DThe traffic light coalition wants to create an independent integrity agency for sport. This is to identify and sanction misconduct and make amends. It’s not just about fair play in competition, but about sports clubs and associations as safe places with trusting interaction with each other. This was jointly announced on Friday by the sports policy spokespersons for the parliamentary groups of SPD, Sabine Poschmann, Greens, Tina Winklmann, and FDP, Philipp Hartewig.
“Integrity is the greatest asset of sport and must be preserved under all circumstances,” the statement said. Individuals, competitions and organizations should be protected. The various dimensions of integrity included the areas of good governance, safe sport, human rights, non-discrimination, anti-doping and combating competition manipulation. Deficits in transparency, cases of sexualized violence and their inadequate processing and other types of abuse of power made it clear that there is a need to catch up in this regard.
The fact that good governance regulations have only been implemented in part and not by all associations also shows that there are deficits. In addition, there is a lack of control. Only if the German sports associations set an example on this topic could they exert credible influence on the international level. The aim is to “anchor a binding integrity architecture throughout organized sport”.
Independent authorities under discussion
Minimum standards for combating any kind of abuse of power are to be defined and made a prerequisite for public funding in the planned Federal Sports Funding Act, which serves to anchor the revised top-level sport reform and the establishment of an independent sports agency (“Top Sport GmbH”).
The work and responsibility of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), the Center for Safe Sport, which is in preparation, and the National Platform to Combat Manipulation of Sports Competitions should not be restricted. MEPs refer to the example set by the sports agencies of Australia and Switzerland.
The idea of a world anti-corruption agency in sport shows that independent bodies to ensure integrity are also being discussed at European level. “Perspectively, a holistic institutional approach would also be welcome in Germany,” write the deputies: “The new Center for Safe Sport that is to be created could provide the basis for this in the long term.”
DOSB welcomes the contribution to the debate
The coalition adopts a demand from athletes in Germany. “Those affected often do not find the help they need in their own association,” said Johannes Herber, Managing Director of Athletes Germany, in an interview with the FAZ on December 9, 2021: “Not with the ethics committee, not with the ombudsman. And then they knock on the door of everyone involved in German sport and say: you have to help us. And no one can really do that. Some do not feel responsible, others are not investigators. That also applies to us. We are on the side of the athletes, we know the allegations, we can bring them up to the association. The association responds with a counter-statement that we cannot verify. There is a stalemate that you can’t get out of. A spiral of dissatisfaction ensues, those affected turn to the press, and lawsuits for defamation follow. It’s escalating, but there’s no solution.”
At that time, the representation of Olympic and non-Olympic top athletes presented the paper “Outlines of a paradigm shift – For a reorganization of integrity governance in German sport”. The Center for Safe Sport, which is currently being set up, also goes back to an initiative by athletes in Germany.
“We welcome the contribution to the debate by the sports politicians of the coalition on integrity,” says a spokeswoman for the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB): “It is an extremely valuable asset in sport, and the DOSB is therefore committed to protecting it in a variety of ways. We are discussing ways and means of how this can be even better achieved in the future, both internally in autonomous sport and with our partners in politics and society.”
In the statement on the public hearing of the Bundestag Sports Committee on Wednesday, Transparency International writes that the Ministry of the Interior and the DOSB should curb the proliferation of responsibilities, facilities and whistleblower systems and, in the long term, convert them into a clear architecture “which is not tailored to the needs of those affected by misconduct aligned with the overly complex structures in German sport.”