Promoting Ethical Recognition and Integrity through Smart Club Observation, Performance Evaluation and Certification

ongoing

Governance challenges in sports require structured intervention to ensure transparency, accountability and integrity. While past initiatives have promoted ethical awareness, a need remains for standardised, enforceable governance practices. PERISCOPE builds on previous Erasmus+ projects, introducing digital efficiency and real-time monitoring to prevent misconduct, enhance ethical awareness, and set a long-term governance framework in European sports. To achieve this, PERISCOPE integrates education, digitalisation, and certification, setting a structured, scalable and replicable framework. Combining training, artificial intelligence (AI), and a certification system, it ensures that ethical observance is both enforced and embedded in everyday sports practices. The project proposes a three-pronged approach: 1) Education, reinforced through Ethical Weekends and gamification, fostering real-life application of ethical principles. 2) Digitalisation, with an AI-powered tool that automates feedback, supports ethical reporting, and enables real-time governance improvements. The PERISCOPE Hub serves as a central repository, collecting, analysing, and storing reports on ethical observance. 3) Certification, through the Ethical Certification Programme, which formalises ethical governance in clubs that successfully integrate structured ethical training and AI tools. A peer-review system supports knowledge-sharing and long-term sustainability. The project directly engages sports clubs, their athletes, coaches, staff, and families, as well as broader sports organisations, equipping them with the tools and knowledge to observe, address, and reinforce ethical behaviour. Piloted in 23 clubs, with 15 additional clubs engaged through peer-review visits, PERISCOPE ensures scalability and replication across Europe, establishing a broad foundation for transformation of ethical governance structures.