ANOC held special theme sessions to conclude its General Assembly for the first time ©ANOC

National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have been urged to "play your part" in protecting integrity in sport and combating match-fixing at the conclusion of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) General Assembly here.

The final day of the gathering in South Korea's capital Seoul featured special theme sessions for the first time, beginning with discussions on sustainability in sport and followed by an analysis on how to protect the integrity of sport.

ANOC Legal Commission chair Michael Chambers served as the keynote speaker and moderator at the second session, in which he warned that "none of our organisations are immune to the creep of corruption" and that officials must not "betray the responsibility with which we have been trusted".

"We all have to take individual responsibility within our NOC to make our NOCs better," Chambers told gathered delegates.

"The NOC world is our world, it's ours to keep, it's ours to protect.

"It involves each NOC member and each Continental Association member of ANOC.

"What each one of us does, the way in which each one of us conducts ourselves affects the other.

"Like it or not, corrupt behaviour on the part of any one of us tarnishes the image of all of us."

Dutch Olympic Committee*Dutch Sports Federation President Anneke van Zanen-Nieberg discussed efforts to combat match-fixing in The Netherlands, focusing on the areas of prevention, awareness building, advice, investigation and sanctioning.

ANOC Legal Commission chair Michael Chambers said that NOCs
ANOC Legal Commission chair Michael Chambers said that NOCs "have a part to play" in combatting match-fixing ©ANOC

Olympic Committee of Portugal general director João Paulo Almeida shared that its approach focuses on awareness and prevention, regulation and intelligence, and argued that all NOCs can take action against match-fixing.

Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Matt Carroll emphasised the importance of engagement, the role of the athletes and collaboration with the Athletes' Commission of the NOC to share information.

Delegates were then given the opportunity to provide comments and ask questions following the presentation.

Chambers told insidethegames that the session on integrity in sport aimed to emphasise the role that NOCs can play.

"No one organisation can solve it, but everybody has a part to play," he said.

"What we wanted to bring to the attention of the NOCs is that they have a part to play, and to play your part well, get out there and do the job that you should be doing to protect your athletes from falling into the trap of this terrible, insidious virus, match-fixing."

The Canadian official also felt that the addition of special theme sessions to the ANOC General Assembly proved a success.

"I wouldn't call it a home run, but it was a three-base hit in the sense that I could tell in that room that the NOCs were keenly interested in the topic and were keenly interested in what they could learn, and I think they went away thinking they learned something, so I mark it as A+," Chambers said.

"We haven't had this before at ANOC, and I think it's opened a window to what ANOC can do not just reporting to its NOCs, but to lifting up its NOCs."