Fraud vulnerabilities in sport federations: the role of culture, leadership, and control

Research question: Fraud is a major threat to the integrity of sports. Sport federations play a key role in safeguarding the integrity of their sport thus emphasizing the importance of internally strengthening their practices. However, a lack of research exists in understanding meso-level processes that contribute to organizations vulnerabilities to fraud. Drawing from the Organizational Fraud Triangle (OFT), this research examines the role of culture, leadership, and management controls that aims to provide insights into organizational processes, which contribute to sport federations’ vulnerability to fraud. Research method: Primary (17 semi-structured interviews) and secondary data (archival documents) were collected within five sport federations across three sports in Belgium. Results and Findings: Sport federations increasingly act against fraud. Federations engage in (in)direct fraud prevention by addressing matters of transparency and communication. However, federations struggled to address their vulnerability to fraud beyond implementing management controls which mainly target athletes rather than governance processes. Furthermore, despite accepted effective fraud safeguarding practices, existing initiatives were not fully embedded throughout the respective sports’ cultures. Implications: This study recommended a broader perspective within anti-fraud narratives, where leadership and culture are cornerstones in developing and embedding preventive fraud measures within sport federations. Likewise, by applying the OFT we introduce a novel perspective to assess fraud vulnerability in sport federations.