Council of Europe: “Not everyone has the correct education” to deal with corruption, says Moses Swaibu

Moses Swaibu, founder of MS5 Solutions, the EdTech company aiming to combat match-fixing in sports, has highlighted a lack of education as a key issue for people involved in corruption, in a speech at the Council of Europe this week.

The Council of Europe’s Network of Magistrates/Prosecutors Responsible For Sports (MARS) was formed at a Convention in Strasbourg, with the aim of increasing awareness for match-fixing and corruption in sports and highlight the ways to identify and prosecute threats.

As one of the event’s keynote speakers, Swaibu stated that EdTech solutions should be used in sports and can be applied to traditional businesses to help tackle corruption in the workplace.

Speaking at the event, Moses Swaibu, Founder of MS5 Solutions, said:

“In short, football players at all levels of the game remain the most targeted and the most vulnerable to criminal approaches. It is ironic then, that football players have the least protection from such approaches. They may be oversighted, regulated, and investigated, but they are not anywhere near as protected, supported, and encouraged as their palpable vulnerability suggests they should be. We need a new cultural reform and a player led resistance allowing the composition of a new truth commission being implemented from the top”.

Moving forward, MARS, with the assistance of INTERPOL, will serve as an expert group that will mobilise prosecutors across different countries, provide operational tools to exchange information and best practices, such as EdTech, and provide an international forum dedicated to investigation and criminal proceedings.

It follows on from the Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions which entered the force in September 2019 to fight for sports integrity, acting against violence and doping.

The Convention featured a number of panels on organised crime and the corruption landscape, the main challenges in investigation and prosecution, and the concrete examples of national and international cooperation in integrity.