Parents play an important role in junior sporting clubs, from watching their child train and compete, through to off-field involvement through sporting administration and volunteering activities. Sporting contests can, however, become heated, leading to behaviour by parents which unfortunately falls below acceptable standards. Parents play an important role in educating their children on the values of fair play and respect in sport. Establishing clear expectations as to spectator behaviour can help to minimise unsavoury incidents of behaviour by parents at sporting events. Should unruly behaviour occur, sporting clubs should be ready to deal with such incidents appropriately, including suspension where necessary.

Every sporting and recreational club should therefore have a club policy which encourages standards of appropriate behaviour in order to enable a safe, welcoming and inclusive sporting environment for all who participate or spectate, along with the appropriate disciplinary action in order to appropriately punish such conduct.

What is the responsibility?

Sporting clubs in Australia have a legal responsibility to address behaviour that is against the law or that offends community standards. Sporting clubs should ensure that all child athletes, officials, parents, spectators and administrators are provided with a safe environment for the participation and enjoyment of their sporting pursuits.

In Victoria, clubs are required to adhere to and enforce the Fair Play Code in order to receive government funding from Sport and Recreation Victoria. The Fair Play Code builds on the Victorian Government’s 2010 Victorian Code of Conduct for Community Sport, which encourages standards of appropriate behaviour to enable a safe, welcoming and inclusive sporting environment. While the Fair Play Code provides expectations as to on-field conduct, it also provides expectations with respect to off-field conduct, including the conduct of spectators.

How can a club maintain a safe environment for participation of sport and recreational activities?

Clubs can maintain a safe environment through the implementation of a Code of Conduct, which can assist in providing clear expectations to parents who attend sporting fixtures.

A Code of Conduct will provide parents, as well as officials and child athletes, with the appropriate standard of behaviour expected during their involvement in their child’s sporting activities. A Code of Conduct establishes expectations and places obligations on all involved to take responsibility of their own conduct.

How can a club keep good behaviour front of mind?

Clubs should provide parents, as well as spectators, officials and athletes with a copy of the Code of Conduct, to make expectations and penalties of non-compliance clear to all who are required to abide by the code. Some tips on promoting the Code of Conduct to spectators include:

• Promoting it at new season information nights, on social media and at training and match days;
• Requiring parents to sign the Code of Conduct, when enrolling their child as part of their child signing up to the activity or sport;
• Clearly and visibly displaying terms of the Code of Conduct at the entry to sporting grounds and arenas;
• Reinforcing the Code of Conduct to parents and spectators by reminding parents through social media posts, in club communications and on the club website where applicable of the Code of Conduct and its contents;
• Advising spectators of how they can promptly report any concerns of breaches of the Code of Conduct; and
• Reminding parents to generate a positive atmosphere for child athletes, officials and other spectators by showing respect and a positive attitude towards all spectators and participants, including officials.

Parents should be reminded that if there has been a breach of Code of Conduct by another person in the club, that they must take action to promptly ensure safety for all involved. Parents should be reminded to promptly report any concerns, and to follow any applicable club policies and procedures relating to reporting breaches of the Code of Conduct.

Parents should be reminded that the club may take disciplinary action in accordance with all applicable club policies and where necessary, may refer matters to the police for investigation.

What happens if there is non-compliance with the Code of Conduct?

If there is non–compliance with the Code of Conduct, those acting in contravention may face disciplinary action in accordance with the Code of Conduct, the club’s Member Protection Policy and the association’s tribunal, and/or face police charges where necessary. Even if a parent has not signed up to a Code of Conduct, they can be banned from a sporting venue that the league or competition holds rights of access to.

Parents ought to be aware that sporting bodies sometimes have disciplinary regimes in place which penalise the parent’s child for the conduct of their parent, in order to ensure that the behaviour of parents remains in check. In some team sports, if a parent behaving poorly is able to be identified as being affiliated to a particular club, then the club can be penalised for the parent’s poor behaviour through either a fine or loss of premiership points. Parents should therefore be aware that their poor conduct may lead to adverse disciplinary action being taken against their child or their team.

How can SportsLawyer help your club?

With over 10 years of experience, SportsLawyer is excellently positioned to assist you with drafting or reviewing your Code of Conduct. Let us help you today to draft a Code of Conduct and assist you with its implementation to safeguard your Club and ensure you are meeting your legal obligations.

Contact Paul Horvath or Ned Puddy at info@sportslawyer.com.au, or give us a call on (03) 9642 0435.

The post Sportslawyer November 2019 Newsletter appeared first on Sportslawyer - Experts in Sports Law Melbourne & Australia-wide.

As part of the Federal Government’s response to the Wood Review, a powerful new sports integrity regime has been announced, which included the establishment of Sport Integrity Australia and the National Sports Tribunal.

Sport Integrity Australia

Amongst the 52 recommendations, the Wood Review recommended the establishment of a National Sports Integrity Commission (‘NSIC’), being a centralised body established to develop intelligence and law-enforcement capabilities, aimed at connecting Commonwealth and State and Territory agencies in order to facilitate efficient and decisive responses to integrity matters in sport. The Federal Government endorsed this recommendation recently in announcing the establishment of Sport Integrity Australia, which is due to begin operating by July 2020.

The Wood Review recommended that Sport Integrity Australia ought to have three main areas of focus, being the regulation of sports betting, the monitoring and investigation of doping activity and the provision of education and assistance to sports in order for them to develop their own policies aimed at maintaining integrity in sport.

The creation of Sport Integrity Australia will involve the consolidation of the roles and powers of numerous sporting integrity bodies including ASADA, the National Integrity of Sport Unit and the national sports integrity functions of Sport Australia. It will also work closely with external organisations, including the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

The Wood Review was somewhat critical of ASADA’s ability to effectively address current and foreseeable future challenges to doping, without undergoing significant reform. It is therefore anticipated that under any new reforms, ASADA may be given increased investigative powers in order to combat doping in sport as part of the fight to maintain integrity in sport, and that ASADA will work much more closely with law enforcement agencies than it has in the past.

In an effort to easily receive intelligence on matters threatening integrity in sport, the Government also announced that it will work towards developing a whistle-blower protection service so that sports integrity information can be reported to Sport Integrity Australia freely and confidentially.

The National Sports Tribunal
The Federal Government also announced the establishment of the National Sports Tribunal in order to provide an accessible tribunal for all sports in Australia for the hearing of sports disputes, including integrity-related disputes. It will be aimed at providing a cost and time-efficient method of resolving disputes and will be piloted for a period of two years.

The Wood Review recommended that the Tribunal be comprised of three divisions, being:

• An Anti-Doping Division;
• A General Division; and
• An Appeals Division.

It recommended that the Anti-Doping Division of the Tribunal be a default avenue for the hearing of anti-doping rule violation matters in sport and that individual sports with their own internal tribunal systems ought to be able to apply to the NSIC to opt out of having doping disputes heard at the National Sports Tribunal, should they instead wish to have such disputes heard internally. The General Division, on the other hand, is recommended to be set up on an opt-in basis and will hear integrity and other disputes.
The Wood Review identified that there were inconsistencies in dispute resolution arrangements in the sports industry and it is hoped that the establishment of the National Sports Tribunal will provide a consistent dispute resolution service for all sports. The National Sports Tribunal will particularly help smaller, lesser-resourced, sports which do not have their own internal dispute resolution system.
The Federal Government has taken a positive step in the fight to protect the integrity of Australian sport in announcing the establishment of Sport Integrity Australia and the National Sports Tribunal. While both are in the very early days of development, it will be interesting to observe how these new bodies anticipate and respond to sports integrity matters moving forward.
While we have recently seen high profile integrity-related matters in sport including the ‘Sandpapergate’ ball-tampering fiasco in Australian Cricket in 2018 which resulted in suspensions to David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft, plus the investigation into trainer Darren Weir in the sport of Horse Racing, integrity issues threaten all levels of sport, not just top-level professional sport. In February, two people were charged by Victoria Police after an 18-month investigation into allegations of match-fixing in the National Premier Soccer League, relating to an under-20’s second division match.
Integrity processes are therefore crucial for the continued existence and ongoing success of sport in Australia. They assist to provide a fair playing ground for participants, clarity of expectations of investigative and integrity staff, and confidence for stakeholders. Integrity-related policies ought to be comprehensively drafted, frequently reviewed, and consistently applied. Board members and senior management personnel within sporting organisations have an obligation to oversee and appropriately develop such integrity frameworks and ought to be proactive in this role.
For advice on how your organisation can prevent matters threatening the integrity of your sport, or advice on how to run integrity investigations in line with best practice, please contact SportsLawyer at info@sportslawyer.com.au or on (03) 9642 0435.

Areas of Practice Include:

• Best Governance Practises for sports Leagues & Clubs
• Contract matters
• Drugs in sport
• Workplace Relations
• Disciplinary matters
• Intellectual Property
• Discrimination

Click  here for a pdf version of this article MarchSportsLawyerNew..

Disclaimer:  Nothing in this article should be relied upon as legal advice.  The contents of this article should be regarded as information only, and for specific legal matters, independent advice should always be sought.  Please contact Paul Horvath on info@sportslawyer.com.au or phone (03) 9642 0435 to discuss any matter or to arrange an appointment.

The post MARCH 2019 Sports Law Newsletter appeared first on Sportslawyer - Experts in Sports Law Melbourne & Australia-wide.

Individual and team selection is a challenging process. In order to minimise selection disputes, sporting organisations have a responsibility to implement procedures that guarantee selection criterion is strictly adhered to and that the process is overseen fairly and consistently.

Developing a policy for Athlete selection

Where practicable, the process for athlete selection should be established in a selection policy. As a minimum, the policy should contain:

• An aim
• Selection criteria or standards
• A process through which athletes will be judged
• An appeal process

The difficulty in developing selection criteria is the need to ensure transparency, impartiality and fairness. Objective selection criteria gives an athlete a right to be selected as it does not allow for selectors discretion. Subjective selection criteria gives the athlete no right to be selected as it allows for selectors discretion. Often a selection policy will contain a combination of both objective and subjective criteria as it may not be appropriate to use one criteria over the other.  It is important that selection criteria are developed in compliance with the organisation’s rules and regulations in clear, unambiguous language.

Selecting the selectors

A transparent process for appointing selectors to the selection panel is critical element of a successful selection process. The selectors must subjectively implement the selection policy and understand the nature of performance in the event/s the athletes are being selected to perform in.
When appointing persons from the pool of nominees it is important to consider the following characteristics:

Avoiding conflict of interest selection disputes

At a grass-roots level, selectors generally come from a public call for nominations and it can be difficult to avoid conflicts of interests. The selectors are likely to be volunteers who may have a relationship with the athlete/s vying for selection or who stand to gain from the outcome of the selection decision. One way to clarify concerns of this nature is to implement a conflict of interest policy concerning selectors.   Sports Australia recommends a conflict of interest policy should include:

• An obligation on selectors to make any actual or perceived conflict or interest known to the chair and other panel members as soon as they become aware of it.
• The authority for the chair to ask the conflicted selector to step aside from a particular selection decision where appropriate due to Conflicts of interest may also be reduced, although not entirely eliminated, where sporting organisations are able to balance the conflict of interest. For example, a balanced selection panel may occur when all of the heads of a state sporting program form a national selection panel, all have a bias towards their state but the bias is even as the net result is one bias towards each state.

In addition, balancing a conflict of interest may also be achieved via substitute selectors. For example: if a selector coaches a number of athletes in contention for the team a substitute selector may be appointed to allow a selector with a conflict to step down from the discussion in which their conflict arises.

Appeals process in sport

Commonly athletes feel as if they have nothing to lose when challenging a decision of non-selection. Notwithstanding this, establishing that a decision has been made based on bias, or amongst other grounds, can be very difficult to prove.

It is recommended that a sporting organisation implements an internal appeals tribunal to determine selection disputes. A brief outline of the organisations ‘appeals rules’ should be in the selection policy and a comprehensive copy should be available to the aggrieved party on request.

Assistance
Should you require further information or require any assistance in relation to selection policies, conflicts of interests or any other sporting matters, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Disclaimer
Nothing in this news items should be relied upon as legal advice. The contents of this blog should be regarded as information only, and for specific legal matters, independent advice should always be sought.

The post March 2018 newsletter appeared first on Sportslawyer - Experts in Sports Law Melbourne & Australia-wide.