Manama: The Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) has launched a move to raise awareness among young people of the dangers of manipulation in sports results.
The ‘Save the Dream’ programme was inaugurated by Shaikh Saud Bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, the QOC secretary general, alongside Mohammad Hanzab, the president of International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS), and Italian football star Alessandro del Piero, at the start of the 2012 Sorbonne-ICSS Sport Integrity Symposium in Paris.
“As part of the QOC’s vision to become a leading nation in bringing the world together through sport, I am delighted to unveil the ‘Save the Dream’ initiative at the 2012 Sorbonne-ICSS Sport Integrity Symposium,” Shaikh Saud said. “This new programme, created in partnership with the ICSS, is designed to nurture sports’ core values in the youth of today and will hopefully inspire a new generation of athletes to safeguard the integrity of sport for years to come.”
A major part of the initiative is the creation of a panel consisting of 11 high-profile athletes from different sports and regions around the world, as well as a multidisciplinary team composed of world-leading experts in education, communications, sport management and sport integrity.
According to del Piero who will chair the project, “protecting the credibility and integrity of sport is essential if we want to inspire a new generation of young people to take up sport.”
“With many young athletes around the world hoping to emulate their sporting heroes, I hope that this programme will offer them the opportunity to meet their idols and understand what it takes to be champions on and off the field of play,” he said.
The symposium has the official support of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), organisers said.
It is the first international event to support the global sporting community in its battle against corruption by sharing knowledge and enhancing current integrity strategies and processes, they said.
Governments, United Nations agencies, interpol, the European Union, the Council of Europe national and international sport federations, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions, legal and anti-corruption experts and law enforcement officers are set to use the high-profile gathering to explore trends, challenges and solutions in the field of sport integrity.
