Poland has signed the Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions
On Tuesday, July 7, during the meeting of EU Ministers for Sport, Poland, together with Spain and Luxembourg, the host of the meeting, joined the group of countries which have signed the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions.
The convention was signed, on behalf of the Polish Government, by Dorota Idzi, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Sport and Tourism. The signing ceremony was also attended by Miguel Cardenal, President of the Spanish Government Sports Council, Anne Brasseur, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Romain Schneider, Minister of Sport of Luxembourg, and Snežana Samardžić-Marković, the Council of Europe’s Director General for Democracy.
The objective of the Convention is to prevent, detect and sanction national and transnational manipulation of sports competitions. This objective is to be achieved through national and international cooperation between the public authorities concerned, as well as with organisations involved in sports management and sports betting. The Convention stipulates, inter alia, the establishment in the signatory countries of national platforms responsible for the coordination, at the national level, of the fight against the manipulation of sports competitions. The Convention also empowers the States-Parties to apply legal, administrative and disciplinary sanctions that can significantly contribute to reducing the manipulation of sports competitions.
In order to be bound by the convention, Poland now needs to ratify it, following a prior consent in the form of a parliamentary act.