort of reverse reconciliation, as is the case with France, whose French-born players join teams of their parents’ heritage in Algeria and elsewhere across the Mediterranean.

The cross-fertilisation effect

The International Football Association Board ruled in 2012 that women could wear the Hijab during matches

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The cross fertilisation goes a step further. The ultras – militant, highly organised, highly politicised, street-battle hardened football fans in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa – trace their roots and model themselves on similar groups in Italy and Serbia.

It was a German-Tunisian football player, Sami Khedira, who sparked the first crisis in post-revolt Tunisia between the media and the Islamist Ennahda-led government.

Staff at Attounissia newspaper were arrested in February 2013 for reprinting a revealing cover of GQ Magazine on which Khedira, dressed in a tuxedo, covers with his hands the breasts of his otherwise naked girlfriend, German model Lena Gercke.

If Germany’s struggle with immigration is a story of two steps forward, one step back, across the Rhine in France, home to western Europe’s largest Muslim community, it’s one step forward, two steps back. Germans feted their 2010 multi-cultural World Cup squad as proof of the new Germany, a country where integration of Muslim immigrants is succeeding even if it remains cumbersome 10 years after offering, for the first time, citizenship to the German-born offspring of migrants.

Germany’s success, moreover, loomed large against the backdrop of the disintegration in South Africa of the French national squad, a damming condemnation of France’s integration policy.

In fact, when the jet carrying the disgraced French team home landed on the tarmac in Paris it resembled an aircraft being sequestered for security or safety reasons.

The plane stood there for an hour with its doors closed as the French media, government ministers and politicians denounced the football team as scum, trouble-makers and ‘guys with peas in their heads instead of brains,’ who were led by a captain who refused to sing the Marseillaise.

The team made the kind of football history that Frenchmen would prefer to forget about: they were the first team ever to go on strike during a World Cup tournament and turned France into a global laughing stock.

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Right wingers compared the players, many of whom hailed from immigrant suburbs, to hooded youths who set fire to cars on Saturday nights. Centre-right ministers echoed far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen’s denunciation of the team before the World Cup. She said the squad did not represent France and were more interested in commercial endorsements than national pride. Her comments came in response to Zinedine Zidane, the French-born scion of Algerian immigrants.

Zidane is married to a Spaniard whose children have Christian names, and who is widely viewed as one of the best players of his generation. He describes himself as “first a Kabyle [Berber] from La Castellane [a neighborhood of Marseille], then an Algerian from Marseille, and then a Frenchman”.

This was all a far cry from the days of glory in 1998, when a victorious black-white-Arab team united the country. The question is: what went wrong? The answer to some degree is former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s focus on money and individualism that reinforced social and urban segregation, hardened the religious and cultural divide and fed post-9/11 prejudice against Muslims. Yet football was an indicator of the disintegration that predated Sarkozy and led to the World Cup disgrace.

a headdress that meets their cultural requirements, as well as standards of safety and security. The Danish support for Al Khatib was remarkable as it came at a time that parliaments in France, Belgium and Spain were imposing restrictions on Muslim women’s garb.

Khatib became the first covered national football player in Europe to be successfully fielded by her team. She wears a black scarf tightly wrapped around her head when she unleashes her lightning fast and nimble skills, and extraordinary her ability to score with a header.

The Danish association defended the headscarf of its Under-18 national team’s most promising forward as a cultural rather than a religious commitment and compared it to the headband of Brazilian midfielder

The football pitch has become a tool for integration and a measure of the success of European integration policies

The hijab as a cultural symbol

Ronaldinho Gaucho, which also violates FIFA’s insistence that all players should be dressed identically.

The Danish association’s support of Al Khatib set an example for the coalition of female European and Asian football executives and trainers, and Middle Eastern women players led by FIFA vice president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan, which successfully campaigned for FIFA and IFAB’s lifting of the ban on women’s headdress.

The football pitch has become an important tool for integration and a measure of the success of European integration policies. As such, it constitutes a barometer that local, regional and national policymakers in Europe cannot afford to ignore.

By the same token, Denmark, a country that in recent years has adopted a tougher stance on immigration, emerged as an unlikely catalyst in the acceptance of women who choose to wear the hijab on the football pitch.

In 2008 the Danish Football Association backed Zainab al Khatib, a 15-year-old star striker of Palestinian origin who carried the banner in Europe for women demanding the right to play with their heads covered. Its support inspired a campaign to portray the headdress as a cultural rather than a religious symbol. That distinction ultimately persuaded the International Football Association Board, the body that governs the rules of professional football, to rule in 2012 that religiously observant women could wear

James M Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, Co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture at the University of Würzburg, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

References

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1

Anne Jolis, The Swedish Model for Europe, The Wall Street Journal, 21 May 2012

2

MA thesis, 15 September 2009

Swedish Football Association quoted by Carl Rommel, Real Play,

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Suryoyo identification in Sweden Through the Performative Space

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of Football, unpublished MA thesis, 15 September 2009, page 25 3

Carl Rommel, Playing with difference: football as a performative Soccer & Society, 2011, page 850, 12:6

12

4

Idem

5

Paul Verweel, Respect in en Door Sport, Uitgeverij SWP,

13

Amsterdam, 2007, page 30

14

6

idem space for division among Suryoye migrants in Sweden,

Interview with Dalkurd Co-founder and Sports Director Elvan Cicen on 12 May 2012

Carl Rommel, Real Play, Suryoyo identification in Sweden Through the Performative Space of Football, unpublished

David Gardner, Middle East: Febrile and Fragmented, Financial Times, 19 May, 2012

M Douglas, Essays with Sociology of Perception,

Interview with the author on 12 May, 2012 17 Charged in Footballer’s ‘Gang-war’ Slaying, The Local, 16 November 2011

Routledge, London, 1982

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7

Verweel, idem, page 19

16

8

Interview with the author on 1 June 2012

Interview with the author on May 16 2011 Markus Flohr and Maximilian Popp, Turkey Recruits Players ‘Made in Germany’, Der Spiegel, 17 September 2010

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Lessons in response and resilience from the Boston Marathon bombing

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n 1 October 2005, a bomb detonated fewer than 200 yards from Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, where 84,501 spectators were attending a football game between the Oklahoma Sooners and Kansas State Wildcats.

Some spectators inside the stadium heard an explosion that was also reported up to five miles away, although fans on the east side of the stadium heard only a rumble – and a few heard nothing.

Spectators were prevented from leaving the stadium at half-time, which caused concern among the fans who did hear the explosion.

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In a press conference the next day, Oklahoma University President David Boren identified Joel ‘Joe’ Henry Hinrichs, a 21-year-old mechanical engineering student, as the person responsible for the detonation.

He was the only fatality. Originally from Colorado Springs, Colorado, Hinrichs was a National Merit Scholar described by his father as a “very private individual” who had gone through “several severe bouts of depression” and had a difficult time making friends. Authorities learnt that Hinrichs detonated triacetone triperoxide (TATP), an extremely unstable compound that can be prepared using common

Alamy

Kiersten E Todt considers how open events such as the Boston Marathon can be better secured against violence, examining the role of video surveillance, layered security and community and crowd awareness

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A memorial to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing near to where the attacks took place on 15 April 2013

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household products and that had been used in the London bombings in July 2005. Authorities assumed that Hinrichs intended to detonate the bomb inside the stadium.

How does the Oklahoma bombing of 2005 relate to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings? It is the most vivid example of how the issue of sports security could have been very different, years before the Boston bombing.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, national security experts and government officials were concerned about the challenge of securing ‘soft targets’, such as open events and venues – places where it is impossible to screen everyone because spectating integrates seamlessly into everyday life. One can only imagine how sports security would have changed in the aftermath of a successful attack by Hinrichs. That it was not successful was not down to effective law enforcement or the efforts of sport security professionals; it was pure luck, something not in supply at the Boston Marathon and something that cannot be relied on in sports security planning.

While remembering the tragedy of Boston in terms of loss of life, injury and psychological damage, there are several important lessons in crisis management and emergency response that need consideration. The initial lessons learnt from 15 April 2013 include the critical roles of first responders and the importance and evolving role of surveillance and crowd education.

The role of first responders Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) played a crucial role in the immediate and effective response to the Boston bombings. As the attack occurred at the finishing line, EMTs and triage stations, well into their work treating exhausted and dehydrated athletes, were available to respond quickly to the immediate aftermath of the explosions. Even though the EMTs and triage station personnel were not planning for the treatment of severe injuries resulting from bombs, having highly trained and

The Boston events demonstrate the utility of surveillance technologies qualified EMTs and their associated resources at close hand ensured that injuries were treated more quickly and effectively than they would otherwise have been had those stations not existed.

The success of the EMTs and how they performed was also a function of where the bombings took place.

Had they taken place in Framingham, Wellesley, or dozens of less notable places along the marathon route, the death toll may have been higher because of the lack of EMTs, first responders, supporting infrastructure and fewer hospital facilities a short distance away. The starting and finishing lines are the two most secure and prepared locations on a marathon route. Boston illustrated the advantage of an effective emergency response at the

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finishing line, but also highlighted the potential challenge of deploying sufficient emergency response at locations away from the starting and finishing lines of an open event.

It must be recognised that when dealing with an open sporting event, those who are responsible for the security and safety must identify the places within and around the event where spectators and athletes are the most vulnerable – and where officials are most prepared for dealing with a crisis. Efforts towards strengthening the security of the event must include an increased EMT presence, as well as seeking great contributions from local first responders along the event route. Consideration should also be given to actively recruiting volunteers who have backgrounds in emergency response. This effort will ensure a higher distribution of qualified first responders along the event route, while maintaining the continued priority of resources at the start and finishing lines.

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Getty Images

A second explosion near the finishing line of the Boston Marathon. Video technology can be an asset to emergency response and recovery, as well as to post-event investigations

The second major lesson from the Boston Marathon bombings involves the new and evolving role of surveillance at an open venue event. Surveillance enables security officials to keep an eye on assets, athletes and the crowd during an event, and it also provides the ability to return to the time of a security breach and collect evidence after it has occurred. Video taken by cameras outside the Lord & Taylor department store on Boylston Street near the bombing site proved to be a turning point in the Boston investigation, as one official publicly stated. In the aftermath of 9/11, the deployment of video cameras has grown significantly at stadia and arenas around the world. The Boston events demonstrate the utility of surveillance technologies at open sporting events, especially in high-traffic locations.

The Boston bombings offered several lessons on the role of surveillance in securing similar sporting events, because video cameras typically used for preventing crime can have a significant role in crisis response.

This recognition is not an argument for the creation of

a ‘surveillance state’, but we must acknowledge that the proliferation of video technology can be an important asset in emergency response and recovery, as well as in crisis management throughout a post-event investigation.

One of the issues raised by the Boston post-event investigation was the ability of law enforcement officials to process huge amounts of video, photography and social media offered by the public in response to a request for the public’s help in the identification of potential suspects.

The role of the community in providing data, videos and photographs of the bombing scenes and suspects, as well as first-hand descriptions of activity by the bombing suspects, was crucial in the evidence-collection process, but handling such material is resource intensive.

Following the Boston Marathon bombings, there will, understandably, be a greater need and demand for additional surveillance at metropolitan sporting events and locations. Some experts may assert that the logical next step is video surveillance along the entire route of sporting events. However, the cost, logistics and coordination of

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Emergency responders treat a woman injured in the bombing. Their presence near the finishing line, where the bombs detonated, facilitated the delivery of care

such a step may make it prohibitive. A middle ground may exist in identifying distributed locations and providing surveillance at those key locations, each of which is a reasonable distance to EMTs and triage stations.

It is incumbent upon organisers and security officials for open venue sporting events to build upon lessons learnt from Boston and to understand the evolving nature of the threat. The security officials along the marathon route were primarily facing the athletes because in the past the primary concern was security breaches that would have interrupted the event. Police would look at the crowd for disruptive activity that could impact athletes on the course; they were not looking for individuals with intention to injure spectators. This approach is typical for law enforcement when there is no credible threat or intelligence information indicating malicious intent and conduct. For example, at the 2004 Athens Olympics an individual emerged from the crowd and attacked the lead runner in the men’s marathon. Event planners must recognise that the threat information available to them is unlikely to be specific or ‘actionable’. Instead, security officials and emergency responders should be prepared for a wide array of contingency scenarios. As a result of what happened in Boston, we can expect marathon officials in the future to distribute their focus and attention equally between the athletes, the event and the crowd/spectators.

We cannot predict the motives or tactics of ‘lone wolf’ terrorists. The key to minimising and containing the violence is to educate the community and foster resilience.

Even though authorities in Oklahoma had opened an investigation into Joel Hinrichs due to his request to

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purchase large amounts of ammonium nitrate, and the FBI was aware that the alleged Boston bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, had an extended stay in Russia, neither case offered probable cause to conclude that an attempt at attacking a sport event was likely. Without information that law enforcement can act upon, the role of the community becomes critical in creating awareness before, during and after an event.

Facilitating communication We need to empower communities and local partners to identify anomalous behaviours and facilitate communication with authorities. The United States Department of Homeland Security instituted a public awareness programme in 2010 under the slogan, ‘If you see something, say something’. This programme acknowledges the role of community in countering security threats in the transportation sector, and this role is now extended to other arenas, including spectators at sporting events. An unattended backpack in an airport or train will quickly attract the attention of security officials. After Boston, the same may be true at open sporting events.

The Boston bombings also drew attention to the community’s role in identifying signs of radicalisation and countering violent extremism. The key question is whether the Tsarnaev brothers exhibited enough behaviour and signs to trigger the community to notify law enforcement. Do communities have the tools, education and awareness to know what their role is in community safety and security? If not, what needs to be done? The cooperation between the community and law enforcement

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is fundamental in identifying and preventing potential terrorist threats. What is notable about the Boston bombings is that these brothers came from an ethnic community that had not been on the radar screen of the counter-terrorism community. Communities need to be educated on behaviours and anomalies and what to look for in a constantly evolving threat environment.

Is Boston a game-changer for countering domestic terrorism? Not necessarily, but one of the most critical lessons in preventing similar acts of lone-wolf terrorism, particularly as it pertains to open venue sporting events, is empowering communities and giving them the tools, education and awareness to identify extremism.

Approaches to consider include examining the community-based methods for preventing, responding to and recovering from all hazards, particularly natural hazards. We must employ the concept of resilience at open venue sporting events in order to ensure that security preparation includes the ability to identify vulnerabilities and contain breaches.

Identifying key lessons As tragic as the Boston attack was, the response to the bombings should be viewed as a success. Response was immediate, victims were treated quickly, and the suspects were identified and captured within days of the event. We have identified several initial key lessons, and there will undoubtedly be more as information continues to flow. Specifically, we learnt of the importance of a fully capable EMT presence that is deployed in sufficient numbers along the route, increased surveillance, and the work that needs to be done on educating a crowd, which begins with the education of communities. We need to ensure that we take lessons learnt from each security event and integrate them into our safety practices.

Prior to the 22 October 2005 Oklahoma University football game against the Baylor Bears, season ticket holders received a letter from Oklahoma University President David Boren outlining new stadium security procedures, including restrictions on bags and purses brought into the stadium, more security cameras and hand searches of belongings. Readmission to the stadium after exiting during the game or at half-time was prohibited except for medical emergencies. The university had taken immediate steps to integrate lessons that had been learnt from the failed bombing attempt in August.

Following Boston, road races in New York City and elsewhere around the country experienced high levels of security. At the Preakness horse race in Baltimore, Maryland, enhanced security practices were put in place prohibiting backpacks and only allowing transparent, see-through coolers inside the event perimeter.

Is there the potential for overreaction to the tragedy in Boston? Absolutely. The level of security at a sporting event must reflect a realistic assessment of risk, both

from terrorism and less serious disruptions. Some initial security reactions following Boston will likely be adjusted over time, but they represent an important internalisation of how and in what ways security procedures need to change to reflect the current threat reality.

In August 2007, Oklahoma University held an emergency drill to better prepare for future events during home football games. A gas line rupture inside Oklahoma Memorial Stadium was simulated.

More than 500 students participated, along with responders from the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the local police and fire departments, the University of Oklahoma Police Department, and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. It was the first university stadium emergency drill of its kind in the United States.

One of the most effective ways in which to build, systematically, on lessons learnt is to test scenarios before the event. Those who organise open sports events should develop and execute scenario-driven exercises that expose the current risks and vulnerabilities with all relevant constituencies, including security officials, law enforcement, EMTs, athletes and vendors. Some key security lessons learnt from Boston that could be tested in future exercises include how to handle a breach-

We need to ensure we take lessons learnt from each security event and integrate them into our safety practices hours into an event when fatigue has set in, and how to maintain simultaneous surveillance on the crowd and the athletes. Exercising scenarios for open sporting venues is a necessity and should be a key component to security preparation before an event. We need to educate all of those involved in securing these types of events with scenario-driven approaches.

The layered defence approach that is effective in closed sporting events – including baggage checks, tickets and security gates – needs to be expanded upon to secure open sporting events. We need to identify the tools available in open events that will help prevent breaches, and also ensure effective response, recovery and resiliency to contain and manage the compromises. Initial lessons from Boston illustrate how EMT presence can ensure resilience, how surveillance is needed to improve prevention and response, and how crowd and community education and awareness is critical as the current threat environment continues to evolve.

Kiersten E Todt is the President and Chief Executive office of Liberty Group Ventures, LLC, and is a former professional staff member on the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

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The medical response to the Boston Marathon bombings Several factors combined in the aftermath of the bombings to facilitate the delivery of medical care. Herman Leonard and Arnold Howitt highlight 10 elements of the emergency medical response that saved dozens of lives in Boston

Some important lessons can be learnt from the medical response to the bombings that occurred at the Boston Marathon. The immediate response appears to have been swift and sure.

The video of the bomb near the finishing line clearly shows that people were instantly pushed away from the impact zone by the blast wave itself, but, within seconds, they began to run back toward the blast area to render help.

The number of people who climbed over barricades, tore barricades down in order to allow others to enter, and

rendered aid with whatever means available to them, shows that people spontaneously helped each other, across cultures and ethnicities and nationalities.

Moreover, the medical response, from both trained responders at the scene and ‘civilian’ bystanders, who together placed tourniquets, held pressure, and transported survivors to the medical tents and on to the ambulances beyond, and then teams of doctors, nurses, and clinical staff at hospitals, was immediate and skilled. A very large number of the grievous wounds from the

blast and shrapnel would in almost any other circumstances have proved fatal – but here, it appears that every person who was alive when definitive medical help was applied – in most cases, within minutes of the blast – is still alive today.

This is a largely unprecedented level of success in providing care to gravely wounded blast and shrapnel survivors.

We can identify 10 main factors that contributed to the swift application of medical training, knowledge and technology that undoubtedly saved dozens of lives in Boston.

Ten factors in the rapid application of medical treatment 1

The response by survivors themselves and by bystanders was nearly instantaneous. The high density of the crowd contributed to the large number of injuries – but it also meant that there were many people immediately available to render aid, and that is what they began to do, within seconds;

2

There were literally hundreds of medically trained personnel located near to where the bombs went off. This was the result of detailed centralised and coordinated planning in advance of the event, and learning based on many previous Boston marathons and other events. With thousands of runners coming off the course in an ordinary year with medical needs ranging from blister care to heatstroke to possible cardiac problems, a wide range of medical services were pre-arranged and pre-positioned. While those medical services were not specifically designed to render aid to bomb victims, the array of capabilities that had been arranged through careful centralised planning was broad enough, and the personnel on the scene adaptable enough, to deploy that set of capabilities effectively to stabilise bomb survivors;

3

The centralised planning for this event drew on a strong culture of preparing for large ‘fixed’ events (events whose time and location are known well in advance) across multiple disciplines (police, fire, emergency medical services and so on).

In the aftermath of 9/11, when Boston faced the challenge of preparing for a ‘National Special Security Event’ – the 2004 Democratic National Convention – it formed a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional, multi-level planning group. Out of this (generally successful) effort grew many lessons for future

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The medical teams in the emergency rooms throughout Boston found resources they did not know they had collaboration – and an emphasis on the importance of joint planning for such events. Large-scale events – from First Night to the 4 July Esplanade celebration to the arrival of Tall Ships to parades for national champion baseball, football, basketball, and hockey teams – are recurrent in the Boston Metropolitan Area, and a strong pattern of collaborative planning for such events has become routine;

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Significant changes from previously established medical practices for treatment of blast and shrapnel trauma victims, developed in bitter experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, had made their way into equipment and practices for trauma response on the home front. In particular, the use of tourniquets to staunch blood loss from major injuries to extremities was shown in battlefield experience to save lives, and tourniquets are therefore now recommended in cases like the many grievous injuries to extremities inflicted by this attack. This change in doctrine – accompanied by the deployment of tourniquets in the equipment of emergency medical services personnel – allowed for rapid application of life-saving means at the site of the blasts;

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Medical facility concentration surrounding the blast zones

Boston

New York

Washington

Massachusetts General Hospital

First explosion The first explosion took place close to the finishing line and medical teams Second explosion The second explosion occurred seconds after the first, also near the finishing line

Tufts Medical Center

St Elizabeth’s Medical Center

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Boston Children’s Hospital

Brigham and Woman’s Hospital Boston Medical Center

Legend Hospital

Bomb explosions

Marathon route iStockphoto

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Medical response teams near the site of the bombings. The blasts did not strike medical teams or facilities, enabling them to respond quickly

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The bomb blasts did not themselves directly degrade the medical capabilities on the scene. In the immediate aftermath of the blast, the medical personnel and equipment were almost fully intact, allowing for rapid application of what was immediately needed by survivors. By contrast, for example, in the Haiti earthquake most of the immediate response capability in Port-au-Prince was destroyed by the earthquake in the same moment that it came to be needed. (In the Boston Marathon case, this was in part a matter of good fortune, but it has implications for future planning with regard to the concentration of response resources);

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Boston has an extremely high concentration of tertiary medical facilities – technology, together with highly trained people – with five of the nation’s leading teaching hospitals and one of the nation’s leading children’s hospitals, each with an emergency room and major trauma unit and with

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extensive state-of-the-art advanced medical services available in many relevant specialties (orthopedics, vascular surgery, neurosurgery and so on). Five of these six facilities are located within two miles of the bomb blast. This permitted definitive in-hospital care to begin within less than half an hour for a number of critically injured patients, saving many who would otherwise have perished;

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Those medical facilities had specifically engaged in extensive planning, practice and training for ‘mass casualty’ events – events like a plane crash that might suddenly produce a rapid influx of seriously wounded patients. While much of this was not specifically oriented to casualties from a bomb attack, MGH had actually consulted with experts from Israel about how to handle a sudden flow of blast and shrapnel survivors – and the emphasis on the possibility of having rapidly to handle massive numbers of casualties had prepared trauma teams throughout the city for what they had to do during this event;

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An emergency responder carries an injured girl. The application of lessons learnt elsewhere, such as the use of tourniquets for shrapnel wounds helped save lives

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Several factors came together to increase the medical capacity available to serve survivors of the blasts.

Since the Boston Marathon is run on the day of a state holiday, hospitals generally do not perform elective surgeries, so a large number of operating rooms were idle and available. Though it was a holiday, hospitals were nonetheless staffed, precisely because it was ‘Marathon Day’. Moreover, Boston has a coordination process to oversee allocations of patients and resources among the city’s hospitals (a ‘war room’ of sorts) that it stands up on three days each year – on New Year’s Eve (‘First Night’), on the 4th of July for the Independence Day celebration… and on Marathon day – so that process was already up and running. And, in a stroke of luck on an otherwise dark day, at least one of the major medical centers was undergoing a shift change at the time of the blasts – and so had available both the medical staff from the first shift (which stayed) and from the second shift (which was arriving);

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The medical teams in the emergency rooms throughout Boston found resources they did not know they had when they suddenly needed to. The surge of patients that they faced on Monday afternoon was beyond their experience, planning, and established capacity, but instead of being overwhelmed, the medical teams met the surge of patients with a surge of resources and resourcefulness, coping as effectively as they could.

We will know more when we have had an opportunity to debrief participants in detail, but it seems reasonable to suppose that the teams showed a good deal of improvisation and creativity in handling the unprecedented demands that they confronted; and

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The response by medical personnel at the site of the blast and in the hospitals was almost completely without need of direction. Doctors and nurses with relevant medical skills converged on the emergency rooms of their hospitals without having to be called; as ambulances delivered patients groups of clinicians self-organised into trauma teams and undertook the work without having to be instructed or be given directions. Several of the emergency room ‘incident commanders’ commented that they had to give but few instructions, because the people who came to the task brought experience, skill, and knowledge and could figure out on their own what to do… and had for the most part already done so before any instructions could be issued.

In one emergency room, people who were not needed to provide direct care realised that there was a congestion problem, and self-organised themselves, moving to a side room from which they could be called as their particular skills were needed.

‘Commanders’ became coordinators, helping to move resources as necessary within the bigger picture. As one emergency room director said, “everybody spontaneously knew their dance moves.”

Taking these lessons forward The apparent success of this effort was aided by the good fortune of having leading medical facilities close at hand, and by the fact that the on-site medical capabilities were immediately outside the blast zone – and was thus a product of a combination of highly centralised planning and pre-positioning, followed by a decentralised adaptive response at every scene (both in the immediate area of the blast and in the hospital emergency rooms where survivors were transported).

In spite of the fortunate apparent success of the medical effort, we need to be careful not to be too complacent

about the level of preparations in place going forward. Skillful action and a self-organised surge of medical resources beyond what had been planned kept the flow of severely injured patients from completely overwhelming the medical response capability. But even as we appreciate that the medical system managed to handle the needs of blast survivors as well as it did, we need to be mindful that a larger attack could well have produced enough additional casualties to overstretch even the expanded capacities that the medical system found in itself. Terrible as this attack was, we need to recognise that

approximately 250 surviving casualties is not by any means the largest mass casualty event that our system may be called upon to address.

This article is an edited extract from the paper: Preliminary Thoughts and Observations on the Boston Marathon Bombings, April 2013, by Herman B Leonard and Arnold M Howitt, who are Faculty co-Directors for the Program on Crisis Leadership at the John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

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Ghana score a goal during a quarter-final match of the 2013 African Cup of Nations. The tournament can be considered a success from a safety and security viewpoint

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Africa Cup of Nations 2013: an assessment of safety and security

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David van Vuuren analyses the performance of security and safety planning at the Orange Africa Cup of Nations 2013, and identifies areas where procedures can be improved for future events

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he 2013 Orange Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), which was held in South Africa, re-emphasised the country’s ability to host major events, with most of the participants experiencing a safe, secure and enjoyable tournament.

Given the number of participants and the lack of major incidents, the tournament can be considered a success from a safety and security viewpoint. At the end of the tournament, a substantial decrease in crime statistics was observed in the country as a whole and specifically in the host cities, where the biggest decrease was achieved in the stadium precincts and surrounding areas.

As with any event, some functions worked smoothly and others demonstrated weaknesses, while some processes failed and required rapid response and

adaptation. The summaries below attempt to identify what worked well at the event and what did not, and includes recommendations for improvements that will hopefully be of value to event organisers worldwide.

Security planning A security concept plan was first developed in conjunction with all the participants within the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS) and was completed within the planned time period. This holistic plan was designed to consider all of the operational zones across the country as well as the host cities, and reach down to the level of stadium operations.

The security operational plan was developed against the framework of various successful sporting

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events that had already been hosted in South Africa.

Cooperation and coordination with government security services through NATJOINTS and the provincial joint operational and intelligence structures were excellent.

Operational plans were integrated and aligned within the required time in all of the five hosting provinces, and contingency plans were formulated for all potential disasters (natural and man-made) at the outer as well as inner perimeters of stadia and all AFCON 2013 related venues. Simulation exercises were held in all of the host provinces and they proved to be highly valuable as preparation for the tournament.

The integrated approach enabled the security services to adapt plans with ease when necessary. Such adaptability is vitally important in any operational environment.

Successful processes The first tournament-related events requiring security planning took place in July and October 2012, when the preliminary draw and the final draw were presented in Johannesburg and Durban. Both of these events were successfully concluded without incident. Similarly, prior to the tournament, the South African Police Service (SAPS), supported by a private security company appointed by

Areas for improvement Despite the successes, areas for improvement exist: Private security – from the outset, the planned approach was to contract the resident private security and steward companies for each stadium, to take advantage of their local knowledge and experience at their particular stadium. Although this process started in July 2012, it was inefficient as everything had to be channelled through the host cities. The appointment of private security contractors was eventually concluded far too late, which undermined the process and the readiness to deploy.

The Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) screened private security staff at all stadiums and found several guards/stewards to be non-compliant with the required event security standards. The biggest impact was felt at Mbombela Stadium, where 80 per cent of the contingent were found to be non-compliant, and as a result the security service provider withdrew from the process at a very late stage and had to be replaced.

In South Africa, most event-security companies draw their stewards from the same pool of people in each of the host cities; these individuals are not permanently employed by any one company and are only utilised as and when needed. The fact that these stewards are not permanently employed, cared for or managed by any one entity means that their training and registration are not kept up to date.

The screening and accreditation of private security did not work well at four of the five venues, partly due to their late appointment but also because security staff did not visit accreditation centres at the allocated times. In some cases, this resulted in guards and stewards being accredited on the morning of the match and in one case, 250 police students had to be deployed as a contingency measure on the morning of the final match.

A structure or body should be established to manage the training and registration of the pool of stewards within each host city. This entity should then keep a current database of all the stewards available for deployment at events. The contracted security company should be fully responsible for transporting their guards/stewards to the respective accreditation centres during the time period allocated for accreditation. Private security companies should include the cost for transporting stewards to and from accreditation centres, convoy training (dry runs) and so on in their budget during the tender bidding process.

The integrated approach enabled the security services to adapt plans with ease when necessary Standard Bank, were responsible for securing the AFCON trophy as it toured the South African AFCON host cities.

There were no incidents during this tour.

Team security was of utmost importance, and risk assessments on all Participating Member Associations (PMAs) were initiated long before the final draw in October 2012. This enabled the security services to identify potential risks in advance and implement any appropriate measures. This process was intensified once the 16 participating teams were known, and all identified risks were addressed successfully.

Specialised and highly trained SAPS units were dedicated to teams and match officials during their planned stay in the country. Route security, not just for teams but for all AFCON participants, was identified as a priority and managed to a very high standard.

Physical security features built into the design of tickets functioned extremely well, and no counterfeit tickets were discovered during the tournament. The main sales point for tickets were at selected SPAR outlets.

Tickets were also available on official websites as well as from a call centre. No crime incidents were experienced at ticket centres. Similarly, security measures relating to doping control worked well, and no problems were identified with the doping control processes used.

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Communication – any means of communication during a match is extremely difficult due to the noise generated in stadiums. Radio communication is the primary tool used, as long as operators are equipped with suitable headsets. The cellular networks are constantly jammed or congested during a match, which makes communication via this medium essentially impossible.

It would be beneficial if cellular companies found a way to boost mobile signals around stadia during matches.

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Alamy

South Africa’s metro police control the traffic outside Soccer City during the 2013 African Cup of Nations opening ceremony

Security lockdown – security lockdown was initiated at all of the stadiums three days before the first match day. As per a NATJOINTS instruction, the lockdown was scheduled to run concurrently at all stadiums, from then until two days after the last match day. Unfortunately, this policy was not applied consistently at all stadiums; the National Stadium, for example, hosted an unrelated music concert in the middle of the tournament, which posed a challenge to security, marketing and the like.

Stadium-use agreements should clearly stipulate the events that will be permitted and those that will not be allowed during the tournament period.

‘Mag and Bag’ search areas – Mag and Bag areas were operated by private security stewards with the police in support. Very few minor prohibited items found their way into the stadium. A different methodology of searching spectators was applied to that used during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. At NATJOINTS level, it was decided that no magnetometers should be utilised, but that all areas, except for the VIP zones, would be done by means of a physical pat-down search. The intention of this decision was to be more thorough in searching and to speed up the flow of spectators into the arenas.

Mag & Bag functioned quite well, but there should be a standardised approach to searching for all matches, not just during major events. Spectators would then become accustomed to being searched before entering a stadium.

Spectator flow – in general, the flow of spectators in and out of stadia went off well, without any major incidents. Some of the stadia experienced pressure at Mag and Bag areas and turnstiles, and the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in particular had severe pressure on the southern Mag and Bag areas and turnstiles.

This pressure could be corrected or more evenly spread by aligning the public transport plan, and specifically the spectator drop-off points, to the capacity of the available Mag and Bag and turnstile areas around the stadium. In the Royal Bafokeng scenario, most of the public transport drop-off points were on the southern side of the stadium. This situation was worsened by the fact that most of the restaurants in the area are also situated on the southern side of the stadium.

Vomitories and staircases – in some areas of the stadia, vomitories and staircases were congested with spectators.

Private security and police had to physically guide fans out of these evacuation routes and direct them to their respective seating as per their tickets.

The deployment of private security stewards in all evacuation routes, including vomitories, staircases and corridors, could be made much stronger. The police should effectively support the private security stewards in controlling these areas. When it becomes clear that seating rows are filled up, no one should be allowed to walk down the staircases if they are not in possession

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Getty Images

Prohibited items largely did not find their way into stadia during the 2013 Orange Africa Cup of Nations, with the exception of one or two pyrotechnic devices

of a valid ticket for a seat located in that area. Obviously, this will be more difficult to control should seat-specific tickets not be applicable to an event.

Prohibited items – a similar list of prohibited and restricted items to the 2010 World Cup was utilised for this tournament. Prohibited items were prevented from finding their way into the stadia, except for one or two pyrotechnic devices. This was the result of successful detection and confiscation of prohibited items, starting at the Mag and Bag areas and remote search parks.

Again, there should be a standardised approach for all matches, not just during major events. Spectators would then be accustomed to not bringing prohibited items – umbrellas, for example – to matches. Furthermore,

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if search processes are improved at Mag and Bag areas, it would be possible to address this issue effectively.

Rights protection and anti-ambush marketing – very few unwanted banners and flags were displayed inside the stadia. This was achieved by thorough searching at the Mag and Bag areas. Any banned or forbidden items that were detected inside the stadium were promptly confiscated and removed.

One area to improve is the application by vendors for liquor licences in terms of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) regulations, as this was not always completed on time. The application for liquor licences should be done strictly according to the terms and timelines that are stipulated by the DTI.

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Private transportation – drivers were identified too late and convoy training could not be carried out, while vehicles were not always available when needed. Further, transportation schedules were not always available.

The transport plan should encompass all aspects of the movement of participants to and from venues.

Drivers should be identified long before the event in order to allocate tasks and link them up with escorts.

Dry runs and convoy training is essential and must be completed, and all of this should be drafted into a matrix format that includes names and contact numbers, dates and times. Allocating tasks on the day should be avoided at all costs. A contingency measure should be created as backup for unannounced arrivals and/or departures.

This can only be achieved if drivers are identified and appointed early on.

Vehicle Access Passes (VAPs) – this function was managed by the security department and worked reasonably well. Unfortunately, the audit carried out by the transport department on available parking bays per stadium was not available. Displaying the match day number on the VAP instead of the match number led to some confusion.

In future, the VAP should indicate a match number and not a match day number. In the case of double headers, it would then display the two match numbers.

A unique design for each of the stadiums was applied in terms of different colours and/or background, but this could be improved and more practical security features could be added. The date of the actual match should be printed in bold and be clearly visible. The audit on the number of available parking bays for all the constituent groups should be concluded long before the start of the tournament.

Food and beverages – the service provider responsible for the provision of food and beverages changed continuously in the lead up to the tournament. The very late appointment of the service provider posed a serious security risk as security screening could not be done.

A real risk developed that food and beverages would actually not be available on match day; a situation that had the potential to lead to riots.

Another issue that arose was that the official vendors were selling opposing brands of drinks at the stadia, which may have been the result of miscommunication, but is a situation that should be avoided at all costs in the future.

Negotiations and the contracting of food service providers should be finalised long before the start of the tournament. Communication with vendors on what they are allowed to sell should be very well communicated and documented long before the tournament. A wellprepared service level agreement should guard against any misconduct by vendors.

Problem areas Security equipment – the host cities were responsible for the provision of security equipment. However, they did not provide some essential equipment such as the waste bins used for depositing prohibited items.

A solution to this would be to allocate the budget for the procurement of security equipment to local organising committees and not host cities. The local organising committee then procures the necessary security equipment.

Early arrival of teams – all PMAs were scheduled to arrive in the country from 16 January 2013 onwards (first match minus three days), although some teams actually arrived as early as December 2012. Although the teams only became the responsibility of the local organising committee from 16 January, government security services assumed responsibility from the moment they arrived in the country. This early arrival of teams posed a challenge as the teams moved from approved hotels to hotels of their choice. They would also not share their movement schedule with either the local organising committee or SAPS, and some teams arrived in the country unannounced.

The local organising committee should be given responsibility for all PMA movements, from their first arrival in the host country until their departure. This will put an obligation on PMAs to provide the local organising committee with all of their activity schedules. PMAs and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) should accordingly provide the respective budget to the local organising committee before any arrivals.

Ticketing – in some instances, tickets had to be processed manually at turnstiles, as the electronic ticket readers were dysfunctional or not compatible with the

Although the tickets were seat-specific, some supporters would invade certain areas and sit where they liked. This behaviour is totally unacceptable ticketing software. This obviously slowed down the flow of spectators into the stadium, and when spectators did arrive inside the stadium, thousands of double-booked seats were found. Tickets were sold in areas where there were seat kills – seating areas blocked for a specific reason. This resulted in irritated spectators who had to be re-seated, sometimes in lower-category seats.

The auditing on available seats at stadiums should be carried out more accurately and all possible seat kills should be taken into consideration. The compatibility of the ticketing system with ticket readers at stadium

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Head count per stadium during the tournament

16%

147,104 attended

Local Organising Committee, MediaClubSouthAfrica.com

Gauteng’s National Stadium

25% 13%

18% 28%

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KwaZulu-Natal’s Moses Mabhida Stadium

Irwin Manoim, MediaClubSouthAfrica.com

104,784 attended

Local Organising Committee, MediaClubSouthAfrica.com

North West’s Royal Bafokeng Stadium

158,969 attended

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turnstiles is imperative and should be audited and confirmed long before the start of a tournament.

94,941 attended

Rodger Bosch, MediaClubSouthAfrica.com

Eastern Cape’s Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium

73,704 attended Tournament structure The 29th edition of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations was staged from 19 January to 10 February 2013, with 16 nations taking part. The tournament was distributed across five venues: the National Stadium (Soccer City) in Johannesburg; Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban; Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth; and Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, all of which operated according to FIFA World Cup standards. Each host city had four training sites and four hotels for teams. (National Stadium was only utilised for the opening and final matches.)

The tournament was made up of 32 matches, 24 group stage matches, eight knockout stages and 17 match days. All matches, except the last match in the group stages, were played in the city where the team was based.

Graeme Williams, MediaClubSouthAfrica.com

Mpumalanga’s Mbombela Stadium

Seating – although the tickets were seat-specific, some supporters would invade certain areas and sit where they liked. This behaviour is totally unacceptable, as other ticket holders would not be able the access their seats. During the tournament, some supporters who had purchased CAT 1 tickets could not take up their seats and were very disgruntled. The seating problem arises from the fact that at most league soccer matches free seating applies, and a supporter can effectively sit wherever he or she chooses.

There should be a standardised approach at all soccer matches for spectators to have a specific seat, and that should not only apply to major events. This would allow spectators to become accustomed to taking up the seats stipulated on the tickets, and would also spread out the support base of a team all around the stadium. This strategy would make for easier control.

Signage – directional signage was totally inadequate and/or incorrectly installed, and the posters illustrating prohibited items were apparently designed but not erected at any of the search locations.

Proper directional and safety signage is vital for any safety and security plan to succeed. The planning and development of all signage by the marketing departments of the local organising committee and host city should be concluded long before the start of the tournament.

General recommendations A standardised approach for all sporting events at stadia should be applied throughout a country for all matches, and not just for major sports events. This relates to ticket-specific seating, searching at Mag and Bag areas, the prohibition of certain items, public transportation and parking plans, among other aspects of procedure.

Such consistency in procedures will have a significant benefit for major events, when large numbers of fans from different areas converge.

The budget for procuring private security services and equipment should rest with the local organising committee and not the host city. The local organising committee will then have the responsibility to procure and maintain all these services and equipment. Negotiations and tender processes should be concluded earlier in the planning cycle, so that training and dry runs can be conducted.

This will also afford the local organising committee the opportunity to test systems, ensuring that service providers can indeed deliver the required services.

During the early arrival of teams, the local organising committee should be afforded the authority to coordinate any and all PMA movements. This should include the confirmation of their accommodation, flight schedules and all other movements.

David Van Vuuren was the Security Manager for the African Cup of Nations 2013 Local Organizing Committee, and is a security consultant

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Challenges for event volunteer programmes

D

urban, which is situated on South Africa’s eastern littoral, has positioned itself economically as an events-friendly city, with infrastructure and management organisations in place to host a wide range of sporting and other events. As part of the planning and preparation for hosting major international events such as the FIFA World Cup, the city has created a volunteers’ programme that is intended to provide a readily available pool of well-trained staff who can support event organisers.

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During the 2010 World Cup and at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2013, the Durban volunteers played an important role in ensuring the safety and security of visiting fans, and the two events provide some useful lessons for the integration of volunteers with event planning processes.

Volunteers play an important part in supporting the professional safety and security structures provided by police, army, private security and venue officials.

However, other than some documentation from the 2006 World Cup hosted in Germany, little reference

Getty images

Ronel Mitchell reports on the planning and operation of volunteer programmes in Durban, South Africa during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2013 Orange Africa Cup of Nations football tournaments

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Volunteers have played an important role in ensuring the safety and security of visiting fans during recent major sporting events in South Africa

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material was available on which to base the design of the Durban host city volunteer project, and many procedures that were implemented in 2010 were developed from scratch by the organising committee.

International and national security cooperation mechanisms were established well before the 2010 FIFA World Cup began. Committees were formed to establish liaison and coordination between all of the safety and security bodies that might be called on, both nationally and locally (see Figure one). One role of the committees was to ensure that all of the relevant bodies were aware of the existing frameworks for handling risk at events, including legislation such as the Disaster Management Act, which is an integrated and coordinated disaster management policy and framework that focuses on preventing or reducing the risk of disasters, and includes guidelines for disaster management volunteers.

The host city volunteer programme complemented FIFA’s own World Cup volunteers, and host city volunteers were deployed in a supportive role to the airport, remote public viewing areas, the Durban promenade and beachfront, shopping malls, tourist information kiosks and translator language support points, childminding areas, identified hotels, train, bus and taxi stations and in the stadium area, as well as other key strategic spots within the city. Due to the more than 1,200 city volunteers that were deployed during 2010, the host city volunteers were highly visible, and there was a good visitor-volunteer ratio, which helped to promote the perception of a safe and secure environment.

That said, most volunteers gave a great service to the public and spectators. The volunteers deployed to assist physically challenged fans to their seats were excellent, and were continually praised for their compassion and helpfulness. Most volunteers displayed good character, common decency and willingness to help.

Recruiting volunteers Considerable attention was paid to sourcing and recruiting volunteers. A meet-and-greet session was conducted with potential candidates who were then shortlisted to participate as host city volunteers. Command of English and knowledge of football were part of the criteria, as was a general aptitude for dealing with members of the public from varying backgrounds in a sympathetic fashion. All volunteers had to be over the age of 18 and in possession of a valid identification document, and no volunteers with criminal records were accepted.

The shortlisted volunteers were cleared through the NIA prior to being advised of their successful acceptance into the programme. Any volunteer who had been shortlisted and was found to have a criminal record was removed from the list of applications. All information received from the NIA was confidential and not shared with any other persons.

After the approval process, all the volunteers were issued with a 2010 Durban Host City Code of Conduct manual. This document included a paragraph informing volunteers that they might be required to submit to inspections and body checks, and agree to the confiscation of items that were prohibited to carry or use while on duty as a Durban host city volunteer.

Accreditation of host city volunteers involved the recording of a volunteer’s personal details and their area of deployment. In this way, host city volunteers were able to carry out their duties in secured areas, and identification was used for security purposes where applicable.

In the areas where personalised accreditation was unnecessary, host city volunteers were issued with standard host city volunteer accreditation. A volunteer’s name and number were printed on the front of a badge and lanyard, while mobile numbers of the management team were recorded on the back.

Photographic identification was put in place, and information of all successful volunteers was readily available on management laptops.

Thanks to the fast-growing benefits of modern mobile telephony, security back-up such as instant messaging allowed quick and efficient communication. Photo images of area challenges could be relayed through mobile phones to the venue operation centre almost immediately.

The host city volunteer programme complemented FIFA’s own World Cup volunteers

Volunteer expectations Durban has a high unemployment rate and suffers from considerable poverty levels. As a result, many of the volunteers wanted at least a minimal level of remuneration, and required a meal allowance and/or daily meals, uniforms and transport.

The two events covered in this article illustrate different dynamics and expectations among the volunteers.

The World Cup 2010 host city volunteers were both highly motivated, excited and honoured to be part of the World Cup football tournament, while the AFCON 2013 volunteers displayed a greater desire to watch the games played in the stadium, and a number of selected host city volunteers were discontent being positioned at other deployment areas outside of the Durban stadium precinct. In fact, two sets of volunteers emerged, with AFCON volunteers deployed in the stadium precinct and host city volunteers being deployed for visibility and as a service to the public around the city. As a result of the differences in ability to view matches, the two groups did not work well together, and the primary focus of volunteerism was lost at times.

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Figure one

City municipal service units and the volunteer sub-committee National Intelligence Agency (NIA) South African police service

Disaster management

Metro police (local policing)

Ambulance services

Remote public viewing areas

Liaison committees at the 2010 FIFA World Cup

Fire and emergency services

Protocol and international relations Transport and traffic management

Health department

Safety and security

Stadium security and management

Safer city and child protection unit

Parks and recreation (beachfront fan parks)

Such modern technology has brought a valuable dynamic to safety and security checks, particularly in the context of volunteer groups. Once host city volunteers had registered they were allocated an area, which was registered on the computer management system, and sent out to the deployment areas identified. However, where the need arose volunteers could be moved rapidly to different deployment areas. Two daily shifts were operational that ensured volunteers were on duty at all times.

Uniforms and identification Host city volunteers were dressed in uniforms that distinguished them from the FIFA World Cup volunteers.

Uniforms play a major part in safety and security, as they made the volunteers easy to identify among the mingling crowds. The uniforms were branded with the wording ‘Team Durban’ and ‘Host City Volunteer’. Volunteers’ tracksuits also had reflective piping on track pants to make them easily identifiable during night games. The volunteers were required to wear their identification

badges and lanyards at all times while on duty, and to return them to their managers at the end of each shift.

Volunteer training in the stadium was focused on offering spectators support to find seats and direct spectators to their correct seats. Training included being alert to any ‘out of place’ bags or suspicious behaviour, but volunteers did not perform the role of security staff.

Self-defence training and police seminars on drugs and child trafficking prior to the World Cup event ensured that volunteers were alert to identifying suspicious and unacceptable behaviour, abandoned bags and carrier packets. The volunteers were trained to make immediate mobile phone contact with their leader should any suspicious behaviour be witnessed. To do this, all volunteers were issued with mobile phone airtime. As a further safety precaution, volunteers operated a buddy system, working in pairs. This was particularly relevant to those on promenade or car park duty. This worked well and at no time were volunteers working alone or without a buddy during their deployment shift.

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Language support volunteers also performed a valuable function during the World Cup. Translators ensured a smooth communication flow between foreign delegates and English-speaking locals. The language translators were contactable through mobile phones at all hours and this function was hugely successful.

Durban is a coastal city and holiday destination as well as an event centre. The beach is a popular area for fans, so volunteers were deployed to be highly visible on the promenade both day and night. On game days, volunteers formed teams and escorted fans to the stadium, walking beside spectators both to and from the game. Many Durban hotels are situated along the beachfront and promenade, and the stadium is within walking distance of many of these hotels. The volunteers mingling with the crowds proved to be an excellent safety

Host city volunteers were highly visible during the 2010 World Cup. Their tracksuits were adorned with reflective piping on the track pants in order to make them easily identifiable during night games

and security initiative. As an addition to normal duties, many host city volunteers went the extra mile in assisting visitors and residents throughout the event, singing, dancing and generally cultivating an atmosphere of fun.

Managing volunteers, on shift 24/7, contributed in an inclusive and friendly manner to the success of the programme, in particular concerning safety and security.

Volunteer leaders were in constant contact with the venue operation centre and the volunteers’ base. Volunteer programme management staff visited deployment areas regularly to check and ensure visitors, fans and foreign delegates, football supporters, hotel delegates, FIFA officials and visiting tour groups were communicated with, and assisted where necessary. They also checked that the volunteers were supplying a service to the visiting public in a friendly, respectful and caring manner.

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Through the mobile phone system, messaging and modern technology, volunteer management were at hand to solve any challenges at short notice. The team leaders and volunteers were the extra eyes and ears for the security officials, police and disaster management teams.

Each day, twice a day, volunteer management reported to the disaster management headquarters for briefings and to discuss any challenges or safety issues.

It is important to underline the fact that volunteers did not play the role of safety and security personnel. Any challenges were relayed immediately to higher authority in the mainstream safety and security function. The volunteer headquarters were open at all times to metro police and all policing staff, including fire and emergency. Open and transparent communication and integrity proved to be of paramount importance to smooth operations.

The volunteers were required to wear their identification badges and lanyards at all times while on duty

Language support volunteers ensured smooth communications between foreign delegates and English-speaking locals.

Translators were contactable through mobile phones at all times. The programme proved to be a big success

Photo

ID

The volunteer management team stayed at the host city volunteer headquarters, located in a Durban beachfront hotel situated 2.5 kms from the stadium, for the duration of the 2010 World Cup, which took place in June and July. This ensured that duty staff were available at any time of day or night, and volunteer management meetings could be held late at night to discuss the following day’s operational plans and report any challenges from the day’s shifts.

The AFCON 2013 experience Durban was also a host city for the 2013 AFCON football tournament. 700 volunteers were engaged to participate, comprising 500 AFCON volunteers and 200 Durban host city volunteers. Students, unemployed youth and retired persons were included in the programme

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and application forms as per previous criteria for preselection were completed. While AFCON is sponsored by Orange, the AFCON volunteer programme also included Adidas-sponsored apparel such as shoes, socks, t-shirts, caps, jackets and bags for the volunteers.

At the various training and motivation sessions volunteers displayed an eagerness and attended the training regularly. The training and motivation sessions included a presentation on the AFCON tournament, customer service and stadium knowledge and orientation.

The volunteer programme headquarters for both AFCON and host city volunteers was established at Badminton Hall in Durban, directly next to the Moses Mabhida railway station and a short walk from the Durban Moses Mabhida football stadium, making transport and access to the facility easier for volunteers.

and seats were even sold where tickets or seats did not exist, which enraged spectators and put both security personnel and the volunteers under pressure. Volunteer management and stadium security personnel were continuously assisting spectators to find alternative seating. This was a stadium and ticketing service provider issue, and was later resolved.

Lessons learnt The volunteer programmes for the 2010 World Cup and AFCON 2013 were generally very successful, and contributed to a positive environment during the tournaments. However, as is the case with all events, some improvements can be identified.

Managing two sets of volunteers in one venue was not conducive to the Durban AFCON volunteer programme.

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At no time were volunteers working alone, or without a buddy, during their deployment shift

Self-defence training and police seminars on drugs and child trafficking prior to the World Cup event helped keep volunteers alert to suspicious and unacceptable behaviour, abandoned bags and carrier packets

Accreditation procedures were similar to those used during the World Cup. Volunteers had to undergo a security check and vetting by the NIA. In the areas where personalised accreditation was unnecessary, such as promenade pedestrian routes and parking area deployment, host city volunteers were issued with standard host city volunteer accreditation.

Stadium spectator services volunteer deployment was activated for all Durban match days. AFCON volunteers were accredited to perform their deployment duties inside the stadium as ushers and ticketing volunteers, while Durban host city volunteers were deployed along the beachfront, around the stadium precinct and at other points around the city.

The stadium volunteers were challenged by the overselling of tickets during the AFCON tournament,

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All volunteers were issued with mobile phone airtime

Through the mobile phone system, messaging and modern technology, the volunteer management team were at hand to solve any challenges quickly

The volunteer groups’ uniforms were different; one group received certain apparel, whereas the other group did not, and some of the sponsored apparel arrived very late into the AFCON programme. These issues produced some friction between the two groups of volunteers and presented challenges in managing the event.

The need for not only early planning but also flexibility cannot be overstated. Plans need to be adjusted according to the on-the-ground tempo, and the ability to be responsive in this manner to ensure that the safety and success of an event is more important than sticking to hard and fast rules when an event is operational.

Ronel Mitchell was the host city volunteer programme manager for Durban during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2013 AFCON tournament

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Simulating crowds at sporting events Chris Aaron considers the research that has been done into sport safety issues and the role that simulation technologies can play in improving event safety, as well as nurturing an interagency, holistic approach to safety and security planning and assessment

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Movement Strategies

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Simulation of London 2012 Olympic Stadium crowd bump-out (exit) – coloured according to final destination – which was used by Movement Strategies to help plan crowd management

This paper is primarily concerned with crowd safety issues and simulation, though it is immediately clear that crowd safety is affected by venue design, surveillance systems, transport systems and so on, so any conclusions with regard to crowd safety need to be considered holistically as part of the event planning, as the ICSS’s own SSI model dictates.

The HSE study identified several crowd safety recommendations from the papers it collated. These included the importance of ensuring staff competence, both for full-time staff and for volunteers; that venue design should consider crowd dynamics and size from the outset; simulations should be used to test both these designs and crowd management procedures; minority groups, particularly disabled fans, should be considered carefully both with regard to normal operations and in emergency evacuation procedures;

Alamy

rior to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the United Kingdom’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) commissioned a literature review of the health and safety risks associated with major sporting events.1 The review identified 80 relevant papers from a search of journal databases and the internet, covering issues such as communicable disease risk and climate effects on spectator health, constructionrelated safety risks, crowd safety, emergency planning and response, volunteers, road accidents, fire safety, electrical hazards and workplace violence.

Two major cross-cutting issues were also identified: the importance of comprehensive risk assessments that draw on a variety of information sources, organisations and qualified individuals in order to ensure that risks are effectively controlled; and the competence of personnel. Due to the scale of Olympic events and factors such as time pressure and budgets, several papers expressed concern over the competence of workers and volunteers; training provision often appeared to be a panacea for mitigating risk, when better design could have avoided risks, and the competence and training of volunteers was raised as an important issue.

In addition to the literature review, the HSE’s website provides links to several reports on the lessons that were learnt from the London 2012 Olympics, reflecting the legacy importance of documenting experiences and analysing best practice in the aftermath of an event. These include the HSE’s intervention strategy for London 2012, which provides a useful template for planning health and safety for a major event, and particular consideration of temporary demountable structures, an increasingly important aspect of both safety and security planning.

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Crowds moving through the London 2012 Olympic Park. Research shows that people tend to use the exit most familiar to them in times of emergency

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crowd communication and announcements need to be effective; stewards and security staff should remain in close communication, and steward numbers should be based on the level of risk at the event, not the number of spectators; the wider environment should be factored into crowd safety analysis, particularly the transport routes approaching the venue; and finally health factors should be monitored closely, with water provision being ensured in hot venues and similar locations.

The issues highlighted above were also identified in a more focused study on crowd behaviour commissioned by the UK Cabinet Office and published in March 2010.

Understanding Crowd Behaviours2 provides a useful level of detail of the issues in managing crowds in general, and in particular at large, multi-day events, and provides various lessons learnt from the experience of diverse practitioners, as well as guidelines for good practice.

The report is well worth reading in its entirety, but several recommendations are of particular interest.

The report recommends the adoption of a systemwide approach, once the scope and scale of the event has been identified. Such a system-wide (or holistic) approach requires coordination between all agencies, sometimes across widespread geographical locations. A

consistently and effectively educated, trained and briefed, for both normal and emergency circumstances. Leadership and guidance to initiate crowd movement in emergencies at a strategic and tactical level are particularly important, and the communications strategies and crowd psychology in such situations needs to be well-understood and implemented. The use of volunteer stewards is an important consideration for the above, particularly their training and venue orientation.

Different types of crowd behaviour Perhaps the most interesting recommendation in the report is the importance of considering the different types of crowd and their behaviours that may be encountered at an event, the heterogenous nature of any crowd, and the dynamics in and between crowd sub-groups, as well as the changing nature of a crowd over time. There is not the scope here to explore all the issues involved, and the report expounds them clearly; suffice to say that when planning for events, exploring scenarios, and modelling crowd behaviour at venues through simulations, as well as when making operational and crowd communication decisions, ‘crowd identities’ should be understood as well as possible. A minor, but particular, example would be the behaviours of non-ticket holders who turn up at events.

Such fans may be desperate to get in to a venue, or simply happy to experience the atmosphere around the site; whichever, the way such fans are managed affects whether they become a problem or not. At the recent ICSS Expert Summit in Vienna, several participants stressed that ticketless fans should be welcomed and catered for specifically, if only to the extent of friendly guidance on where they can view an event remotely and safely.

The recommendations regarding communication with a crowd, utilising all means of effective communication, will be explored in depth in a subsequent article as they are perhaps the most important means to ensuring a safe event – both in normal operations and during emergencies. It is worth mentioning, however, that personal communication from stewards is viewed as the most influential form of communication, and that fans should be provided with as much information as possible, particularly in emergency situations. Human psychology suggests that people will tend to continue regarding a situation as normal for as long as possible, but then when confronted by an emergency situation will tend to use their most familiar ‘route’ to avoid danger (for example the exit gate they know best); such responses may not be appropriate in some emergencies, so communication and leadership become very important in influencing behaviour.

A final recommendation, and the one that may help practitioners to really implement the others, concerns the development of new capabilities and facilities for simulation tools that can model system-wide crowd behaviour at sporting events. The value of simulation for

Psychology suggests that people will tend to continue regarding a situation as normal for as long as possible well-defined command and control structure is necessary, centralised in a single control centre, but with protocols enabling flexibility of operation. Given the above, effective communications systems are a key technical requirement to enable the organisational and operational structure.

The importance of thorough planning and preparation, using a wide range of ‘what if...?’ scenarios, including unexpected scenarios, cannot be over-stated. There is a significant difference here between regular, frequent events (league football matches, for example), and major, one-off events such as a football World Cup, with the latter clearly having more unknowns and requiring more scenarioplanning, however it is important to avoid complacency at even the most regular events, as conditions can change for any number of reasons. Preparedness, and scenarioplanning, should recognise that seemingly small problems occurring in combination can lead to significant problems, so attention should not just be focused on single, major disruptions (such as a fire), Similarly, the knock-on effects of an incident over consecutive days at major, multi-day events need to be predicted.

It may seem obvious, but personnel should have plentiful first-hand knowledge, skills and experience in planning for and managing crowd events. Even then, personnel from all agencies and in all locations must be

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Legion

A stadium evacuation simulation using Legion’s SpaceWorks software. Simulations can clarify roles and responsibilities, and inform resource plans

design, planning, exercising, scenario-planning, resource estimation, and contingency-response is extra-ordinary.

The report considers several existing simulation tools, and they will be looked at later on, but it also identifies improvements that could be made, and notes that the cost and computing requirements of simulation software make them less accessible than is desirable. While such solutions are improving continuously, and computing power continues to rise rapidly, concerted investment in simulation tools and centres, and the associated crosscutting expertise (in crowd behaviour, safety, security, communications and so on) to rapidly develop simulations for events and venues would provide a significant forcemultiplier for sporting organisations worldwide.

However, before examining simulation tools in more detail, it is worth drawing attention to research on spectator satisfaction, conducted by Kendrick et al,3 at Loughborough University. As their study notes, “substantial research surrounds crowd safety, and pedestrian flow modelling.

Meanwhile, considerations regarding crowd performance, comfort, and satisfaction [have] received less attention, with a distinct lack of research concerning the user experience of crowds associated with special events (sporting and music for example).” Existing research shows that venue design, organisation, safety and security concerns impact significantly on crowd satisfaction, irrespective of group differences or crowd environments, underlining the importance of these issues when considering crowd satisfaction. However,

the spectators’ priorities are not always the same as those of the officials who are responsible for event organisation.

More research therefore needs to be done in this area to understand how both spectator satisfaction and safety and security issues can be maximised – not perceiving these to be a zero-sum game.

Simulation tools In 2008, Chris Johnson of the Department of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow published a paper on using evacuation simulations to improve security planning for the 2012 Olympics4. Johnson described the role that simulations can play and provided examples of the Glasgow Evacuation Simulator being used for different scenarios. These demonstrate the use of basic crowd movement models in evacuation simulations, but also show how more sophisticated models of human behaviour can be added to analyse their effect. Communication failures and multiple adverse events can also be modelled to aid in scenario planning. Another example, shows how individual ‘officials’ with particular behaviours can be simulated to explore their impact on the crowd situation.

This is clearly relevant to the influence of stewards and other officials in the real world.

Johnson’s paper is worth reading for its clear exposition of what simulation can do, and how it can be integrated into safety and security planning, but the stateof-the-art has clearly moved on is the field.

The Challenger report outlines the macroscopic and microscopic models for simulating crowd movement.

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Macroscopic approaches model the behaviour of the crowd as a whole using regression models, route choice models, or fluid dynamics models; microscopic approaches use rule-based models, social forces models, or cellular automata models.

The report notes that “the most realistic simulation tools currently available on the market use agent-based models, and are populated by intelligent, autonomous agents, capable of making independent decisions and reacting to environmental conditions”. However, the report also observes that simpler models can be useful and more appropriate for some tasks (such as modelling crowd density), and may be much quicker for some such tasks.

A large-scale experiment into crowd movements in Germany. There is room for development of more sport-specific crowd modelling tools

Ensuring real preparedness The report also emphasises that simulations are only an approximation to reality, and a useful tool for exploring scenarios and visualising problems, and that they need to be continually validated through real-time observations of crowds and how they move, in addition to talking to ‘experts’ involved with crowds first-hand on a regular basis, and that they should be combined with real-world exercises whenever possible to ensure real preparedness.

Based on the issues of crowd behaviour explored earlier in the report, and having examined the functionality and design of three leading simulation packages (Legion, Myriad II – Crowd Dynamics, and Mass Motion – Oasys Software), the authors make several recommendations for the development of simulation tools that are relevant to sport safety, and are worth listing here in full as they provide a roadmap for where development resources could be invested: ■ “Include more psychological aspects of human behaviour, such as memory, emotions and stress; ■ Improve the realism and accuracy of crowd behaviours and movement, in addition to improving visual aesthetics; ■ Consider the impact of contact between crowd members, such as pushing or falling over; ■ Realistically simulate communication between crowd members and the impact this has on crowd behaviours; ■ Design simulations which acknowledge that crowd members are unlikely to have complete information about, or a complete understanding of, their environment and, therefore, may choose to explore; ■ Consider interactions between crowds and other groups, such as the police or stewards; ■ Simulate how groups, such as, families or groups of friends, behave in a given environment, incorporating the role of psychological ‘groupness’, for example, a strong sense of shared social identity; ■ Include multi-purpose behaviours, for example, behaviours undertaken during a crowd event – such as stopping to look in a shop window or taking a rest – which have purposes additional to the primary purpose of attending the event itself.”2

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It is worth emphasising that such detailed levels of simulation, requiring cellular automata models, also requires significant computing power, modelling expertise, crowd behaviour specialisms, in addition architects and other specialists such as safety and security managers.

Where and how could such a range of knowledge and expertise and resources be created?

One project that is already operational is SportEvac, developed at the National Center for Spectator Sport Safety and Security (NCS4) at the University of Southern Mississippi. This simulation-centered software tool was built with funding from the US Department of Homeland Security and in collaboration with Regal Decision Systems Inc, which integrated their Evacuation planning Tool, NVision Inc, the database and GIS provider, and the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, which contributed expertise on explosive effects on structures.

Douglas Samuelson reviewed Regal’s Evacuation Planning Tool in October 20125. He argues that EPT/ SportEvac improves on the visualisation provided by the pioneering Homeland Security Institute/Redfish Group model, and that the package can model more variety in human behaviors. However, he notes that “Regal [has] made limited progress... [with more detailed modelling of behaviours] in the course of the DHS project last year. Future enhancements no doubt depend on team

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communication by putting different agency representatives together in a virtual environment with real issues to discuss; identify gaps in resources dedicated to sport safety and security; and identify opportunities for safety and security improvements both procedural and technical.

Extending safety and security planning

owners’ and stadium operators’ enthusiasm for buying SportEvac.” Samuelson also remarks that EPT/SportEvac has “improved capabilities to take in CAD plans of a venue, where available, and to accept more detailed input by other means. However, some questions still require considerable human effort and judgment to produce a sufficiently accurate and detailed representation.”

Interfacing with other models, such as toxic plume models, was another area of potential improvement (not just for EPT), noted by Samuelson. He also reports that Regal is investigating the limits of the EPT/SportEvac’s current inference engine and whether it can be upgraded or whether it would be better to start afresh given new technology developments, but Samuelson doubts that the funds are currently available for the level of development that is necessary.

While the ability of crowd movement simulation tools to represent ever-more detailed behaviours at the crowd, group, and individual level presents a challenge to resources both financial and computing, it shouldn’t be forgotten that simulation tools provide other benefits beyond the verisimilitude of the simulation. As the NCS4’s notes on SportEvac suggest, using simulation packages can help clarify unified roles and responsibilities (for example it can help with designing organisational structures); enhance interagency coordination and

Furthermore, simulation packages can help extend safety and security planning holistically, in line with the ICSS’s own principles, to include the wider system of which one sports event is only a part. As Challenger2 remarks, the “next generation of simulation tools should be able to accommodate multiple environments and multiple crowd events in the same simulation model, rather than solely modelling one particular event in one particular environment... many crowd events take place over consecutive days and comprise many events occurring simultaneously, which are distributed over a wide range of locations.

“Thus, if a simulation tool is to accurately represent crowd events such as these, it should be capable of simulating multiple events at multiple locations over several days in one overall model. Moreover, a crowd event does not occur in isolation, but forms part of the wider environment and is, therefore, both influenced by and influential over aspects in that wider environment.

For example, the transport system, other events taking place nearby, local shops, restaurants and bars, and individuals going about their daily business, all are factors which should be considered.”

The benefits to major events like the Olympics or the football World Cup, where new infrastructure will be being operated for the first, and may not be ready to use until soon before the event itself, are crystal clear, but the benefits to smaller events that do not have the same financial resources may be even greater in proportion, and given that there are 20,000 sporting stadia in the United States alone, the economic value of affordable, easy to exploit simulation tools for safety and security in sport is clearly significant.

Chris Aaron is the Editor of ICSS Journal References 1.

Health and Safety Executive, A Literature Review of the Health and Safety Risks Associated with Major Sporting Events, 2010

2.

Challenger, R, Clegg, C, Robinson, M, Understanding Crowd Behaviours, Centre for Socio-Technical Systems Design (CSTSD) at Leeds University Business School, 2010

3.

Kendrick, VL, Haslam, R, Watrson P, Planning Crowd Events to Achieve High Participant Satisfaction, Loughborough Design School, Loughborough University, 2012

4.

Chris W Johnson, Using Evacuation Simulations to Ensure the Safety and Security of the 2012 Olympic Venues, Department of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, 2008 http://www.dcs. gla.ac.uk/~johnson/papers/WOS/Olympics_Chris_W_Johnson.pdf

5.

Samuelson, D, Visualizing Safer Events, ORMS Today, October 2012. (Magazine of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences)

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Cyber risk management: an operational perspective

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e live in the Information Age. It is also commonly referred to as the Digital Age, as it was made possible by developments in digital technology.

Advances in digital technology have created a new medium for conducting human affairs: cyberspace, and like the other mediums of security activity – air, land, sea and space – this medium is neutral until humans get their hands on it.

We tend to scare ourselves about this medium by dressing it up with words such as ‘cyber’ and ‘cyberwar’, and by imagining that it is a wildly technical area that only specialists can handle.

However, technical complexity should not blind planners to the value of implementing well-understood operational issues approaches. Cars, for example, are highly technical, but most of us can drive them safely because we have learnt how to manage the risks and opportunities of the road. So too with cyberspace.

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In time, we shall get used to the responsibilities of living in the Digital Age, responsibilities that come with the opportunities of the Digital Age that we all enjoy. The more we can improve the cyber hygiene of our behaviour online, the sooner it will become a safer place to operate. But note that safety in cyberspace, as elsewhere, will always only be a relative thing; cyberspace is inherently technologically insecure, and no matter how secure the technology, the human interface is always corruptible. People are the front line in cyber risk management, so given the need to embrace cyber risk management our success will depend upon the education and cyber hygiene of our populations, as well as the technology employed.

With the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar nine years away, educating private and business communities in maintaining secure digital systems will be a useful measure in preparing for an event that is resilient and prepared against cyber risk.

iStockphoto

Major-General Jonathan Shaw CB CBE discusses operational approaches to cyber risk management, using the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games experience to highlight best practice

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165,000,000 165 million cyber ‘events’ logged during the London 2012 Games

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Only 783 of these were investigated further

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97 were classed as security events and raised to the technology operations centre

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Of these, only six were regarded serious enough to be brought to the immediate attention of Gary Pennell, CIO of the London 2012 Olympics

It is the operational, rather than technical, approaches to cyber security that concern me, and lessons can be learnt in this regard from what went right and wrong at the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Deciding on technical measures The first point to highlight is that planners did not decide on their technical measures until the last safe moment.

Because digital technology develops so fast, the organisers knew that any technology they specified too early would be quickly out of date. To take an example relevant to the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup, what will be the impact of quantum computing as it comes to maturity?

How will such a technology affect the current approaches to security algorithms? Or maybe quantum computing will provide its own answers to its own problems?

Unfortunately, we just do not know at this stage.

It was for similar reasons that the technology for the 2012 games was only decided on in 2010, and when it was specified, it was designed to be updateable. As naturalist Charles Darwin famously said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent.

It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

This emphasis on adaptability applies the longer a system has to endure; hence supervisory control and data acquisition systems in particular need to be designed with this in mind. Given the dependence of Qatar on its infrastructure to host the games (air conditioning, desalination, food distribution) these considerations are of direct relevance to the FIFA World Cup in 2022.

It is not just technology development that is unpredictable; so too is human use of technology. More than 20 years ago, the first text message was sent via

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Three of the attacks were distributed denial of service attacks One was a preliminary probing attack from Eastern Europe looking for vulnerabilities in the system One was an IP blocking attempt One was suspected to have more serious motives

the Vodafone network from a computer to an Orbitel 901 mobile phone. Then, there was no way to reply from a phone. Today, texting has billions of users each day.

One of the reasons for the low level of cyber problems during the games was that the IT systems were created on what might be called a ‘greenfield site’. It was built afresh so that the risk of inheriting problems from legacy systems was minimised. In effect, it began from nothing behind a firewall and the system grew in a sanitised space.

Certification for anyone linking into it was insisted upon.

This placed the emphasis for compliance on the supply chain contractors if they wished to profit from the Games, and the financial incentive made them comply. One can expect some parties to complain; they did at London, but were forced to play by the rules. Clearly, the more the commercial and cyber security interests can be aligned, the more all concerned can be incentivised to work together for the good of the event. The importance of this approach was highlighted during the Games, when access to pooled press reports was temporarily blocked as the result of one major press agency’s system being infected by malware and producing large amounts of spam that caused anti-spam software to block certain IP ranges.

Cyberspace is part of our workspace, it is not discrete.

The virtual and the physical worlds are both integrated and connected, so the cyber and IT structures and the rest of the cyber command and control technologies (C2) must be integrated into one whole, with one person in charge.

This must include not just the organisations dealing directly with the sport but also all the organs of state, including the intelligence agencies. This has the potential to cause all kinds of cultural challenges; challenges that the UK has grown used to with its long history of domestic

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terrorism that has forced an unusual degree of national information sharing at the top level. While the technology for the 2022 World Cup should be decided at the last safe moment, the C2 and the organisation for the event should be set up as early as possible.

Understanding vulnerabilities For the London 2012 Olympics, the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) was set up as soon as the Games were awarded in 2005. LOCOG was the ultimate decision-maker beneath cabinet and arbiter between competing interests. It was this wellestablished teamwork between LOCOG and the police that allowed fraud to be dealt with so effectively that the fraudsters (and there were financially motivated attacks) were handled swiftly and without hitting the headlines.

Essentially, electronic fraud, fake ticketing and phishing attacks were handled by the police contacting the relevant internet service provider to let them know they were hosting fraudulent activity. Generally, they acted quickly to close them down. Fraud is still just fraud even if it is aimed at the Games or the World Cup, and this is a good example of using exisiting working practices.

The first task for any organisation when considering its cyber risk management is to value its assets and

The principles of well-worn military training practices can be applied here: thorough assessment of vulnerabilities; understanding of all potential adversaries; setting of the most demanding scenarios to test the system; full participation by all players up to and including the political level; ‘red teaming’ (viewing problems from the opposite perspective) all planning to provide challenges to conventional or convenient thinking; honest assessment of results; rigorous enactment of changes in response to failings; and repeat exercises to turn lessons identified into lessons learnt.

Despite planning and preparation, cyber events took place during the 2012 Games. According to Gary Pennell, CIO of the London 2012 Olympics, there were 165 million ‘events’ logged during the Games. Only 783 of these were investigated further, and just 97 were classed as security events and raised to the technology operations centre. Of these, only six were regarded serious enough to be brought to Pennell’s immediate attention. Three of the attacks were distributed denial of service attacks (attempts to make networks unavailable to users), one was a preliminary probing attack from Eastern Europe looking for vulnerabilities in the system, one was the IP blocking aforementioned, and one was suspected to have more serious motives.

This leads to the point that if you want to understand what is happening in cyberspace, it is important to understand the motivation of your potential attackers. One should resist the urge to be obsessed with what is actually happening technically; stay close to your human intelligence analysts.

Motives are key to understanding the likely threats and the actual attacks, for cyberspace is just the latest medium through which humans attempt to express themselves and achieve their goals, and we should expect every facet of human nature to be manifest in cyberspace. It is understanding human nature that will be our greatest guide in anticipating and dealing with the challenges that cyberspace presents.

The cyber lessons for the Qatar security ecosystem in preparing for the 2022 World Cup are refreshingly simple to state: early organisational preparation; a clear and unified chain of command; prioritisation of asset security; late technology choice applied on a greenfield site, with adaptability prioritised over specifications; the cyber response fully integrated into a well-exercised and tested team in the full expectation that things will go wrong but can be managed successfully; and risk assessment based on motivations, not just technical risks.

Security success at the 2022 World Cup means ensuring that the tournament carries on regardless of attacks upon it understand its vulnerabilities. This must also balance not just security against risk but also security against agility.

Only then can it allocate the appropriate security. In essence, this process is familiar to us all from our normal judgments made on household security: what to leave outside, what to lock indoors, what in the safe, and what in the bank, and this is applicable to the World Cup. This risk-management decision-making is an executive rather than technical decision. It has to be held at the highest level – it cannot be delegated to the chief information officer (CIO) or chief information security officer, which makes the point that cyber risk management is a boardlevel issue. This standard business risk-management approach applied in London and it will apply in Qatar.

Organisers must trial, test and exercise the system repeatedly against the most demanding scenarios. Success is not a case of nothing happening; things will go wrong during an event, no matter how much preparation is done.

The key is how the human beings and the organisation behave; how quickly and sensibly they can anticipate, prevent, respond, react, reconfigure and allow the event to continue. Security success at the 2022 World Cup means ensuring that the tournament carries on regardless of attacks upon it, and hopefully with no one noticing.

Major-General Jonathan Shaw CB CBE is a British Army officer and a former Assistant Chief of Defence Staff responsible for the United Kingdom’s Defence Cyber Security Programme. He is currently Practice Director for Defence and Cyber for Digital Barriers Plc, and advises other organisations on security strategy and planning

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Save the Dream award The Qatar Olympic Committee and the International Center for Sport Security (ICSS) presented its inaugural Save the Dream award to Spanish long-distance runner Iván Fernández Anaya at a gala dinner in Doha, Qatar in March

A

naya was trailing Kenyan athlete Abel Mutai in a race in Spain in December 2012 when Mutai slowed just before the finishing line, thinking he had already crossed. Rather than exploit his rival’s mistake, Anaya guided the Kenyan to the finish and came in second himself.

At the presentation of his Save the Dream award Anaya commented: “What I did at the race was nothing great as far as I was concerned. I just did the right thing, and here I am being honoured by people who didn’t even witness the race. I am totally humbled.”

QOC Secretary General HE Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani observed that “what Ivan did was exceptional. In the highly competitive world of modern sport such examples of sportsmanship shine through.”

Anaya’s behaviour represented everything that Save the Dream is trying to achieve in terms of fostering the values of fair play and sportsmanlike behaviour, and it also tells us something about the value of winning.

“I didn’t deserve to win it. He was the rightful winner,” Anaya said in an interview with El País. “He created a gap that I couldn’t have closed if he hadn’t made a mistake.

As soon as I saw he was stopping, I knew I wasn’t going to pass him,” Anaya added.

Interestingly, Anaya’s coach, Martin Fiz was equivocal about his action: “The gesture has made him a better person but not a better athlete. He has wasted an occasion. Winning always makes you more of an athlete.

You have to go out to win.”

Iván Fernández Anaya was presented with the Save the Dream Award in March for his sportsmanship.

Anya is picture here at the awards ceremony with ICSS President Mohammed Hanzab to his right

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Anaya himself observed that “even if they had told me that winning would have earned me a place in the Spanish team for the European championships, I wouldn’t have done it either. Of course it would be another thing if there was a World or European medal at stake. Then, I think that, yes, I would have exploited it to win.”

Essentially, Anaya’s personal values dictated one set of actions while the world of competitive, high-stakes sport seems to dictate another one altogether. Is there any way to resolve this apparent contradiction? Thankfully, studies of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation suggest that Anaya’s behaviour was actually beneficial both in moral terms and as an athlete.

‘It’s not every four years. It’s every day.’ This famous motto of the United States Olympic Committee highlights the importance of intrinsic motivation for athletes wanting to compete at the highest level, and the importance of intrinsic motivation is even greater in individual than team sports. So, for Anaya, the maintenance of a high level of intrinsic motivation – the driving force behind the hours and years of training required to reach the starting line of an Olympic final – ought to be the priority.

Does winning contribute to intrinsic motivation? Yes, of course, but only winning when it is deserved. Winning at all costs, and winning when it is undeserved, actually reduces intrinsic levels of motivation. So Anaya could have won his race in Burlada, but it probably would have damaged his long-term prospects of winning at the highest level of his sport.

In the long term, integrity counts. I’ll leave the last word to Ivan: “I think I have earned more of a name having done what I did than if I had won. And that is very important, because today, with the way things are in all circles, in soccer, in society, in politics, where it seems anything goes, a gesture of honesty goes down well.”

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