EU – CoE Joint Project on Sport Manipulations:  ‘Keep Crime Out Of Sport’ Regional Seminar 1 – RECOGNISING THE PROBLEM, CREATING THE TRUST – 20-21 June 2016, The Hague

The Council of Europe and EU (DG HOME AFFAIRS) Joint Project ‘KEEP CRIME OUT OF SPORT (KCOOS)’ enters its second phase with its first Regional Seminar – Recognising the problem, creating the trust at The Hague on 20-21 June. It brings together representatives from law enforcement and justice, ministries, betting operators, betting regulatory authorities and the sport movement from Albania, Belgium, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and The United Kingdom. 

Project KCOOS is the operational aspect of the 2014 Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions adopted by the Council of Europe, which is currently open to signatures and ratifications worldwide. The first phase kicked off with questionnaires from various relevant stakeholders from 47 EU and Council of Europe Member States. This has provided the project with sound input for the seminars, which will focus on establishing and running national platforms, exchanging of information and building trust between various stakeholders nationally and internationally.

Now the 2-day seminar, the first out of 5 scheduled to take place this year within the project, will include a number of working sessions for the 40 participants as a first step towards finding solutions to long-standing challenges. The regional seminar will welcome speakers and moderators from Captivate Consulting, Europol, Interpol, Oxford Research Institute and Sportradar.

The outcomes of this seminar will feed into the next four regional seminars which will take place around Europe as well as the upcoming Council of Europe Conference on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions (Autumn 2016). The work will culminate in the publication of a practical how-to guide on implementing measures to fight sports manipulations.