Following its selection by the European Commission, the project ‘Single Points of Contact for Sports Integrity’ (POINTS) by the EOC EU Office will start in January 2018 and will run for a total of three years with various activities scheduled in the different countries of the consortium.

With the idea to help National Olympic Committees (NOCs), European federations and national sport federations in Europe to safeguard the integrity of their respective sport(s) and to strengthen their governance, the POINTS project will gather an impressive consortium of 18 organisations including 11 NOCs (Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, France, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Italy, Portugal, Germany and Croatia), 3 European federations (European Athletics, European Volleyball Confederation and FIBA Europe) and 3 specialised organisations (INTERPOL, Sport & Recreation Alliance UK and EOSE). The IOC, through its Ethics and Compliance Office, is an associated partner to the project.

With the possibility offered by the early announcement of the selection results by the European Commission, mid-July, the project management team is able to organise the kick-off meeting on 10 and 11 January 2018, in the new premises of the EOC EU Office in Brussels, with the objective to maximise the time at its disposal to deliver this ambitious project. In that perspective, the last months of 2017 are already busy with the preparatory work for the kick-off and the development of the different communication tools – Twitter account, website.

The kick-off will also offer an opportunity to officially present the POINTS logo to the consortium:

In 2018, first activities of the project consortium will consist on the definition of the concept of ‘Single Points of Contact for integrity’, building on the existing experience developed in certain countries and sports. However, the focus being currently on the prevention of the manipulation of sports competitions, the main task of the POINTS Project is to further develop this concept for NOCs as well as European and national federations and to broaden it to integrity in general.

The second part of the year 2018 will see the development of an educational programme to provide training and support for Single Points of Contact before a practical implementation in 2019.

The EOC EU Office is looking forward to start the collaboration with all partners and will regularly keep you informed regarding the development of the POINTS project.