GUYANA Football Federation (GFF)’s Third Vice-President Dion Inniss, in April, attended the first FIFA Integrity Summit in Singapore, organised to update Member Associations on global integrity trends and best practices.
The April 4 and 5 conference was held in collaboration with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), and attended by representatives from FIFA’s 211 member associations, and the six confederations.
This is part of FIFA’s ongoing initiatives to tackle match manipulation, corruption, and other unethical or illegal activities, by providing education and training to players, referees, and integrity officers.
Since his return, Inniss has been directing his efforts towards preparing the GFF for FIFA’s comprehensive educational training materials rollout in June, which will be used to inform Guyana’s football stakeholders about match manipulation.
The GFF will also be implementing an anti-match fixing policy, in accordance with FIFA’s guidelines.
“We discussed strategies on how to combat match fixing, including investigative methods. But the biggest thing was how do we educate our stakeholders, the players, match officials, coaches, and our external stakeholders, like law enforcement, to deal with this ever-increasing phenomenon,” Inniss said.
Participants also covered global integrity trends, and the exchange of best practices and significant decisions by FIFA, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) regarding match manipulation.
They were presented with the new FIFA Integrity Handbook.
Inniss said that the summit gave him an opportunity to interact with other representatives, and deliberate on the challenges they also encounter in ensuring the integrity of the game.
Underscoring the urgency for proactive measures in Guyana to preserve fair play in football, the GFF official shared that only fifteen countries, globally, possess legislation explicitly addressing match manipulation.
A presentation he found particularly impactful was given by former professional footballer from England, Moses Swaibu.
Swaibu shared his personal journey, revealing how his involvement in match-fixing led to imprisonment, and ultimately transformed his life. Since then, he has founded a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) committed to educating players and others about the dangers of match-fixing.
Also present at the summit were representatives from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Interpol, the International Cricket Council (ICC), and the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
