India: Write To Information Sports And Gaming October – December 2022

1. SPORTS LAW UPDATES

A. GOVERNANCE

i. Indian Olympic Association (IOA) amends its Constitution¹

The IOA adopted the amended constitution at its' special general meeting on 10 November 2022. The Supreme Court (SC) had accepted the recommendations of court-appointed committee headed by retired Justice L Nageswara Rao. Under the new constitution the State Olympic Committees shall not have any voting rights for any decision or for the elections and have been reduced to an Associate Member. The Secretary General shall not be an office bearer and will now be appointed by the Executive Council, all executive committee members shall fall under the definition of office bearers, equal representation of male and female members in the IOA General Assembly which will be made of two representatives – one male and one female – of the national sports federations. Further, eight representatives who are sportspersons of outstanding merit are eligible to stand for elections and cast their votes at the Annual General Meeting and the Special General Meeting of the IOA.

ii. Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) gets a new governing body²

Meghna Ahlawat was elected as the President of the TTFI with former stalwart Kamlesh Mehta elected as the Secretary General. Elections were held for 25 posts, three of which were reserved for women. The elections are a huge relief as the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Executive Committee had proposed the suspension of TTFI. The Delhi High Court had suspended TTFI in February 2022 and appointed a three-member Committee of Administrators (COA) to take over its functioning. The election brought an end to the COA's charge over the national sports body.

iii. BCCI implements pay equity policy for Women Cricketers³

The Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) announced implementing pay equity policy for its contracted women cricketers. In the 15th BCCI Apex Council meeting held via video conference, the members passed the resolution unanimously. Elaborating on the revised pay structure, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah said that the match fee for female cricketers will be the same as for male cricketers. He said that the fees for Test match would be Rs 15 lakh, for ODI would be Rs 6 lakh, and for T20I would be Rs 3 lakhs.

iv. Cricket Australia (CA) amends its Code of Conduct⁴

In the recent amendment to the Code of Conduct, players and support staff involved in Australian cricket can now apply to have long-term sanctions modified. CA has stated that a three-person review panel would consider applications to repeal long-term sanctions and take into account time served and other factors. Under the new rules, a player must show that exceptional circumstances exist to justify modifying a sanction. In light of this amendment, former captain David Warner had made an application to overturn his life ban from leadership roles. Warner was banned from the game for a year and from leadership positions for life after he was adjudged to have played the leading role in the 2018 Newlands ball-tampering scandal, also known as the 'Sandpapergate' scandal. However, Warner withdrew his application accusing the independent panel conducting the review of wanting to publicly lynch him. Warner alleged that the counsel assisting the review had made offensive and unhelpful comments about him during the initial process.

v. Amendments to the Code of Sports-related arbitration⁵

The International Council of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS), the governing body of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), has adopted amendments to the Code of Sports-related arbitration (the CAS Code). ICAS has decided to increase the number of ICAS members from 20 to 22 in order to guarantee a better representation of football stakeholders, in view of the significant increase of the number of arbitrations related to football conducted by CAS. The additional two ICAS members will function from the beginning of the

upcoming four-year term starting 2023. Adjustments have been made to several articles of the Procedural Rules that govern CAS arbitrations in order to tighten up the existing language, to bring them into line with current practice and jurisprudence, and to enhance the efficiency of the CAS services.

vi. Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) fined $1million by ATP for banning Russian players from tournaments ⁶

The LTA have been fined $1million by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for banning Russian and Belarusian players from their tournaments. It is also understood that the LTA have been threatened with expulsion from the Tour if it decides to enforce the ban again after the nationalities were banned from Wimbledon, Queen's Club, Eastbourne, Surbiton, Nottingham and Ilkley this year. As a result, Wimbledon was stripped of its ranking points by the ATP and the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) with the WTA also issuing a $1million fine. The LTA in its' statement said that the ATP, in its finding, has shown no recognition of the exceptional circumstances created by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, or the international sporting community and UK Government's response to that invasion and instead appear to regard this matter as a straightforward breach of their rules. The LTA have appealed against the WTA's decision and sanction.

vii. Scottish Football Association (SFA) to ban Scottish footballers from heading ball before and after matches⁷

Professional footballers in Scotland will be banned from heading the ball the day before and the day after matches after studies showing how it can affect the brain. Clubs are also being advised to limit heading balls in training to one session a week because of the links between repetitive heading of a football and brain damage. The guidance by the SFA comes after a study revealed former professional footballers were three and a half times more likely to suffer from dementia and other serious neurological diseases. The guidance introduced on Monday will come into immediate effect, including the banning of exercises with repeated heading of the ball more than once a week, and a day before or after a match day, including crossing, finishing and set-piece practices. In 2020, the SFA led the way in banning children under the age of 12 from heading balls in training amid similar brain damage concerns, making Scotland the first European country to do so. Last year, clubs in English football restricted footballers to 10 "higher-force" headers a week in training.

viii. British Cycling chief resigns after fierce backlash to Shell sponsorship deal and trans row⁸

British Cycling announced the departure of its chief executive officer, Brian Facer, following the furious backlash against its partnership with Shell. The governing body had announced a new eight-year deal with the oil giants. The announcement of the new deal was met with immediate and intense backlash from the general public, with environmental groups Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth condemning the partnership as "brazen sportswashing". In April 2022, British Cycling had suspended its policy on trans and non-binary cyclists competing in events after the International Cycling Union (UCI) barred trans athlete Emily Bridges from competing in a national women's race, who was claimed to have had an unfair advantage in the female category. British Cycling had acknowledged that its transgender policy, which was ratified in January 2022, did not match the guidance from the Sports Council Equality Group (SCEG).

B. INTEGRITY

ix. Banned British sprinter CJ Ujah cleared of deliberately taking drugs at Olympics⁹

The Athlete Integrity Unit (AIU) reported that British sprinter Chijindu Ujah (Athlete) had entered into a case resolution agreement with the AIU and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and shall be serving a ban for 22 (twenty-two) months. The Athlete acknowledged the Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) and was able to establish that the Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) was a result of his ingestion of a contaminated supplement. The Athlete had provided a sample In-Competition during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games which resulted in the AAF and was facing a four-year ban. The Court of Arbitration for Sport Anti-Doping Division had decided that the Athlete had committed the ADRV and disqualified Team Great Britain, together with the forfeiture of their medals, diplomas, points and prizes.

x. FIR against India's no. 1 badminton player, Lakshya Sen, for age fraud, cheating; Karnataka High Court stays further proceedings¹⁰

Lakshya Sen, his family and former national coach Vimal Kumar have been charged with cheating and age fraud in an FIR filed in Bengaluru. The FIR, lodged by M Goviappa Nagaraja, alleged that Sen, along with his brother Chirag, had fudged their age to get into playing age-group tournaments since 2010. Sen's parents, a coach with the Sports Authority of India and Vimal Kumar- coaching the duo for more than 10 years were also named in the FIR. The complainant runs a badminton academy in Bengaluru. The Karnataka HC has stayed criminal proceedings against Lakshya and his coach based on a petition filed by them. In the petition, the accused player and his coach claimed that the case had been lodged to humiliate them. The charges were made up in revenge as the complainant's daughter had been turned away from Prakash Padukone's training academy two years ago. The petition also contended that the issue of age fabrication had been closed in 2018 as the Central Vigilance Commission had accepted the birth records and concluded that no action was required against him.

xi. Emirates-based player gets 14-year ban for attempted match-fixing¹¹

Mehar Chhayakar, a cricketer based in the UAE, has been banned from all cricket for 14 years after an ICC (International Cricket Council) Anti-Corruption Tribunal found him guilty of seven breaches of the ICC and Cricket Canada Anti-Corruption Codes. He was found guilty of attempting to influence Zimbabwe v UAE series in April 2019 and matches in the Global T20 in Canada in 2019. The ICC Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) had also charged the cricketer for failing to cooperate and obstructing the ACU's investigation.

xii. Two French tennis players handed lifetime bans for match fixing¹²

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced that French players Mick Lescure (29) and Jules Okala (25) have been given life bans from tennis after investigations into multiple incidents of match-fixing since 2014. Lescure who had a highest ATP ranking of 487, was found guilty of eight charges and fined $40,000 by the ITIA and Okala who had a highest ATP ranking of 338, was found guilty of seven charges and fined $15,000. The cases were ruled on by independent Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer Charles Hollander KC and the sanctions mean that both players are permanently prohibited from playing in or attending any tennis event sanctioned by the governing bodies of tennis. The independent ITIA - established by tennis' international governing bodies to oversee integrity matters - said that both players have been part of wider law enforcement investigations in France and Belgium.

C. OTHERS

xiii. Hans Niemann files $100 million lawsuit against Magnus Carlsen; motion to dismiss lawsuit filed¹³

US chess grandmaster, Hans Niemann, filed a federal lawsuit, a month after being accused of cheating by Magnus Carlsen, Chess.com and others. The lawsuit, which seeks no less than $100 million (£89m), was filed in the Eastern Missouri District Court. It accuses the defendants of libel, slander and unlawful boycott and tortious interference of Niemann's business. Niemann has previously admitted to cheating when playing online chess when he was 12 and 16 but has denied ever cheating over the board. Niemann, 19, accuses Carlsen of launching a smear campaign against him in collaboration with Carlsen's online chess company Play Magnus, and Chess.com, which has agreed to buy Play Magnus. A motion to dismiss the lawsuit was filed by the defendants stating the Neimann's claims are without merit, arguing that he has not disproved the cheating allegations or offered evidence to back up his conspiracy assertion.

Footnotes

1 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/sports/ ioa-adopts-draft-constitution-but-several-members-say-they-did-it-because-they-cant-go-against-sc-order/articleshow/95434290.cms?from=mdr

2 https://www.hindustantimes.com/sports/others/ meghna-ahlawat-new-ttfi-president-ex-champ-kamlesh-mehta-secretary-101670264254048.html

3 https://www.bcci.tv/articles/2022/news/55555940/15th-bcci-apex-council-meeting-bcci-implements-pay-equity-policy-for-women-cricketers?type=Latest

4 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/ cricket/news/david-warners-captaincy-bid-alive-as-cricket-australia-amends-code-of-conduct/ articleshow/95650221.cms and https://www.theguardian. com/sport/2022/dec/07/david-warner-withdraws-bid-to-have-lifetime-captaincy-ban-revoked

5 https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ICAS_ Media_Release_-_Amendments_to_the_CAS_Code.pdf

6 https://www.sportresolutions.com/news/ view/lta-fined-1million-by-atp-for-banning-russian-players-from-tournaments

7 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/ nov/28/scottish-footballers-to-be-banned-from-heading-ball-before-and-after-matches

8 https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/about/article/20221031- Home-Page-Statement--CEO-Brian-Facer-to-leave-British-Cycling-0 and https://www.theguardian.com/ sport/2022/oct/31/british-cycling-chief-brian-facer-steps-down-three-weeks-after-controversial-shell-deal

9 https://www.athleticsintegrity.org/downloads/ pdfs/disciplinary-process/en/AIU-21-141-UJAH-Communication-CRA_FINAL_updated.pdf 10 https://thebridge.in/badminton/age-fraud-fir-lakshya-sen-personal-reasons-38334 and https://timesofindia. indiatimes.com/sports/badminton/fir-against-indias-no-1-badminton-player-lakshya-sen-coach-vimal-kumar-and-family-for-age-fraud-cheating/articleshow/95959989.cms

11 https://www.icc-cricket.com/media-releases/2848189

12 https://www.itia.tennis/news/sanctions/ okala-and-lescure-life-bans/

13 https://www.forbes.com/sites/ nicholasreimann/2022/12/02/chess-100-million-showdown-carlsen-moves-to-dismiss-niemann-lawsuit-over-cheating-allegations/?sh=5e8c2c95130a and https:// indianexpress.com/article/sports/chess/hans-niemann-files-100-million-lawsuit-against-magnus-carlsen-8222176/

Click here to continue reading . . .

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.