Sports Ministry removes contentious provisions
The Sports Ministry has removed the contentious provisions of age and term limit from the recently gazetted Sports Regulations following protests from the National Sports Associations and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The National Associations of Sports Regulations No. 01 of 2016 dated October 27, limited the term of an office bearer to a maximum of two terms, where a term could vary from a year to four years according to the constitution of the respective sports bodies.
The regulations also set an age limit of 70 years, much to the surprise of senior officials.these are in violation of the Olympic Charter and the governing statutes of most of international sports bodies which put no restriction on terms of office and age.
These two regulations were strongly opposed by most of the national sports bodies that came under IOC umbrella and demanded they be removed to respect the volunteerism and jurisdiction of national sports bodies.
Accordingly, a gazette notification issued on February 13, 2017 removed both these restrictions.
“Hold office for a period not
Sports Ministry has reintroduced the clause which deemed necessary for the contestants to have played the game to become a member of such committees other than treasurer and assistant treasurer
exceeding four years and be eligible for re-election: Provided, an office bearer shall be eligible for re-election, unless removed on disciplinary grounds by the Disciplinary Committee.”
The age limit has been deleted. Instead the Sports Ministry has reintroduced the clause which deemed necessary for the contestants to have played the game to become a member of such committees other than treasurer and assistant treasurer.
“A person shall be disqualified from being elected or otherwise to hold or continue to hold any paid or unpaid office or to hold any paid or unpaid post or to be a member of a Committee of any National Association of Sports or to be nominee of an affiliated club or organisation in a National Association of Sports, if:- other than the Treasurer or Assistant Treasurer, he has not participated or represented Sri Lanka in that respective Sports in a major tournament, meet or competition registered, promoted, conducted or approved by that Association, in more than two occasions for a team sport or more than one occasion for an individual event or sport.”
Meanwhile, in an unprecedented move, the new regulations have loosened the screws on unscrupulous elements seeking office in national sports association, as it reduces the period of ineligibility from four to one for those found guilty of wrongful conduct.
The previous regulations set a four-year barrier in a bid to control wide-spread corruptions in sport bodies.
“If he has during the four years prior to the submission of nominations had been serving a punishment imposed on him by an Anti Doping or an Anti Corruption Tribunal of such National Association of Sports or the Sri Lanka Anti Doping Agency or of the International Sports Organization or Federation to which it is affiliated or World Anti-doping Agency, for doping, corruption, betting and misuse of inside information; or he has been subjected to a ban, suspension or prohibition imposed by such National Association of Sports or International organization or the World Anti-doping Agency.”
However the four years has now been changed to one in the latest gazette issued on February 13, 2017.
This means, those found guilty of doping, corruption of any forms, including betting and misuse of inside information could return to sports administration just a year after completing a ban or suspension as oppose to the previous regulations which set a four-year barrier.
The new amendments has also altered the qualification criteria set out in the previous amendments for the post of treasurer. The previous regulations stated that the treasurer shall be a member of the Associations of Accounting Technicians of Sri Lanka or posses a certificate of certified business Accountant or above issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka; or posses a certificate in banking and finance issued by Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka.
However, this has been changed to “The Treasurer who shall be a person of having at least one year’s experience as a management accountant or an accounting clerk.”.