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Starlizard Integrity Services participate in Council of Europe FLAGS Project

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Starlizard Integrity Services are pleased to be working once again with the Council of Europe, FIFA, Interpol and other key industry stakeholders on the Football Local Alerts Global Strategy (FLAGS) project.

The Council of Europe’s Secretariat of the Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions (Macolin Convention) launch the FLAGS project in conjunction with FIFA today.

This is new initiative that builds on the foundations laid by the Group of Copenhagen’s Global Football Alert Analysis Workshop (GFAAW) pilot project last year, which, again in partnership with FIFA, tested a system to alert stakeholders rapidly and efficiently about suspected match-fixing attempts. FLAGS takes this surveillance system to the next level by gathering the main actors in the fight against match-fixing to collectively support investigations on specific football teams.

To that purpose, the Council of Europe has teamed up with FIFA, Confederations, National Associations, Interpol, the Prosecutor network and the Group of Copenhagen to create a robust information-sharing and alerting network designed to detect and stop football match-fixing in its tracks, relying on the expertise of instrumental industry partners, including Starlizard Integrity Services. FLAGS will guide their joint efforts to accomplish the project’s main steps:

  • Identifying teams whose matches present integrity concerns
  • Analysing historic alerts
  • Monitoring suspect teams over an eight-month period
  • Providing individual support to coordinators, prosecutors and partners throughout the investigation process (in the form of risk assessments, monitoring reports and other relevant information), whilst facilitating a coordination and exchange platform for intelligence-sharing and synergy-building amongst all relevant actors.

The FLAGS project will run until June 2022. You can learn more about the Macolin Convention and the work of the Council of Europe in this area here.