The Portuguese Professional Football League, popularly known as Liga Portugal, signed a corporation agreement with Sport Integrity Global Alliance’s (SIGA) yesterday.
Liga Portugal committed to adopting and implementing SIGA’s Universal Standards and submitting itself to its Independent Rating and Verification System (SIRVS), at the start of the 2022/23 football season.
Liga Portugal president, Pedro Proença said integrity was key in the promotion of Portuguese professional football.
“The path of transparency is fundamental for the next steps that we want to achieve,” said Proença.
“Branding, credibility and defending the integrity of competitions are the greatest values we want to follow.
“Liga Portugal is happy to sign this agreement at a time when integrity is an issue, namely in sports, and good governance models are being discussed.”
Proença was joined by SIGA’s global chief executive officer, Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros and Portugal’s Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, João Paulo Rebelo at the signing ceremony in Lisbon.
Liga Portugal is the latest to join the likes of the European Rugby League, International Mixed Martial Arts Federation, UEFA, Chess International Federation, Qatar Stars League, and the National Olympic Committee of Portugal, among others, to form an alliance with SIGA.
Twentytwo13 is SIGA’s sole media partner from Southeast Asia.
SIGA and Liga Portugal agreed to collaborate in promoting and implementing:
- sports’ positive values and social, educational, and cultural role.
- good governance, integrity, and transparency.
- financial integrity, sustainability, and transparency.
- measures to prevent and fight illegal betting and match-fixing.
- youth development and child protection initiatives.
The agreement, according to de Medeiros, was the first step towards enhancing governance across Portuguese professional football. He added that concrete action must follow, to deliver the necessary reforms.
“Signing this cooperation agreement reflects the unequivocal commitment of both parties to work together to ensure that the SIGA Universal Standards are effectively implemented, and the Liga goes through the independent, rigorous and objective scrutiny that only SIRVS can offer,” he said.
“It is not an end in itself, but rather a means to structure and achieve these ends. That’s what we’re going to work on over the coming months.”
