Former WADA-president Richard W. Pound goes to EASM 2012 calling for a stronger effort against corruption in sport

One of the staunchest opponents of ethical malpractices in sport, the Canadian IOC-member Richard W. Pound, has just confirmed that he will join the EASM 2012 conference in Aalborg, Denmark, and give a keynote address entitled "Corruption in Sport is a Global Problem: It Needs a Global Solution".

As the founding president of the World Anti-Doping Agency from 1999-2007, Richard W. Pound has an impressive track record of managing an international institution facing a global challenge to sport.

WADA has broken new ground in getting governments and the sports movement together in a major effort to safeguard sport’s values and go up against a threat that ranges from individual cheating to organised crime. Back in the 1990’ies, while being the political head of IOC’s marketing policies, Richard W. Pound was also given the task of restoring the IOC’s image after the Salt Lake City bribery scandal. This led to the expulsion of a number of IOC members and a series of political reforms to counter corruption, reforms that has proven to be quite efficient on the inside of the IOC.

Since leaving WADA, Richard W. Pound has expressed his growing concerns about the ethical state of global sport. At the Play the Game 2011 conference in Cologne, he issued a very strong warning in the light of FIFA scandals and increased match fixing:

“If we want sport to go the way of the World Wrestling Federation, which could no longer even pretend that what it delivered was sport, and changed its name to World Wrestling Entertainment, which delivers programming ranking somewhere between a circus and a farce, all we have to do is keep going in the direction in which we have allowed sport to drift over the past decades. It is later that many connected with sport seem to think."

Two other hopeful reformers of international sport will give keynote speeches at EASM 2012: The head of FIFA’s Independent Governance Committee, professor Mark Pieth, and the former International Director of FIFA, Jérôme Champagne.

Read more about EASM here.

You can find Richard W. Pounds entire Play the Game presentation here.