Integrity and Sustainability in Sport

*Winner of the 'Research of the Year' award at the 2025 Sport Positive Awards* This is the first book to examine the critically important topic of sustainability in sport through the lens of integrity. Adopting a holistic view on sustainability, it argues that integrity is the foundation on which sustainable sports organisations, actions and processes must be built. This book shows how the interconnected values of integrity and sustainability can be embedded in sporting organisations, policies and activities. Featuring the work of leading sport researchers from around the world, this book first presents a conceptual model and a framework for understanding sustainability and integrity as applied to sport. It then examines these concepts in the context of sport business, the natural and built environments and wider society, covering important contemporary issues such as mega-events, legacy, sport governance, climate justice, sport stadia, sport for development, sport sponsorship and marketing and corporate social responsibility. Presenting cutting-edge research and challenging sport practitioners to consider how to embed integrity and sustainability in their everyday work, this book is important reading for any student, researcher, practitioner or policymaker with an interest in sport, sustainable development and integrity.

Argyro Elisavet Manoli is Associate Professor at Bergamo University, Italy. Her research focuses on marketing communications management and integrity in sport. Her work on sport integrity has been presented in the European Parliament and has been used in public policy, while she was also invited to deliver opening interventions at all European Commission Expert Group Meetings on Sport Integrity. She is the author of Mapping of Corruption in Sport in the EU, a policy report commissioned by the European Union, Integrated Marketing Communications in Football and Understanding Match-Fixing in Sport: Theory and Practice (Routledge). Ioannis Konstantopoulos is FNS researcher at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and a scientific assistant at ETH Zurich. He is also a sustainability advisor at Innews and founder of The Sports Footprint, a sustainability consultancy that has been awarded the Prince's Trust International Global Sustainability Award for Europe. He has also developed several educational courses in sport and sustainability for organisations such as the Football Business Academy and the International Olympic Academy. His research focuses on analysing the sustainability of major sports events and the application of new technologies in sports.

Introduction: The Integrity - Sustainability in Sport Framework, 1. Environmental Governance in the Sports Sector: Insights from International Sports Federations, 2. Integrity in Environmental Sustainability Communication: Lessons from Norwegian Sport Organizations, 3. The Impact of Greenwashing on the Sport Industry: Shades of Deception, 4. Volunteers, Integrity and Environmental Sustainability in Grassroots Sport: Learning from the PlayGreen Project, 5. Sustainable Stadiums, Integrity, and Environmental Justice, 6. Corporate Social Responsibility, the Sustainable Development Goals and Sport Communication: Analysing Adidas' CSR Staging on YouTube, 7. Voluntary Sports Clubs, Virtual Communities and Social Sustainability: Evidence from the Netherlands, 8. Integrity and Digital Sustainability in eSports, 9. Sporting Integrity and Preventing Abuse in Football: A Coherent, Holistic and Systems-Based Approach, 10. The Need for Integrity in the Financial Sustainability of Sport, 11. The Intersection of Business Sustainability and Integrity in Sport, Conclusion: The Present and Future Understanding of Integrity and Sustainability in Sport