Play the Game 2013: Meet the world’s leading experts on match-fixing

Play the Game 2013: Meet the world’s leading experts on match-fixing

“Match-fixing is the single most important issue facing the sports world today,” says match-fixing expert Declan Hill. This is one reason why match-fixing has been a returning theme on the Play the Game conferences ever since 2005.

At Play the Game 2013 we have gathered the world’s leading experts in the field in order to further clarify how match-fixing is actually undertaken, how to initiate activities and create the necessary global alliances that can help fight match-fixing effectively.

Among the keynote speakers in the match-fixing track are Nick Garlick from Europol, Dale Sheehan, head of the FIFA/Interpol cooperation, Richard McLaren, arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and Chris Eaton, director of the newly established ICSS, International Centre for Sports Security.

The theme about match-fixing runs over two days, 29-30 October and is organised in cooperation with the Nordic Sports Law Conference.

Play the Game 2013 will also feature the launch of Declan Hill’s new book ‘The Insider’s Guide to Football Corruption – an academic view of match fixing’.

Declan Hill is a PhD and an investigative journalist who already in 2005 opened the international debate on match-fixing at the Play the Game conference in Copenhagen. His best-seller ’The Fix’ from 2008 exposed the world of the fixers through first-hand experiences.

According to Declan Hill match-fixing differs significantly from other forms of corruption in sport.

“Every other form of corruption either affects the officials or is cheating to win – where athletes break the rules to gain competitive advantage,” says Hill.

“Fixing destroys sport. It turns it into theatre. Asian sports have been devastated by fixing. In our globalised world the same thing will happen to European and North American sports unless we stop the fixing now.”

Speaking at the conference, Declan Hill hopes to heighten the delegates’ sense of realism in relation to the match-fixing discourse. And like in 2005, he intends to provide information that will cause uneasy feelings in the sports community.

“I will bring an edge of realism to the debate about fixing. Since I revealed the existence of fixing networks based in Asia that were corrupting international sports, a mini-industry of consultants and dubious ‘experts’ has arisen,” says Hill, who will elaborate on his viewpoints in his presentation at Play the Game 2013 called: The Red Flags of Bullshit in the Anti-Match-Fixing Industry.

A conference in the conference
The Nordic Sports Law Conference, which runs simultaneously as a part of Play the Game 2013 will examine the juridical aspects of match-fixing. How does the justice system work in this area, are the laws and regulations in place adequate, what sanctions apply to match-fixing, should match-fixing be a criminal offence, do sporting and governmental laws match? These are some of the questions that will be discussed during the Nordic Sports Law Conference sessions, which are all open to Play the Game delegates.

Choose your favourite challenge to sport and pick your Play the Game days

More than 125 expert speakers from all over the world have started clearing their thoughts and throats in preparation of their contribution to Play the Game 2013 which this year takes place on its home ground in Aarhus from Monday 28 to Thursday 31 October.

The conference programme is now available and can be downloaded at the conference website here (still subject to change).

The main themes of the conference are:
•  Match-fixing: Fair game for gangsters? 
•  Sports reforms: Fact or phantom? 
•  The anti-doping dilemma: Saving sport, sacrificing athletes?
•  Recreational sport: A lost cause for sports organisations?
•  Sports facilities: Who are we building for? 
•  From Russia to Rio: Power games or people’s games?
•  Open Forum

Find your favourite sessions in the programme and plan your Play the Game 2013 experience.

Register for Play the Game 2013 here

Read more about the conference at the conference websitewww.playthegame.org/2013