text: The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) has just become the fifth international sports umbrella organisation to adopt the SIGA Universal Standards, as SIGA continues to drive forward key reforms for the benefit of sport.
  IMMAF will join European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL), CANOC, ESIC and European Aquatics (LEN) who adopted the SIGA Universal Standards earlier this year. As an early adopter, IMMAF will implement SIGA’s Universal Standards on good governance, financial integrity and sports betting integrity. SIGA’s Universal Standards were developed by highly respected multi-industry experts from the independent coalition’s diverse membership and further refined in collaboration with international sports organisations to ensure they are the very best of best practice.
  SIGA will also deliver bespoke training, education and capacity building projects for IMMAF to help the organisation maximise the impact of the Universal Standards and make practical and demonstrable progress. As an early adopter, the lessons learnt from working with IMMAF will help inform SIGA on how to best support sports organisations in the future.
  The SIGA Council said:
  “We are delighted to welcome IMMAF as the fifth early adopter of the SIGA Universal Standards. It is SIGA’s ambition to help usher in a new, positive era for sport and the implementation of our Universal Standards is integral to that. Our long-term goal is to ensure as many sports organisations as possible implement SIGA’s Universal Standards for the benefit of all sport, but at this early stage our focus is on delivering our pilot projects as effectively as possible. These projects are invaluable in giving us the opportunity to work with sports organisations and learn how we can best tailor the support we provide them. As we have said many times before, it is only through collaboration with all stakeholders that we will be able to safeguard the integrity of sport.”
  Kerrith Brown, President of IMMAF said:
  "On behalf of IMMAF, I would like to thank SIGA for its invitation for IMMAF to become the 5th Early Adopter of the SIGA Universal Standards. This is a huge accolade and immeasurable opportunity for IMMAF and for the sport of MMA. In working with SIGA, IMMAF opens itself to third party scrutiny of its compliance to Universal Standards set by world leaders in sport, in the areas of Good Governance, Financial Integrity and Sport Betting Integrity. I would like to take this opportunity to pledge IMMAF's commitment to combating corruption in sport and state our belief in an industry that truly reflects the sporting values of respect and fair play."
  SIGA is an independent and neutral coalition of more than 80 international multi-industry supporters. It is the only organisation to bring together sport, governments, academia, international organisations, sponsors, business, rights holders, NGOs and professional services companies, from every region in the world, around a common cause of fostering greater integrity throughout sport.
  SIGA’s members and supporters include MasterCard, Deloitte, the European Professional Football Leagues, Dow Jones, PwC, the World Bank, the International Centre for Sport Security, the Basel Institute on Good Governance, the Commonwealth Games Federation, the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees, Special Olympics, the Spanish Football League, the Portuguese Olympic Committee, esports, World Taekwondo, the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation and World Snooker.