PROtect Integrity Plus

The objective of the project was to combat the match-fixing threat to European sport by providing a secure, phone-based App for professional athletes to report integrity issues. This was achieved during the two-year project, coordinated by EU Athletes, with 8 player associations and University of Liverpool as partners. Additionally, organizations supporting the project included FIFPro, who was a key partner when it comes to successfully adapting and implementing the Red Button App, and IBIA who added the expertise from the private betting operators side.The Red Button App, originally developed by the Finnish football players association (JPY), was adapted for seven player associations in the project. These are HSF in Denmark (Handball); RPA in England (Rugby); PROVALE in France (Rugby); HPVPA in Greece (Volleyball); IRUPA/RPI in Ireland (Rugby); GIBA in Italy (Basketball); and AJFS in Spain (Futsal). These associations delivered education integrity, match fixing, reporting and the App to 4,697 players with 2,798 downloading the Red Button onto their phones. The project work plan included 14 actions with different partners leading on different aspects according to their expertise. All the actions, including meetings and intellectual outputs were implemented. These included the production of two best practice documents available on the project website – the 2019 Code of Conduct for Athletes and the 2019 Reporting Protocols for Player Associations.The academic review by Professor Forrest of Liverpool University concluded “The overwhelming majority [of surveyed players] rated the roll-out and the explanation of the App as either ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’.” This shows the effectiveness of the training given to the player association so that they could deliver the App. With whistle-blowing, it is important that the reporting mechanism is trusted and according to the report, “Everywhere, the majority of players indicated that they trusted the App either ‘completely’ or ‘a lot’”. Six transnational project meetings planned were held as part of the project:● Kick Off Meeting, 26th of January 2018 in France;● Red Button Meeting, 5-7th of March 2018 in Finland;● Catch Up Meeting, 22nd of January 2019 in Denmark;● Staff Meeting, 26th of June 2019 in Finland;● Staff and Partners Meeting, 7th of October 2019 in Greece;● Wrap up Meeting, 13th of December in the Netherlands.Additionally, one Multiplier Sport Event, Dissemination Conference, was held in Athens, Greece on the 8th of October 2019, gathering representatives from player associations and key stakeholders when it comes to fight against match-fixing, in order to present the project outputs and results and to discuss the common approach assuring integrity in sport. The social media #PROtectIntegrity campaign to support the project and its dissemination worked well. Two videos were produced featuring high profile athletes delivering age-appropriate messages to help disseminate the project to grass roots sport. These were launched during the 2018 and 2019 European Week of Sport and are available on project website. The additional long-term impact of the project has been assured as FIFPro aims to introduce the App to new countries. The potential to successfully implement the App also to other sports and countries has been confirmed by this innovative project. Additionally, all the partners have improved engagement with their national platforms or similar bodies. Improved coordination and cooperation with key international stakeholders and other projects was also a key result of the project.As prof. Forrest noted, it is too early to assess this effectiveness of the App with regards to the number of direct reports. However, the integrity of 5 sports in 7 European countries has been strengthen by thousands of players downloading the App and receiving match-fixing education.