Our Submission on the National Sports Governance Bill, 2024

The draft National Sports Governance Bill, 2024 proposed to bring transparency, accountability and integrity to the National Olympic Committee, the National Paralympic Committee and national and regional sports federations. AM Sports Law & Management Co. welcomed it as a significant step towards good governance, and our submission of 10 November 2024 offered recommendations on its broad themes and specific provisions.

The broad themes

• The Bill should state how it relates to the National Sports Development Code, 2011, which courts have treated as binding, and which prevails in case of conflict.
• It should set eligibility criteria requiring prior experience for office bearers and cap the number of terms on an executive committee.
• Federations should align their rules with those of their international federations, since most disputes between athletes and federations concern selection. Where a national federation calculates age from 1 January and its international federation uses 31 December, a player can be eligible internationally but not at home in the same age group. Selection criteria for major events should be published within a set period after the previous cycle ends.
• Conflict-of-interest rules should draw on Rule 38 of the BCCI Constitution and the concept of “immediate relatives” in the draft National Code for Good Governance in Sports, 2017.
• The regulator and any ad hoc committees should be designed so as not to be seen as third-party interference under the Olympic Charter, with ad hoc committees reserved for the rarest cases, after a body has been given support to comply.
• The Bill should address sport for visually and hearing impaired athletes and indigenous sports, and could draw on the Australian Sports Commission’s nine governance principles.

Recognition and constitutions

We recommended clarifying the roles of the CEO and the Secretary General, defining Regional Sports Federations consistently, recognising only bodies affiliated to the relevant international federation, carrying forward the Code’s recognition criteria, allowing bodies registered under the Indian Trusts Act, 1882, addressing sports with more than one international body, such as futsal, and providing a model constitution.

On composition, we suggested keeping sportspersons’ representation at the Code’s 25% rather than 10%; defining who may serve as an athlete representative; requiring at least one woman among the designated office bearers; requiring office bearers to vacate office at 70, in line with the IOC; limiting government servants to one term, with conflict-of-interest safeguards; capping total years in office and preventing office in more than one federation at a time; and requiring an athlete representative and a woman to be present in every executive committee quorum.

The regulator, the tribunal and safe sport

We suggested caution with any power to regulate sponsors and vendors, so as not to deter investment; mandatory, independent dispute resolution bodies with time limits; a right to be heard before suspension; support, rather than further penalty, for bodies suspended by their international federations; clear consequences of suspension and disaffiliation; and a mechanism to implement the Athletes’ Commission’s recommendations. For the proposed Appellate Sports Tribunal, we recommended procedures modelled on the Court of Arbitration for Sport, exclusive jurisdiction clauses in constitutions and contracts, and updated references to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. On safe sport, we proposed an independent member on internal committees, measures against age fraud and match-fixing, and protection for whistleblowers.

What followed

Parliament passed the National Sports Governance Act in 2025, establishing a National Sports Board and a National Sports Tribunal.