03/06/2025 Culture, Science, Education and Media
A launch meeting for the new PACE Parliamentary Alliance for Good Governance and Integrity in Sport took place in Trondheim, Norway, dedicated to the theme of “rebuilding trust” in the integrity of sport and promoting the values of fair play and transparency in the bodies that govern world sport.
Opening the meeting of the Alliance – which brings together legislators from across the Council of Europe to seek integrity, democracy, transparency and public accountability in sport – its Chair Kim Valentin (Denmark, ALDE) said: “Rebuilding trust in sport through good governance and strong ethical standards is not just a challenge, it is a democratic imperative. Today, we come together, as parliamentarians and sport stakeholders, to commit ourselves to this task.”
In the first session, participants discussed how to tackle corruption in sport, and looked at the reforms and safeguards needed in international governing bodies. They heard proposals from the Founder of the NGO “Play the Game”, which campaigns for greater integrity in world sport, and from a member of a unit set up to review integrity at the International Biathlon Union, on the anti-corruption efforts made by the administrators of this particular sport.
In a second session, dedicated to global anti-doping efforts and the role of international institutions in promoting clean sport, parliamentarians heard from the heads of the Norwegian and UK anti-doping agencies, Anti-Doping Norway and UKAD, on their work at national level in these two countries to stamp out doping, as well as from the head of Global Athlete, a body which seeks to uphold the rights of athletes worldwide. The session was moderated by Norwegian Olympic gold medallist and sports commentator Johann Olav Koss.
The parliamentary alliance, launched in November 2024 during a conference in Athens, works with global bodies such as FIFA and World Athletics, and partners such as the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS), as well as other stakeholders involved in promoting “clean sport”, whether NGOs, academic institutions, law enforcement bodies, the sports industry, media or sponsors.