Brazil signed the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, known as the Macolin Convention, in Strasbourg on 30 October 2026, becoming the 44th signatory and the first Latin American country to sign the treaty.
Ricardo Neiva Tavares, Brazil’s Ambassador to France and Monaco, signed the document at the Council of Europe headquarters in the presence of Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, according to the Council of Europe’s announcement. The signature is not a ratification: the treaty has to pass Brazil’s domestic approval procedure before it takes effect in the country.
What Brazil signed
The Macolin Convention is Council of Europe Treaty No. 215. It opened for signature on 18 September 2014 in Magglingen (Macolin in French), Switzerland, and entered into force on 1 September 2019. It is the only legally binding international treaty dedicated to the manipulation of sports competitions, and states outside the Council of Europe’s 46 members can join it.
Each party commits to a set of measures that run across sport, betting regulation and criminal law:
- a national platform that collects and analyses information on irregular and suspicious bets, passes it to the competent authorities and works with other countries’ platforms;
- an authority responsible for sports betting regulation, with licensed operators required to report irregular and suspicious bets;
- measures against illegal sports betting, such as blocking access to operators, the payments that fund them and their advertising;
- criminal offences for manipulating sports competitions when it involves coercion, corruption or fraud, with manipulation treated as a predicate offence for money laundering;
- exchange of information and evidence with the other parties.
National platforms from parties and from several non-party countries meet in the Group of Copenhagen, the network through which they swap alerts on suspicious matches and betting patterns.
Who has signed and ratified
Brazil is the third state from outside the Council of Europe to sign, after Australia and Morocco, according to Agence Europe. The treaty has 17 ratifications, including 9 EU member states: Belgium, Estonia, France, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
Malta has neither signed nor ratified the Convention, the agency reported. The European Union is not a party.
How Brazil got to Strasbourg
The process was led by 4 ministries: Sport; Finance; Justice and Public Security; and Foreign Affairs. Brazil formally told the Council of Europe in September 2025 that it wanted to join, and the signature came 13 months later.
Match-fixing has been a live criminal issue in Brazilian football since 2023, when the Goiás State Public Prosecutor’s Office opened Operation Maximum Penalty (Operação Penalidade Máxima) into players paid by betting groups to pick up yellow cards and concede penalties.
The signature also lands while Brazil’s betting market is in legal dispute. Fixed-odds betting was regulated under Law 14.790/2023. The federal licensed market opened on 1 January 2025 under the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) of the Ministry of Finance, and completed its first regulated year at the end of 2025. Provisional Measure 1.394/2026 now bans the activity, and the Supreme Federal Court (STF) heard 34 speakers on the ban at a public hearing on 3 November.
The Convention’s measures cover illegal sports betting as well as licensed betting, so they would apply under either outcome of the STF case. Brazil already splits the work between 2 bodies: the SPA licenses and supervises operators, and the Ministry of Sport’s National Secretariat for Sports Betting and Economic Development in Sport (SNAEDE) works on sports integrity.
Next steps: ratification
Brazil’s Constitution gives the National Congress the final say on international treaties (Article 49). The executive sends the text to the Chamber of Deputies and then to the Senate, which approve it by legislative decree. The President can then ratify, and Brazil deposits its instrument of ratification with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
Under the treaty’s final clauses, the Convention enters into force for a new party on the first day of the month after 3 months have passed from the deposit. Until then, Brazil is a signatory without binding obligations under the treaty. More stories on the region are on our LatAm page.
FAQ
Short answers to the questions readers ask most about the Macolin Convention and Brazil’s signature.
What is the Macolin Convention?
The Macolin Convention is the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions (Treaty No. 215). It opened for signature in Magglingen, Switzerland, on 18 September 2014 and entered into force on 1 September 2019. It sets rules on prevention, betting regulation, criminal law and international cooperation against match-fixing.
Is the Macolin Convention an EU agreement?
No. The Convention belongs to the Council of Europe, a 46-member human rights organisation based in Strasbourg that is separate from the European Union. Brazil signed it at the Council of Europe headquarters. The EU is not a party, although 9 EU member states have ratified it individually.
Does the signature make the treaty binding in Brazil?
No. Signing shows Brazil’s intention to join. The treaty becomes binding only after the National Congress approves it, the President ratifies it and Brazil deposits the instrument of ratification in Strasbourg. Entry into force follows on the first day of the month after a 3-month period from that deposit.
Who signed for Brazil?
Ricardo Neiva Tavares, Brazil’s Ambassador to France and Monaco, signed the Convention in Strasbourg on 30 October 2026. Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, attended the signing. The ministries of Sport, Finance, Justice and Public Security, and Foreign Affairs led the process on the Brazilian side.
Which other countries outside Europe have signed?
Australia and Morocco are the only other states outside the Council of Europe to have signed, according to Agence Europe. Brazil is the first Latin American country among the 44 signatories. The other 41 are Council of Europe member states, and 17 countries have ratified the treaty so far.
What will Brazil have to set up?
Once it ratifies, Brazil needs a national platform to collect and analyse information on suspicious bets and share it with sports bodies, betting regulators, police and prosecutors. It must also name an authority for sports betting regulation, act against illegal betting and make manipulation of sports competitions a criminal offence.
What does it mean for betting operators?
The Convention requires parties to make licensed sports betting operators report irregular and suspicious bets to the authorities or the national platform, and to set rules on conflicts of interest. In Brazil, those rules would apply to operators authorised by the SPA, if fixed-odds betting remains legal after the STF rules on the ban.
Source: Council of Europe
