New Governance Standard For Swiss Sports

As the year draws to a close, the Swiss sport sector is approaching an important transition. On 1 January 2026, the new governance and ethics framework developed by Swiss Olympic will apply to all target groups, including regional organizations, clubs, and event organizers. National federations have already been subject to the «Branchenstandard» («Standard») since the beginning of 2025.

The combined effect of the Standard, the Federal Act on the Promotion of Sport and Physical Activity (Sportförderungsgesetz, SpoFöG) and the Sport Promotion Ordinance (Sportförderungsverordnung, SpoFöV) is a more coherent approach to transparency, integrity, and athlete welfare across the entire sports system.

Scope and Legal Basis

The Standard is anchored in the Federal Act on the Promotion of Sport and Physical Activity and the Sport Promotion Ordinance, both of which make federal funding conditional on “effective measures” in ethics, safety and organizational governance.

The Standard also applies, inter alia, to national governing bodies, their direct and indirect member organizations (clubs with and without federal contributions) and event organizers. Application is calibrated by target group: entities receiving federal funds must implement an extensive set of requirements; organizations without federal funds are subject to a reduced set of requirements (e.g., participation/gender rules and term limits as recommendations only rather than binding conditions).

Key legal sources:

• Federal requirements on fair and safe sport (Art. 18 SpoFöG)
• Obligations to prevent ethical violations, organizational deficiencies and safety risks (Art. 72c–72j SpoFöV)
• Rules on anti-manipulation and risk-appropriate procedures (Art. 78a SpoFöV)

Governance requirements

By the end of 2025, organizations should ensure that their core governance framework is up to date. In practice, this primarily concerns a set of statutory or regulatory elements prescribed by the aforementioned legal sources and elaborated in the Standard. These include a clear leadership and decision-making structure, periodic elections (at least every four years), a gender representation rule for the highest governing body, basic conflict-of-interest provisions and appropriate member and athlete participation rights. Most of these elements shall be anchored directly in the statutes. Organizations with federal funding have to adhere to stricter requirements.

Financial governance must also meet an appropriate standard. Annual accounts should be prepared transparently and be subject to an independent review. For smaller organizations, a lay audit is generally sufficient, while larger entities may be expected to follow ordinary or limited audit provisions.

From 2026, key governance documents (such as statutes, organizational charts and essential meeting outcomes) shall be published via a website or a secure member portal, ensuring that internal rules and decisions can be readily understood by stakeholders.

Ethics, Safeguarding and Welfare

The Standard stipulates that its addressees are subject to the Statutes on Ethics and Doping in Swiss Sport, thereby recognizing the authority of Swiss Sport Integrity as the competent body for ethics and doping-violation investigations and the Swiss Sport Tribunal as the adjudicatory instance. Furthermore, the Standard introduces structured expectations for ethics and participant welfare. Organizations are expected to conduct periodic ethics analyses, appoint a responsible person and maintain accessible reporting channels. Measures must address violence prevention, protection of minors, avoidance of overload and crisis management. Safety considerations, including accident-prevention processes, must be embedded adequately within the organization's size and risk profile.

Supervision and Implementation

Swiss Olympic monitors compliance through documentation and periodic assessment, while the Federal Office of Sport oversees organizations receiving federal funds.

Conclusion

The new Standard marks a shift towards more harmonized governance and strengthened safeguarding expectations in Swiss sport. With the implementation date approaching, organizations should finalize the remaining adjustments to ensure compliance and maintain uninterrupted access to federal funding.

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.