Recognising that sports coverage is very influential in shaping gender norms and stereotypes, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) published ahead of Tokyo 2020 a new edition of its Portrayal Guidelines to raise awareness and call for gender-equal and fair representation of sportspeople across all forms of media and communication.
The Rugby Football Union (RFU), Premiership Rugby (PRL) and the Rugby Players’ Association (RPA) have announced an action plan aimed at reducing the exposure to head impacts and concussion risk within men’s and women’s elite rugby matches and training in England.
- Rugby united in its ongoing commitment to enhance welfare outcomes
- Five welfare-focused trials to be adopted globally from 1 August, 2021
- Truly collaborative process has involved players, coaches, competitions and medics
- Players and competitions welcome trial
- Outcomes will be evaluated in 2022 in inform decision on adoption into law
We strongly condemn all forms of discrimination and are appalled by the online racism that has been aimed at some of our England players on social media.
Sport England and UK Sport have announced changes to the Code for Sports Governance which aims to increase diversity on Boards and senior leadership teams.
The LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games announced it will invest USD9.6 million (EUR8.06 million) to fund youth sports across Los Angeles, helping bring kids back to sport and fitness as the community moves forward from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The USD9.6 million investment is part of LA28’s USD160 million (EUR134.4 million) commitment to make sports more accessible to kids across Los Angeles ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028, the single largest commitment for youth sport development ever in California.
Chris Ronalds AO SC will head the independent panel of female experts to investigate issues relating to women and girls' experience and the advancement of swimming for all athletes across the sport.
Ms Ronalds is a prominent Sydney barrister who is highly regarded in discrimination and harassment law, employment law and administrative law. She played a pivotal role in the development of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.
The panel has been formed to assist Swimming Australia to promote a culture of continuous improvement and accountability.
"I am pleased to have been appointed in this role as Chair," Ms Ronalds said.
With Major Games fast approaching, and athletes travelling overseas for events, some of us may be thinking about packing our suitcases and jetting off over the coming months (while following all the rules, of course!). For athletes, this can bring additional considerations with regards to medications and things to watch out for when travelling. UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) has put together a five-step guide to help you continue to train and compete clean when overseas, avoiding an accidental ban from sport.
Published Wednesday, 23 June 2021.
Published Monday, 21 June 2021.
Swimming Australia has admitted failures when dealing with athlete complaints, but insists it is committed to being transparent as a panel is appointed to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct and mistreatment.
Published Friday, 11 June 2021.
Today marks the formal launch of the International Swimmers’ Alliance, an independent organization established for athletes, by athletes that aims to fight for swimmers’ rights and provide them with an independent global voice.
Published Friday, 04 June 2021.
As part of the publication process, Clive Sheldon QC noted that there were three annexes to his report which were, for various reasons, to remain confidential.
Annex C was confidential because it concerned an individual who was involved in ongoing criminal proceedings and Mr Sheldon QC did not wish in any way to risk prejudicing those proceedings when publishing his report in March 2021.
That trial concluded last month, with Geoffrey Broome being convicted of eight counts of indecent assault against minors and given an immediate four-year custodial sentence. Therefore, having completed a GDPR review of the Annex, we're now able to publish Annex C.
FIFPRO and FIFA have signed a three-year cooperation agreement to provide health support to hundreds of recently retired professional footballers facing the challenges that come with career transition.
The IIHF does not agree with the actions taken yesterday by the Mayor of Riga and the Latvian Foreign Minister to use the flag of a participating country in the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship for a political message.
Published Monday, 19 April 2021.
Published Monday, 29 March 2021.
Australia and New Zealand pull out of Rugby League World Cup due to "player welfare and safety concerns" related to Covid-19.
The National Football League's (NFL) Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) today announced a four-year, $4 million award to fund a team of medical researchers led by the University of Wisconsin. The study will investigate the prevention and treatment of hamstring injuries for elite football players.
World Rugby has announced details of a major programme that will further objective care of elite players returning to play following a confirmed concussion.
Starting this month, a panel of Independent Concussion Consultants (ICC) will be made available to the game to provide independent expert opinion on whether a player should return to play following the successful completion of the six-stage Graduated Return to Play process for elite competitions. The panel of ICC experts will be funded by World Rugby.
Published Friday, 09 July 2021.
Kuala Lumpur: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has today confirmed that all matches of the AFC Cup 2021 ASEAN Zone, comprising Groups G, H and I as well as the Playoff Stage have been cancelled due to the challenges imposed by the global pandemic in finding a suitable host to stage the centralised matches.
Welcome to our June 2021 Newsletter!
Published Friday, 02 July 2021.
A leading barrister will lead an independent investigation into claims of an abusive culture within Australian swimming.
Chris Ronalds assisted in developing the country’s sexual discrimination laws and will now lead the independent investigation into swimmers claims that there is a culture of abuse within Swimming Australia. Ronalds will lead the investigation with an all-female panel and has requested for swimmers to come forward with any complaints they wish to make.
UK Athletics and the four Home Country Athletics Federations (HCAF) have launched the new safeguarding policies and procedures which marks the fulfilment of the six core recommendations of the Christopher Quinlan Safeguarding Review administered by Sport Resolutions and supports the Home Country Athletics Federations (HCAFs) with their implementation of new procedures at a grassroots level.
Published Thursday, 24 June 2021.
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) today announces that its Disciplinary Commission has rendered its decision in the disciplinary proceedings concerning Mr Marc Bracke, Director General and Sport Director of the UCI Women’s Continental Team Doltcini - Van Eyck - Proximus Continental Team, and allegations of harassment reported by several riders. The UCI had already announced the opening of disciplinary proceedings following the conclusions of its Ethics Commission.
The Disciplinary Commission confirmed the Ethics Commission’s analysis that Mr Bracke’s conduct constituted sexual harassment according to article 6.4 of the UCI Code of Ethics and article 2.3 of Appendix 1.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (Tokyo 2020) began publishing the third and final editions of the Tokyo 2020 Playbooks today.
These comprehensive guidelines, which are a key part of the overall countermeasures being put in place for the Games, provide extensive details for each key stakeholder group to help them complete their preparations for travelling to and arriving in Japan, their time at the Games, and their departure from Tokyo.
The Rugby Football Union (RFU) will introduce a law change to the tackle height in age grade rugby in England for the 2021/22 season.
The Belarusian authorities should immediately drop all criminal charges against Aliaksandra Herasimenia and Aliaksandr Apeikin, chair and executive director of the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation (BSSF), the Sport & Rights Alliance said today. On April 6, 2021 the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus opened a criminal case against the group’s founders. If convicted, they risk up to five years in prison.
Published Friday, 04 June 2021.
During an ordinary meeting of The IFAB Board of Directors held by videoconference today, the members agreed to extend the temporary amendment to Law 3 – The Players, which affords competition organisers the option of allowing teams to use up to five substitutes per match, for all top-level competitions scheduled to be completed by 31 December 2022.
Please see reaction below from the World Players Association on the IOC's review of rule 50 of the Olympic Charter.
Since the beginning of IFAB’s permanent concussion substitute trial, we have seen several incidents where the new laws of the game have fallen short of their objective and jeopardised player health and safety. We write to ask for the existing trial to be extended in order to test in parallel temporary concussion substitutions as soon as possible.
Published Friday, 19 March 2021.