Editorial 2: Making them play by the book
Context:
Parliament has passed the National Sports Governance Bill, 2025. It will replace the guidelines based National Sports Development code of India with rules-based governance for sports. It will help increasing credibility of sports organizations, introduce international best practices and increase participation in the sports.
Challenges for the sports governance in India:
- Several national-level sports federations today enjoy near monopoly and are directly concerned with the selection of teams representing India.
- India became the first Asian country to participate in the Olympics in 1900; there is no comprehensive legislation to govern sports body till today.
- Currently the sports federations are guided by National Sports Development code of India. It contains a set of makeshift rules hastily drafted by Ministry of Youth Affair and Sports.
- Sports federations today have become the fiefdom of political dispensation and the crony capitalists.
- In 2014 Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development has highlighted that majority sports federations are headed by non sportspersons. Many cases of malgovernance are pending in the courts today.
- In some cases, courts have appointed Committee of Administrators to govern federations as immediate measure, after the position of the erstwhile office bearers has become legally untenable.
- The sports federations are facing penalties from global agencies. The Wrestling Federation of India was suspended in 2023 as it failed to hold timely elections. FIFA suspended the All India Football Federation because it was being governed by court appointed administrators.
- Sportsperson face the cost of such terrible affairs. Their careers are bounded by the constraints of time and age. Their aspirations are further stifled by mis-governance and unending litigation involving these federations.
- The National Sports Governance Bill, 2025 is passed to correct these issues and can be considered watershed for the sports governance in India.
National Sports Governance Bill, 2025:
- It empowers the Centre to establish National Sports Board, which will grant recognition to various national sports federation and their affiliate units. This will put an end to the battles of legitimacy faced by many federations within the same sports.
- It establishes the National Olympic Committee, the National Paralympics Committee, the National and Regional sports federations for each sports. They have the mandate to establish Code of Conduct rules in line with best practices in each sport.
- The Act also creates the Executive Committee for every sports federations consisting of 15 members, with atleast two outstanding sportsperson and for omen.
- Age limits and tenure is also defined for each sport to ensure that fresh talent and vigor is inducted in the sports. Few office bearers from particular region, religion, and political affiliation do not have monopoly over the administration of the sport.
- It creates the National Sports Tribunal for the adjudication of sports related litigations. This will streamline the sports related litigation and also ensure that the case is decided by subject related matters.
- The appeal from Sports tribunal lies to Supreme Court. This will reduce the unending rounds of litigation.
- The national panel of electoral officers will e formed to oversight the elections of national and regional sports federations.
- The sports federations may be disqualified for the repeated non-compliance with this bill.
Way Forward:
As India aims to host Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games in near future, it is required that the robust sports governance framework is in place. This framework must introduce good governance in sports federations at its core. The Act will ensure that Sports federations become true representatives of the sportsperson and democratize the sports in India.