Single Points of Contact for Sports Integrity

Single Points of Contact for Sports Integrity (POINTS) is an ambitious project helping NOCs, European and national Federations to strengthen their governance and to safeguard the integrity of their sport(s). The commitment of the consortium allowed the project to develop high quality outcomes answering the real challenges of sport organisations around Europe. The involvement of umbrella sport organisations on the project guaranteed the promotion, the dissemination and the use of these outcomes by an important number of national and regional sport organisations. POINTS project came at the right time as recent years saw an increasing number of legislative activities and international initiatives requiring actions on the integrity of sport and good governance of sport organisations. POINTS’ activities initiated and accompanied the development of structures to efficiently handle various integrity threats including manipulation of sport competitions, governance issues, harassment and corruption. Started in January 2018, the project methodology consisted of 4 phases bringing partners from theoretical guidance to practical implementation. While the vast majority of objectives and activities followed the planned implementation, the COVID-19 pandemic modified the schedule and the nature of national activities. And yet, the consortium managed to successfully achieve the defined objectives and to guide partner organisations in a pathway toward stronger integrity policies.Phase 1 - Development of the concept of Single Points of Contact for Sport Integrity (SPOC):Building on the experience of the International Olympic Committee and Interpol with the setting-up of SPOC on fight against manipulation of sport competition at international level, the project adapted this concept to broaden the scope of activities and make it fits with European and national level activities. Using the concrete inputs provided by the 14 sport organisations involved in the project , the consortium produced the “Guidelines for Single Points of Contact for Integrity in Sport” to support organisations in the process of setting-up a SPOC. Another key achievement of the Phase 1 is the official nomination of a SPOC by all sport partners.Phase 2 - Development of an Educational Programme for representatives of partner organisations: Relying again on the expertise of the consortium, the project has developed an educational programme aiming at providing the proper skills and knowledge for the nominated SPOCs as well as another representative of the organisations. The educational programme has been divided in 3 modules: Competition Manipulation, Good Governance and the role of SPOC. In concomitance, the SIGGS self-evaluation tool for good governance was also updated to provide additional possibilities for organisations to work on their governance and with their members. Phase 3 - Educational activities for partner representatives: 3 educational seminars for SPOCs and partners were organised in 2019 based on the methodology described in the Phase 2. All 14 sport organisations were represented with their SPOC and/or a representative. Phase 4 - Strategic Workshops on integrity and good governance in the respective countries: 11 of the 14 sport organisations partners organised a Strategic Workshop using all developed tools, including a booklet, to introduce the project to their national stakeholders. Depending on the constraints related to COVID-19 pandemic and the objectives, the format were different for all workshops. All outputs were also presented during an online final conference.The project sustainability is guaranteed as the IOC is now working with the group of POINTS SPOCs and the developed tools have been presented to all European NOCs and adopted by many.