Yesterday, the International Agreements Committee convened in the House of Lords for a crucial session on ratifying the Macolin Convention. During the meeting, representatives from the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) highlighted the escalating threat posed by international criminal gangs seeking to corrupt sports.
Emma Floyd, the Director of Sport & Gambling at the DCMS, reported a 28% increase in corruption cases from 2024 to 2025. She pointed out that many of these incidents were occurring in football and tennis, especially at lower levels of competition.
Floyd underscored the importance of international cooperation in combating these rising corruption challenges. By ratifying the convention, she argued, the UK could enhance cross-border information sharing and better coordinate efforts against match-fixing syndicates. "You can have your athlete from a particular country, the sporting event in a different country, the intermediary who approaches the player might be from yet another country, where the betting takes place could be somewhere else, the money can flow somewhere else, and ultimately the person at the top orchestrating this, which could be organized crime, could be in yet another country," she explained.
Madolina Diaconu, an Associate Professor and Swiss attorney specializing in Sports and Gambling Law, informed the committee two weeks ago that organized crime's infiltration into match-fixing has surged over the past 15 years. Floyd emphasized that addressing this multifaceted, global issue requires collaboration with other nations.
Currently, the UK has signed the treaty alongside 42 other European countries, Brazil, Morocco, and Australia, but only 17 nations have fully ratified it. Full ratification is crucial for the UK to influence strategies to address these evolving threats, according to Floyd.
Simon Mason, the Deputy Director of Sport at the DCMS, mentioned that the organization is already aligned with the convention's guidelines, leading to discussions about the impact of ratification. "We undertook a full compliance assessment to see how it works within our existing arrangements and existing structures, and have concluded that our existing structures are sufficient to meet the requirements of the convention," Mason stated.
Although the convention encourages nations to support sports governing bodies in tackling corruption, the issue persists. Questions arose regarding how the UK can enhance its efforts, with Lord Johnson expressing skepticism, stating that without adequate enforcement, ratification would yield minimal results. Floyd acknowledged a lack of prosecution cases, suggesting that while international cooperation may bolster efforts, the DCMS is already sharing information and operating under the convention's auspicies.
Moses Swaibu, CEO of GameChanger360, proposed that organizations need to fortify educational programs to help athletes recognize and manage corruption risks. He shared that GameChanger360 collaborates with sports bodies to equip athletes with tools for identifying and reporting corruption.
Swaibu, who faced legal consequences for match-fixing himself, elaborated in his book Fixed: My Secret Life as a Match Fixer on how he evaded detection for years.
While ratifying the convention might marginally improve the UK’s information-sharing capabilities on a global scale, it represents just a small step in tackling the growing corruption menace in sports. The committee also raised concerns regarding the rise of prediction markets, many of which process crypto payments, complicating the fight against criminal networks operating in the shadows.
