Ricci Bitti said issued his warning during the fourth International Forum for Sports Integrity, being held at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters in Lausanne.

"Sport has become more relevant in society in last 15 years, more than traditionally, I believe, and it brings with it complexity, and we need to co-operate with many people," he said.

"We need to be vigilant because there are many threats now and sport is exposed.

"We need credibility.

"The most important stakeholder is the public - the fan of sport needs a clean sport and so we are working for that."

Ricci Bitti claimed that sport was doing better in terms of combating corruption "than many fields of social activity" but admitted work still needs to be done.

"We have been among the first to understand and to be aware that we have to tackle integrity - sport needs to be credible - not only on the field but off the field," he said.

"I mean in the administration of sport.

"And for this reason we believe there is a package of activities that need to be implemented, not only to give credibility to the sport but also to protect the autonomy that is a characteristic of sport.

"Sport is largely managed in an autonomous way and we want to defend this autonomy but we want this autonomy be responsible and we need to deserve it.

"And the only way is to have a very high degree of integrity.

"It means governance and special focus on activities like anti-doping, anti-manipulation, technology innovation, control of technology to have an even field of play.

"And safeguarding, perhaps the last in this list of activity to be performed in each federation."

While Ricci Bitti did not offer specific examples of sporting maladministration he could have taken his pick of problems that some of the International Federations that are members of ASOIF have faced in recent years.

In June 2019, after two years in which it had expressed grave concerns over the governance of the International Boxing Federation (AIBA), the International Olympic Committee stripped it of its  right to run boxing at the Olympics, with a specially convened Task Force overseeing that duty at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

AIBA, under the new Presidency of Umar Kremlev, is now dotting all the I’s and crossing all the t’s in an effort to regain its traditional Olympic role.

In September this year, an independent report instigated by the new AIBA leadership found that bouts leading up to and during the 2016 Rio Olympics were manipulated for money or to reward favours and financial or political backing.

In November 2015 an independent enquiry instigated by the World Anti-Doping Agency reported widespread doping and large-scale cover-ups by Russian authorities, and the then International Association of Athletics Federations, under the new Presidency of Sebastian Coe, suspended the Russian Athletics Federation.

Following a confirmatory report in 2016 conducted by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren Russian athletes were excluded from taking part in the Rio 2016 Paralympics, although the IOC did not replicate that position with regard to the Olympics.

On June 18, 2020, the former IAAF President Lamine Diack was sentenced to jail for four years, two of them suspended, for his part in covering up the Russian doping scandal.

Meanwhile the International Weightlifting Federation stands on the brink of Olympic expulsion starting with the Paris 2024 Games in the wake of a slew of doping and governance issues.

Moving to more a more general viewpoint, Ricci Bitti added: "We also need to be more open to the two other components of the eco- system of modern sport.

"Sport cannot live alone.

"It needs continuous interaction with public authority and on the other side with business.

"These are the two parts of the ecosystem that we identify as vital for the progress of sport."

IOC President Thomas Bach claimed there had been "very promising signs" that bringing together all stakeholders in sport, including sports betting operators and law enforcement agencies, was “bearing fruit”.

"As of today we have not received a single report about potential competition manipulation at the Tokyo 2020 Games," he said.

"This remains to be seen, but it could be the strongest proof yet that our global approach is working."