The House of Lords' International Agreements Committee convened yesterday for a crucial session focused on ratifying the Macolin Convention. Representatives from the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) highlighted the importance of international cooperation to combat the escalating threat posed by criminal organizations looking to corrupt sports.
Emma Floyd, the DCMS's Director of Sport & Gambling, reported a 28% rise in corruption incidents reported in 2025 compared to 2024, with much of the corruption occurring in football and tennis at lower levels of competition. "Corruption is increasingly happening in the lower tiers of sport," Floyd remarked.
Floyd underscored her support for the conventio, explaining its potential to enhance cross-border information exchange in the fight against corruption. Her comments resonated with previous speakers, who emphasized that thwarting international criminal syndicates responsible for match-fixing hinges on global collaboration.
She explained the complex nature of these corrupt operations: "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."
Madolina Diaconu, an associate professor and Swiss attorney specializing in Sports and Gambling Law, indicated two weeks prior that organized crime's infiltration into match-fixing has markedly increased over the last 15 years. Floyd echoed this sentiment, stating, "Given the inherently global nature of this, we need to work with other countries and cooperate in order to really tackle this together."
The UK is already among 43 countries, including Brazil, Morocco, and Australia, that have signed the treaty, but only 17 nations have fully ratified it. Floyd emphasized that complete ratification would enable the UK to influence strategies to address these evolving threats.
However, Simon Mason, Deputy Director of Sport at the DCMS, expressed skepticism about how much the ratification might change enforcement measures, considering the organization is already adhering to the convention’s protocols. "We undertook a full compliance assessment, and have concluded that our existing structures are sufficient to meet the requirements of the convention," he asserted.
The convention mandates countries to support sporting bodies in combating corruption, which Mason posits is already addressed through the UK's Code for Sports Governance. He pointed to the Gambling Commission's Sports Betting Intelligence Unit and the Sports Betting Integrity Forum as crucial resources offering guidance and support.
Despite these measures, increasing corruption rates prompted concerns over the UK’s capacity to effectively tackle this issue. Lord Johnson remarked, "We can sign as many treaties as we like, but unless we have proper enforcement in the UK, it's not going to make a great deal of difference."
Floyd acknowledged the limited number of prosecutions, suggesting that broader international cooperation could help, yet both she and Mason affirmed that the DCMS is engaged in international information sharing and compliance with the convention.
Moses Swaibu, CEO of GameChanger360, suggested that sports organizations should enhance their educational initiatives to equip athletes with the knowledge to recognize and deal with corruption attempts. Swaibu, a former football player who faced criminal prosecution for match-fixing, shared insights from his experiences, revealing in his book *Fixed: My Secret Life as a Match Fixer* how he evaded detection for years.
While ratifying the convention may facilitate marginal improvements in sharing information, experts believe it is a small step in addressing the widening corruption threats in sports. Additionally, the committee acknowledged the complicating factor of rising prediction markets, many of which accept cryptocurrency payments, further challenging the fight against hidden criminal activities in sports.
