ABSTRACT
Although the promotion of whistleblowing is becoming a global issue, through major scandals revealed by insiders (such as the Snowden NSA scandal, or the Panama Papers), political recognition and legal protection of whistleblowers are still lacking. The sport environment is no exception. Recent prominent corruption cases in international sports have highlighted the strong organisational silence (or ‘omerta’) that can prevail in some sport settings, and the high level of retaliation that whistleblowers face as official dissenters. Sports organisations have started to set up whistleblowing (or reporting) mechanisms to enable individuals to signal corruptive behaviours occurring on or off the field such as match-fixing or corruption. However, it still has to be demonstrated to what extent these tools can be trusted by sport actors. Through three emblematic case studies of sport corruption, this chapter proposes to underline the specificities of the sport sector with regards to the implementation of whistleblowing and compliance processes. Lessons from these cases will explain why reliable and trustworthy reporting policies are specifically needed and how to build them. One particular ‘good practice’ of whistleblowing policy in a national sport setting will be presented. In this case, a national sport federation has opened an official cooperation with a national chapter of Transparency International. The independent and neutral organisation not only collects and pre-handles reports but also coordinates integrity awareness programmes and acts as a mediator and adviser for sport actors facing integrity issues. The document concludes with concrete recommendations to consider and adapt such solutions in other (national or international) sport contexts.
