Kornelija Tiesnesytė is elected Chair of the Macaolino Convention Monitoring Committee

Kornelija Tiensesytė, Advisor to the Lithuanian Anti-Doping Agency, has been elected Chair of the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sporting Competitions (the Macaolino Convention) in Strasbourg.

The Makolin Convention is the Council of Europe's instrument for combating the manipulation of sporting competitions in order to ensure fair and transparent sporting practices. The Monitoring Committee monitors countries' compliance with the Convention and exchanges information on legislative initiatives, education and prevention projects, and possible match-fixing.

"International cooperation to prevent match-fixing is crucial. Such activities often transcend national borders, and it is only by joining forces that we can fight the cancer that still plagues the sport. As an example, I can mention the widespread possibility of betting on sporting events remotely, not always through legitimate channels. This encourages manipulators to trap athletes, coaches and other people involved in sport in Lithuania, as in any other country in the world", says K. Tiesnesytė.

To date, 15 countries have ratified the Makolin Convention, although most European countries signed it in 2014. This situation is due to certain legal interpretations of the regulation of the Convention. According to K. Tiesnesytė, the fruits of this delay are already being written by manipulative actors.

"This situation - attempts to resolve fictitious legal problems - has not been good for sport. Manipulation, corruption and other evils have not gone away from sport. On the contrary, the number of problems is growing, they are getting worse. Manipulation in sport is not just about gambling. Other forms include conflicts of interest, manipulation of age, technology and so on. We already have all this here in Lithuania. I think we are different from the rest of the world only in that manipulation in the world is mostly in football. Here, it is basketball that dominates. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of gambling addicts among athletes. The sporting system alone is incapable of solving all these problems. The Convention has therefore provided a legal basis for finding partners in this fight. In Lithuania, the Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of the Interior, the police, the Financial Crimes Investigation Service, the Special Investigation Council, the Gambling Supervision Service, etc. are members of the National Platform. Only by using the experience and know-how of these institutions, as well as that of the sporting community, will we help to make sport cleaner and more transparent", says the new Chair of the Macaolino Convention Monitoring Committee.