LaLiga takes part in the First National Conference on Integrity in Sport

The 1st National Conference on Integrity in Spanish Sport opened in Badajoz on Friday, organised by LaLiga, the High Council for Sport and the Spanish Sports Association (ADESP), in association with the Youth and Sport Foundation, the Extremadura Autonomous Government (Junta de Extremadura) and the Badajoz Provincial Government. This is the first conference to tackle the issue at the national scale, and covered issues such as gaming regulations in Spain, the criminal definition of predetermining results, police actions to fight these illegal practices, and the functioning of bookmakers and their preventative measures against match-fixing. 

"Sport is developing at an exponential rate. It is now an industry and a driver of the economy, but we need to look after sport's values," said Alfredo Lorenzo, LaLiga's director of integrity and security, in his inaugural address. He explained that LaLiga has been working on keeping the competition clean and honest for years, "and this task is not limited to professional football; the objective is to contribute to sport as a whole being clean, to it being honest," assured the LaLiga director.

He concluded his speech by noting that achieving a clean and honest sport is a fundamental commitment for LaLiga, and that is why it is essential to take part in activities like this conference. In his second speech, he stressed that "this work is carried out throughout the year, not just at the end of the season. When there are signs of offences, they are investigated, and if the suspicions are confirmed, they are reported." Lorenzo added that LaLiga's greatest efforts focus on prevention, programmes to raise awareness, inform and educate footballers and coaches and, above all, work at the grassroots level, with children, citing the integrity workshops which are organised every year by LaLiga as an example.

Furthermore, LaLiga's head of compliance, Esperanza Bernal-Quiros, took part in a round-table debate exploring the issue of safeguarding sporting integrity from a national perspective. Also involved were Borja Oses, the legal director at ADESP, and Oscar Garvin, the president of the Commission of Tercera Division Clubs. Subjects discussed included the assistance that LaLiga provides on this score to the clubs in Tercera, the fourth tier of Spanish football, and the joint work that the two organisations carry out. Bernal-Quiros also outlined the internal efforts that LaLiga is undertaking – in cooperation with its member clubs and SADs (public limited sports companies) – on the matter of compliance, as well as the measures implemented in conjunction with the Integrity Department.

For her part, Conchi Bellorin, the director general for sport at the Junta de Extremadura, stressed the autonomous community's commitment to pursuing and punishing all those who seek to alter the normal course of sporting competitions for their own personal or financial benefit. She went on to appeal for collaboration from throughout the sporting world to defend the integrity of sport.

The aims of this conference are, among others, to offer an insight into the protection of integrity in sport, identify behaviours that run counter to integrity and raise awareness among sports professionals and officials of the legal aspects related to the fixing of results. Another goal is to train people to teach prevention of the manipulation of results and to create a qualified network providing information on the regulation of sport.