Professor Sue Arrowsmith presents to the First International Sports Law Conference, India, on procurement for major sport events

On 29^th August Professor Sue Arrowsmith presented a paper on procurement for major sport events to the First International Sports Law Conference, held to celebrate India’s National Sports Day.  The conference was organised jointly by HNB Garhwal University and Reva University in collaboration with National Anti-Doping Agency, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and involved government officials, academics and practitioners from the field.  

Professor Arrowsmith’s paper presented key recommendations for improving infrastructure procurement for these events, based both on new developments in public procurement policy and on lessons from past experience. It included those lessons elaborated in the recent report on corruption in sport procurement from the International Partnership against Corruption in Sport which was based on joint research work by the Public Procurement Research group, led by Professor Arrowsmith, and the OECD. Key messages included the need to focus on planning and execution of contracts as well as the award stage, and the value of open contracting for sport events. India has a particular interest in this topic in the light of its interest in bidding for future major events.