INTRODUCTION TO THE SPORTBOARD PROJECT
The SPORTBOARD project is a European project funded under the Erasmus + Sport programme of the European Commission. SPORTBOARD is the result of an alliance between different organisations from different backgrounds. The project leader Sant Cugat Creix is leading the project from July 2022 for a period of 30 months. Alongside Sant Cugat Creix, three partners take part in the project: Anderlini Sports Club, a grassroots sports organization from Italy, the Municipality of Modena, the faculty of Psychology and Sciences of Education and Sport of the University Ramon Llull University, and the European Think tank Sport and Citizenship.
The SPORTBOARD project is a follow-up initiative of the successful implementation of the Erasmus Plus Sport project “Ethics for Sport” (E4S). E4S aimed at developing innovative mechanisms to promote “Codes of Ethics” in grassroots sports and ensure their effective enforcement. The project activities were focused on the development of Codes of Ethic and digital tools for registration of their implementation via an innovative application available on mobile phones. After the project ended, Sant Cugat Creix and Anderlini Sports Club came up with the idea to go further with the development of innovative mechanisms of monitoring and managing athletes’ ethics behaviour in sport for providing good governance in sport. SPORTBOARD has a specific priority for the sports sector which is to improve good governance in sport.
The SPORTBOARD project strives to fulfil the objective to improve the good governance of grassroots sports organisations and governing bodies by proposing a holistic approach to monitoring and managing the ethical behaviour of child and youth athletes. This good governance approach is based on a systemic work of defining indicators of ethical behaviours, their registration, monitoring and management to provide efficient self-regulation of grassroots sports organisations.
SPORTBOARD’s behavioural indicators are intended to be built around six “categories” of behaviours: (1) harassment and bullying; (2) discrimination, whether based on origin, colour, gender, religion, disability, or sexual orientation; (3) doping;
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(4) abuse, including sexual abuse; and (5) violence, (6) match-fixing.
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OBJECTIVES OF THE DESK RESEARCH STUDY
This desk research study is an important element in the implementation of the SPORTBOARD project. As a first step of the preparation phase of the pilot programme, the project needs accurate information of previous experiences and successful initiatives implemented in Europe.
In order to build the knowledge necessary to pilot programme and all its activities, it appeared necessary to first identify what is the state of play of our topic. Expertise of the sport sector, institutional protocols as well as research and academics studies and concrete example and initiatives of sport programmes aiming at transmitting social values at grassroots sport level were gathered and assessed when possible. Concretely, we stove to look at what has already been done, what is being done elsewhere to assess all the strengths and weaknesses.
This in-depth desk research also helps us to look at the gaps in the field of monitoring ethical behaviours of young athletes in grassroots sport clubs in the aim to answer the following questions: is it really being developed? What methods and exercises are used? Which audiences are targeted? How is the target audience addressed? What are the results?
CHAPTER 1: ETHICAL BEHAVIOURS INDICATORS MAPPING
1.1 A short introduction to the topic and to the key terms
Good governance of both professional and amateur sports organisations is a subject that has been brought on the table for several years now, particularly in Europe. Nevertheless, “good governance” may appear as a vague term in the common language. For the purposes of the SPORTBOARD project, we have decided to use the definition of the European Commission Expert Group on good governance:
“[A good governance framework refers to] the framework and culture within which a sports body sets policy, delivers its strategic objectives, engages with stakeholders, monitors performance, evaluates and manages risk and reports to its
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constituents on its activities and progress including the delivery of effective, sustainable and proportionate sports policy and regulation”
At grassroots level, a good governance must include an ethical management of sport activities and of clubs. This ethical management must be globally understood: a good governance can be overall implemented if all the stakeholders included in a grassroots sport club demonstrate ethical behaviours. In this regard, we ought to remind what is understood by "ethics", "ethical behaviours" which are often the terms used without a clear statement on their meanings and differences. Ethical behaviour in sport is often defined as “a low frequency of engagement in negative social behaviours or unfair play”1. Research studies have shown that in the field of sport, ethical behaviours be divided into two dimensions. On one hand, there is a proactive dimension of ethical behaviours which refer to behaviours engaged in prosocial and humane behaviour. On the other hand, we find an inhibitive dimension of ethical behaviours referring to the refraining from antisocial and inhumane behaviour2 . From this finding, we draw the conclusion that ethical behaviours in the field of sport is strongly related to the social competences of individuals. Therefore, working on more ethical behaviours with young athletes involves working on soft and social skills as well as on values that promote a more respectful sport practice.
Values have been a central concept in the social sciences since their inception. For many sociologists, such as Durkheim and Weber values were crucial for explaining social and personal organisation and change3. According to Schwartz, values vary on importance as guiding principles in life4 . Instiling values will therefore influence not only people's behaviour, but also people's judgement of attitudes and behaviour.
1 Bram, C. 2019. Ethics Management in football clubs. Thesis submitted to fulfil the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Health Sciences. Ghent University.
2 Boardley, I.D., & Kavussanu., M. (2009). The influence of social variables and moral disengagement on prosocial and antisocial behaviours in field hockey and netball. Journal of Sport Sciences, 27(8).
3 Shalom H. Schwartz, (2012). An Overview of the Schwartz Theory of Basic Values. International association for Cross-Cultural psychology.
4 Ibid
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On this topic, given that part of the broad mission of education is to help young people in the development of prosocial values, sport should and can allow opportunities to develop healthy social skills. In the pursuit of prosocial development, physical educators, grassroots clubs’ coaches, youth educators can take advantage of pedagogical models like the ones implemented in the framework of sport education that, in addition to developing physical and sporting skills, also help in acquiring social skills. Since the year 2000, UNICEF has advocated for the role of sport, recreation and play in child development from early childhood to adolescence.5 On this regard, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognises the potential and supports Values Education through Sport programmes. According to the UNESCO, Values Education through Sport programmes support active learning, complement cognitive skills and give learning athletes increasing amounts of responsibility, and enhance their level of concentration and participation.
While the model of the sports ecosystem varies from country to country, it is certain that sports federations have at least the role of ensuring the management, promotion, and development of the sport they represent. Nevertheless, it should be noted that these federations often establish general frameworks to support the social sports projects implemented by the sports clubs. The same applies to national government ministries or agencies responsible for sport and physical activity issues. Therefore, it was important to focus also on practical examples, implemented both at European and national level. Based on the premise that values shape behaviour, including in sport, we decided to focus on sport recommendations and programmes that seek to transmit social values and social skills.
5 Pasquini, C. Borkowski, A., (2021). Playing theGame A framework for successful child focused sport for development programmes. Unicef Office Of Research – Innocenti. https://www.unicefirc.org/publications/pdf/Playing-the-Game-Report_A-framework-for-successful-child-focused-sportfor-development-programmes.pdf.
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CHAPTER 2: COMPILATION OF PROTOCOLES AND GOOD PRACTICES EXAMPLES
The next chapter will present for the core results of this desk research. It gathers different protocols and socio sport projects which aim to transmit existing social skills and values. The findings are classified according to two dimensions: first at the institutional level (European Union and Council of Europe institutions) and at the local level; and finally, according to the corresponding ethical behaviour, based on the six ethical behaviours selected in the SPORTBOARD project.
2.1 Harassment & bullying
Harassment is often generically defined as repeated violence which may be verbal, physical, or psychological6 . In 2016, the European Commission sought to identify and define harassment in sport, by focusing especially on gender-based violence to contribute to the fight against these different forms of harassment. The “Study on gender-based violence in sport” final report7 defines:
- Gender-based harassment as an “unwelcome conduct related to a person’s gender and has the effect or purpose of offending another person’s dignity”
- Sexual abuse as any kind of behaviours which aim “to trick, force or coerce a person into any sexual activity the person does not want, or is not sufficiently mature to consent to”
And
- Sexual harassment as any “behaviour of a sexualised nature which is unwanted, exploitative, degrading, coerced, forced and/or violent”.
The case of bullying should be taken separately. In fact, bullying is a specific form of harassment as a form of harassment often carried out by children on other
6 Le harcèlement, c’est quoi ? (s. d.). Ministère de l’Education Nationale et de la Jeunesse. https://www.education.gouv.fr/non-au-harcelement/le-harcelement-c-est-quoi-325361.
7 O’Moore, M. (2010). Understanding School Bullying: A Guide to Parents and Teachers (veritas publishing).
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children. According to Professor Mona O’Moore8 , bullying has traditional 3 main main criteria:
- The intention to cause harm to the victim
- A repetition of the abusive behaviour over a period of time
- An imbalance of power between the victim and bully/bullies
Bullying therefore requires specific understanding and measures to combat it. The research work focused on finding programmes and guidelines to combat and prevent these different forms of harassment.
2.1.1 Combating harassment in sport
Country/Region
Name
Type of good practice
Lead organisation
Target group
Description
Europe
Guidelines on sport integrity - Action 3 of the Kazan Action Plan
European guidelines and recommendations
Enlarged partial agreement on sport – Council of Europe
Sport organisations; Policy makers
The Kazan Action Plan marked the commitment to link sport policy development to the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations, as well as support to an overarching sport policy follow-up framework and five priority areas for international and national multi-stakeholder cooperation. After this acknowledgement the Council of Europe’s Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport assessed the existing good practices in the field of good governance and sport integrity. This state of play of practices allowed to draw on concrete examples to better define the
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8 Ibid.
Links
integrity of sport. Five areas have been identified to provide some guidelines to public authorities for the development of policies in these domains.
One of this policy area is “Preventing and addressing harassment and abuse in sport”.
The guidelines highlight that this policy can be implemented at national level if strong governing sport bodies which would customise national strategies were set up. These national strategies must, among other things include child protection and safeguarding policies. Recurrent encounters witty relevant stakeholders should be organised to ensure that the safeguarding and prevention policies are “up to date” and to continuously share practices to constantly improve the prevention mechanisms and tackle any form of harassment.
https://rm.coe.int/sports-integrity-guidelines-action3-kazanaction-plan-en/16809f321d
Parallels with the SPORTBOARD project
The prevention of harassment in amateur sports organisations must be a continuous and constantly improving process. The creation of a network of SPORT BOARD pilot clubs that could continue to share their initiatives on a regular basis in a process of improvement is interesting.
Country/Region Europe
Name
Type of good practice
Study on gender-based violence in sport
European state of play, guidelines and recommendations
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Lead organisation
Target group
Description
European Commission
Sport organisations; Policy makers
Since 2007, the European Commission has been issuing policies emphasising the need to protect athletes, especially young athletes, from acts of violence, particularly from differentforms of gender-based violence.
This paper published in 2016 strove to (1) describe the current situation regarding gender-based violence in sport at elite and amateur level in EU Member states; (2) provide an overview of existing and recommended measures and legal frameworks on this topic; (3) identify best practices in combatting genderbased violence in sporting environments; (4) provide recommendations for policymakers and relevant (sport) stakeholders to combat gender-based violence in sport.
Links
https://ec.europa.eu/assets/eac/sport/library/studies/gender -based-violence-sport-study-2016_en.pdf
This paper provides a general overview of the state of genderbased harassment in sport in Europe. While the research does not go into specific details, it outlines what is being observed and done to combat these forms of harassment in the EU member states. It also provides interesting definitions and key issues, which can frame the actions of the SPORTBOARD pilot programmes.
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Parallels with the SPORTBOARD project
2.1.2 Raising awareness and talking bullying
Country/Region
Spain
Name Sport as a mean to prevent peer bullying
Type of good practice Sport programmes and training
Lead organisation
Target group
Barça foundation
Teachers and managements staff of primary schools; primary schools’ pupils
Description
The Barça Foundation has designed a methodology adapted to the primary school curriculum. The main objective is to teach how to identify and prevent school bullying. Therefore, the programme is aimed at two target groups. On the one hand, the programme aims to reach out to teachers and primary schools’ staff who can intervene to both prevent and intervene when cases of harassment are identified. Secondly, the awarenessraising work also reaches out to pupils to tackle the root causes of bullying behaviours.
The latest version of the programme is divided into seven onehour sessions plus one online session.
Sport is used as a tool to address other issues. Preventive factors for harassment are identified and categorised into three different categories:
- Feelings: a category which refers to emotions. The aim isto accompany the pupils in the understanding of their feelings, to allow them to talk about their emotions and to allow to open up.
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Links
- Conduct: a category which refers to social skills. It aims is to use sport activities to develops transversal and transferable skills that can be reus after, even in a latent way, by pupils while bonding with each other. This is based on the fact that playing sport means to follow rules, to accept decisions and to understand that a bad behaviours can be penalised. they could be penalised for bad behaviours. Activities also focus on the strength of the group to build spirit and teamwork to foster the development of healthy relationships between pupils.
- Beliefs: a category referring to values. In the continuity of the categories emotions and social skills, sports activities allow to work on certain values.
https://fundacio.fcbarcelona.cat/documents/30157/395712/E NG_Dossier+presentacio+programa+Contra+Bullying+1220.pdf/ 5ebf9d52-5aad-b54b-35fe-
a863b3042699?t=1606806635867&_ga=2.142753973.1027396660 .1666254697-
14960810.1666254697&_gl=1*o947ax*_ga*MTQ5NjA4MTAuMTY2
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Source : Programme against bullying, presentation dossier 2020-2021 Barça Foundation
Parallels with the SPORTBOARD project
NjI1NDY5Nw..*_ga_XCQ7B6K8TL*MTY2NjI1NDY5Ny4xLjAuMTY2N jI1NDY5Ny4wLjAuMA
https://fundacio.fcbarcelona.cat/recursos-contra-el-bullying https://foundation.fcbarcelona.com/againstbullying?_gl=1*nye708*_ga*NTc4ODU5MDEwLjE2Njg1MTAzNjI.*_ ga_XCQ7B6K8TL*MTY2ODUxMDM2Mi4xLjEuMTY2ODUxMDM4OS4 wLjAuMA..&_ga=2.210975573.1915810763.1668510363578859010.1668510362
The SPORTBOARD project has very similar objectives to those of this programme: to use sport to develop social skills and transversal and transferable values that will be useful to children in their relationships with others. This development of social skills helps to prevent the roots of unethical behaviours.
This work on values is “direct”: the target groups are aware that they are working on certain values and behaviours, which allows them to clearly identify these behaviours. These values are also clearly identified "visually": for example, pupils can have bibs with different values written on them.
The SPORTBOARD sport and support activities could follow this method, highlighting certain values and making it clear to young athletes what they are working on together.
2.2 Discrimination
The aim of this section is not to give precise and analytical definitions of discrimination, which is a plural and evolving phenomenon over the centuries and, above all, a complex one, at the heart of social science concerns.
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Discrimination is defined as the unequal and unfavourable treatment applied to certain people. In the framework of this research, forms of discrimination based on origin, colour, gender, religion, disability, or sexual orientation were considered.
2.1.1 Protocols and established standards to tackle discrimination
Country/Region
International
Name Sport for protection
Type of good practice Recommendations
Lead organisation
Terres des hommes; United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; International Olympic Committee
Target group
Sport educators and social workers working with adolescents and youth
Description
This comprehensive approach and toolkit aim to increase understanding of the role that sport can play in the protection and well-being of young refugees and internally displaced persons.
While the primary aim is to facilitate access to sport for a vulnerable audience, it also raises awareness among sports educators of the specific profile of young refugees and displaced persons.
A better understanding of the profile and vulnerability of these young people helps to combat discrimination in sport.
Links
https://www.tdh.ch/en/projects/sport-protection-toolkit
https://www.tdh.ch/sites/default/files/s4p_toolkit_english_lo w_final.pdf
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Parallels with the SPORTBOARD Combating discrimination must also involve understanding the project profiles of those discriminated against. The SPORTBOARD pilot programmes ought to include this awareness raising in vulnerable profiles.
2.2.2 Raising awareness and empower to tackle any form of discrimination
Country/Region Europe
Name
Type of good practice
Play’In Together
Erasmus + Sport project
Lead organisation Play International
Target group
Description
Children between 6 and 12 years old; teachers; sport educators
“PLAY'In Together” was a European project funded under the Erasmus+ sport programme which aimed to support European societies towards a greater inclusion of all people with disabilities in sport. This was to be achieved by promoting Olympic, Paralympic and European values in sports games accessible to all children, whatever their condition.
Thanks to the diverse implementation team, sport programmes in the form of toolkits have been produced and are available on the project website.
This approach to raising awareness of inclusion was a comprehensive one. Thus, the children themselves were targeted by this programme. The objective was to raise their
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Links
awareness of the inclusion of their peers with disabilities, and to show them that it was "possible" to still play with them. The children were really put in a situation in the sports activities. For example, some of the games had to be played blindfolded, so that the children could put themselves in the shoes of a visually impaired friend. This exercise allowed them to understand that, although their friend was different, he or she could participate in sports activities and play with others.
In addition, teachers and sports educators were also targets. The aim was to train them in a more inclusive approach to sport. Including children with disabilities often requires an adaptation of the practice. After a field evaluation phase, educators were trained in the games, sports activities and sports curriculum created by the Play'In Together project. The aim is that these inclusive activities will increasingly be included in school and extra-curricular sports programmes.
https://www.playinternational.org/en/impact/projects/playin-together
https://www.playinternational.org/en/kit/informal/changing-mindset-disability
https://www.play-international.org/sites/default/files/202001/19_E%2B_Essentials%20of%20Disability%20in%20Physical%20E ducation_AC%20Cr%C3%A9teil.pdf
Parallels with the SPORTBOARD
The method used in the sport activities is very interesting and project impactful and may be an inspiration for SPORTBOARD pilot programmes. In order to raise awareness on disabilities among young athletes, sports activities can be adapted so that young
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athletes understand disability more closely and put themselves in their peers' shoes.
Country/Region Europe
Name
Type of good practice
Lead organisation
Target group
Ariadne's Thread for Youth Deviance
Erasmus+ Sport project
Province of Arezzo (local authority)
Secondary school student between 14 and 18 years old and their relatives (family members, teachers, sport educators)
Description
The Ariadne project aims to promote volleyball as a tool to reduce youth marginality and deviance.
The sports programmes were developed after a primary analysis phase carried out directly with the target audience. In addition to seminars for young athletes, their families and sports staff, empowering volleyball matches were organised with experts on marginality issues.
After the matches, the young athletes are invited to share their feelings and view on the games they just played by writing a short essay. Their essays should also their personal reflexion on marginality and youth deviance. These essays have a dual function. On one hand, they encourage young people to reflect on what they experienced during the match and on what they experience in their daily lives, thus raising their awareness. On the other hand, they allow the marginality experts to conduct
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Links
Parallels with the SPORTBOARD project
their analysis of the impact of the project on the young athletes, in addition to the data obtained during their participant observations.
https://ariadneproject.eu/
In this project, young athletes take part in the process leading to their own empowerment.
Beyond the games and sports activities that will be offered in the framework of the SPORTBOARD pilot programmes, it may be interesting, if not essential, to integrate this dimension of reflection on the values and ethical behaviours that will be worked on with the young athletes. The essay writing method is indeed an interesting method, but other means can be used, such as the request for oral feedback from the participants.
Country/Region Europe
Name
Type of good practice
Lead organisation
IRIS – Fostering equality in sport
Erasmus+ Sport project
The Regional Center of Vocational Training and Lifelong Learning-RCVTLLL
Target group
Description
Physical education teachers, coaches, sport educators
The IRIS project aimed to inform coaches and PE teachers on identifying underlying problems of discrimination, racism and violence, train them on novel didactic approaches forpreventing these phenomena and provide them with educational
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Links
tools for applying and integrating these approaches in everyday school sports activities.
The project sought to identify the needs of the target groups and their level of knowledge about discriminatory and exclusionary behaviours as well racism in grassroots sport in order to offer them appropriate training. The training method also consisted in popularising the European directives and rules to make them more accessible to coaches and sports educators. The training courses are compiled on an online platform.
http://193.108.160.169/irissporteu/en/
Parallels with the SPORTBOARD
In order to raise awareness to become familiar with the project protocols governing and defining ethical behaviours, the SPORTBOARD pilot programmes can attempt, among other things, to popularise European texts and the protocols of national sports bodies.
2.3 Doping
In accordance with Article 2 of the Council of Europe Anti-Doping Convention9 “doping in sport” is defined as the administration to or use by athletes of pharmacological classes of doping agents or doping methods. One generally refers to the list of products updated annually by the World Anti-Doping Code10 .
Article 6 of the Council of Europe's anti-doping convention also stresses the importance of prevention and raising awareness of the problem, particularly among young people, including educational activities to prevent the phenomenon globally.
9
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CouncilofEurope,EuropeanTreatySeries – n°.135.Anti-DopingConventionStrasbourg,16.XI.1989. 10 Get access to the2022 list by following this link.
2.3.1 Control and sanction doping
Country/Region
Name
Worldwide
The ITIA application
Type of good practice Recommendations and training
Lead organisation
Target group
Description
International tennis integrity agency (ITIA)
Tennis clubs, tennis players and tennis stakeholders
The ITIA promotes, encourages, enhances, and safeguards the integrity of tennis worldwide. The aim of this movement is to prevent corruption and doping from taking place; investigates and prosecutes offenders, raise awareness, and provides tennis stakeholders with training on anti-doping and anti-corruption. The app gathers the rules on the integrity of tennis; list the substances that are prohibited and has a section in which one can report a case of corruption or a doping case.
The ITIA movement and the application are interesting for at least three dimensions. Firstly, they assist the tennis world and tennis stakeholders in the fight against doping by compiling and popularising the rules on doping. Among other things, it reminds the readers of the prohibited substances and warns on the sanctions, more or less severe, that doping can entail. Then, being an international movement, which strives to safeguard the integrity of tennis internationally, the ITIA offers the possibility to report doping-related abuse (and corruption-related abuse as well):
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Source: Screen shot from the ITIA app, reporting a case of doping
Finally, and most importantly, the ITIA offers courses related to the integrity of tennis delivered by a teaching team, the “ITIA education team”. The paramount objective of this education team is to inform, educate, and protect everyone in tennis against the threat of doping -and corruption. The ITIA education team provides several resources and tools for tennis stakeholders. On the topic of doping, a document summarising the rules of the tennis anti-doping programme and how the rules apply to different cases is available. The ITIA education team also offers courses in the form of an e-learning programme so that interested participants can familiarise themselves with and
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Links
understand the rules the tennis anti-doping programme. Prevention is also ensured by compiling various case studies of players who have been sanctioned for doping so that stakeholders are aware of the reality of sanctions and their consequences.
Parallels with the SPORTBOARD project
Source: Screen shot from the ITIA app, Cases studies videos
https://www.itia.tennis/itia-app/
https://itia.tennis/media/qgldovlk/tadp-2022.pdf
https://integrityprotectionprogramme.com
The ITIA's e-learning approach is interesting in the framework of the SPORTBOARD project. Rather than simply blaming doping,
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the ITIA proposes a constructive and educational approach to warn on the consequences of doping. The case study leaningmethod is also interesting, as it allows concrete cases to be proposed for illustration rather than quoting rules from the antidoping programme.
The SPORTBOARD pilot programmes can build on this educational approach to doping to prevent the use of prohibited substances in sport.
2.3.2 Raising awareness and doping prevention programmes
Country/Region Europe
Name
Type of good practice
Lead organisation
Target group
Description
I Values – Values based education for children
Erasmus + Sport project
Slovenian Anti-Doping Organisation
Children’s “roles models” (mainly school teachers)
The I Values project uses an innovative and rare primary prevention approach. This innovative aspect is illustrated at several levels. First of all, it was noted that prevention programmes tend to target adolescents. However, as doping is the result of a violation of certain values and unethical behaviour, it is important to tackle the problem at a very early stage and to provide values education from a very young age. For this reason, the target audience of children is young, between 6 and 14 years old. Then, it was noted that in the
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Links
education of values among young people and children, several key figures could act as role models and could accompany this values educations programmes. In the field of sport, a figure that is often forgotten, yet very relevant, is the teacher. For this reason, the test programmes were implemented in schools and teachers were involved in building and reviewing the content of the programmes. As other role models for children, parents are also involved and targeted by this awareness raising programme.
The pilot programmes consisted in training for teachers, in training for trainers approach. After a test implementation phase, the results were analysed and compiled in a manual for schools and teachers. It brings together different activities, in which sport is the focus, but also other types of activities adapted to the school context so that all pupils can be included, including those who are less involved in sports activities. Among others, integrity, fairness, equity, and respect are values that school activities allow to work on. Materials for school teachers were designed in a way to minimise the requirements for hight training and preparation. The toolkit is easy to use and precisely describe the activities as well as the materials and time needed. Activities can therefore be implemented immediately.
https://i-value.eu/index.html
https://issuu.com/sloado/docs/ivalue22eng_lowres
Parallels with the SPORTBOARD project
Beyond the aspect of using sport to educate in values, an education useful for the development of ethical behaviour and to fight against doping, it is important to retain one element of
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this programme: the inclusion and strong involvement of schools and school teachers.
Beyond the aspect of using sport to educate in values, an education useful for the development of ethical behaviour and to fight against doping, it is important to retain one element of this programme: the inclusion and strong involvement of schools and school teachers.
Country/Region Europe
Name
Type of good practice
Lead organisation
Target group
DORGIS – AR, Anti-Doping Game
Erasmus+ Sport project
Scoala Gimnaziala Rediu
Young athletes of 9-16 years old as ell as their family members, teachers, coaches and sport educators
Description
The Erasmus+ DORGIS project aims to combat doping in recreational sport and its environment, to inform, educate and motivate young athletes aged 9-16, sports teachers/coaches and parents against the use of drugs and prohibited substances that can threaten the health of athletes and undermine the integrity of sport. This awareness-raising approach is largely based on the aspect of play and has a playful spirit in order to better reach the main target group, namely children.
The DORGIS project follows an implementation in three phases:
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Links
- First phase: development of 70 anti-doping educational game and/or activities to raise awareness on spot=rt ethics
- Second phase: development of a mobile application. The application would be a little more complex than the games but will still have this didactic aspect. It will allow its users to be aware of the dangerous effects of prohibited drugs and will educate them on adopting a healthy diet
- Third phase: development of an E-Platform with various online modules on the topic of doping. The main targets of this modules are teachers, coaches and sport education. Through these online lessons, they will be able identify doping vulnerable athletes; understand doping signs; Anti-doping behaviours and be aware of the prohibited lists as well as legal procedures.
http://dorgisproject.eu/index.html
Parallels with the SPORTBOARD project
The dual approach of values education through playful activities for young athletes and awareness-raising and training through online modules for teachers and sports educators should be retained.
The SPORTBOARD pilot programmes also aim to reach out to both young athletes and sports coaches. This playful and formative duality can be reused.
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2.4 Abuses and violence
Despite the well-recognised benefits of sport, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) also acknowledges that there are negative influences on athlete health, wellbeing, and integrity as well, caused by non-accidental violence through harassment and abuse11. According to the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, violence in sport can be defined as behaviour that causes harm, occurs outside of the rules of the sport and is unrelated to the competitive objectives of the sport12 .
The protection of athletes from the harmful effects of sport itself and its correlative effects has become a central concern of sport's governing bodies. Initiatives targeting amateur athletes are often more applied at the local level.
In this section we have decided to bring together the phenomena of violence and abuses. Indeed, while conducting the research, we quickly realised that these two behaviours were often associated, both in official texts and protocols and in projects aimed at combating these phenomena and raising public awareness.
The IOC itself recognises abuse as a form of violence, as the Consensus Statement on harassment and abuse in sport states and recognises it as therefore a phenomenon that neglects the athlete and inflict to her/him a form of harm.
In the framework of this research, we decided to focus on “violence” as understood by the sociologist Johan Galtung. In his triangle of violence, Johan Galtung identifies three forms of violence13. Direct violence is the physical violence we see and experience. Structural violence is embedded in the social structure and refers to any form of constraint on an individual's potential due to political and economic structures. Finally, cultural violence refers to the dominant attitudes or beliefs that legitimise direct or structural violence. Therefore, the following examples and good
11 Mountjoy, M et al. (2020). The IOC Consensus Statement: harassment and abuse (non-accidental violence) in sport. International Olympic Committee. https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document+Library/OlympicOrg/IOC/What-We-Do/ProtectingClean-Athletes/Safeguarding/IOC-Consensus-Statement_Harassment-and-abuse-in-sport-2016.pdf.
12 Violence | Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (s. d.). https://cces.ca/violence
13 Galtung, J (1969) «Violence, peace and peace research» Journal of Peace Research, vol 6, no 3; https://doi.org/10.1177/002234336900600301.
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practices are not only about fighting physical violence, but also the more social violence through educational processes:
Country/Region
Name
Type of good practice
Lead organisation
Target group
Description
France (city of Lyon)
Le projet socio-éducatif (Socio-educational project)
Local socio sport project
Lyon La Duchère football club
Club’s members; youth of the surrounding neighbourhoods
The football club is seen as a place of informal education where values can be transmitted, behaviours can be learned. The Lyon La Duchère club is positioned as an important social player in the neighbourhood.
The main objective of this socio-sporting project is to reach a sporting and social excellence and thus to make the club a socioeducational actor. Each year, around sixty social actions are carried out with the licensees around the issues of citizenship, culture, feminisation, professional integration, and employment, fight against discrimination, prevention of violence against children, health and balanced nutrition, education, and ecological transition.
Within this overall social project, several initiatives are implemented. Some of these initiatives seek to prevent various forms of violence among and between young people:
- The prevention, listening and mediation unit:
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This unit aims to protect and to raise awareness among both staff members and children on different forms of violence. Violence is understood in its diverse and complex form. The prevention mission aims to train the coaching staff to detect and fight against violence in sport. Topics such as harassment, and racketeering as well as all types of violence (sexual, psychological, physical...) are tackled in the trainings.
Furthermore, the hotline is open to all to denounce or report unethical behaviour.
- Les “Rencontres de la réussite” (the encounters of success)
The clubs organise different encounters in which youth and children from the surrounding neighbouring are encouraged to take part in. The idea is to meet with and women whose career paths are an example to others. These encounters are intended to inspire and demonstrate that it is possible to go beyond social determinism. These adults from the same so-called "difficult" neighbourhoods are role models for the young people of the football club and encourage them to develop and excel. In a way, these mentoring programmes are a way to tackle social violence.
Links
https://www.lyonladuchere.fr/le-projet/
https://www.lyonladuchere.fr/le-projet/documentation/
Parallels with the SPORTBOARD Although used in other socio-sport projects, the role of “role project models” is again relevant to this project. This method is to be retained for the pilot programmes of the SPORTBOARD project. The force of these role models in this case lies on the fact that
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they come from the same neighbourhoods as the youth and children targeted in the programme.
Country/Region Scotland
Name
Child Wellbeing & Protection in Sport Club Tool
Type of good practice Guidelines and recommandations
Lead organisation Sport Scotland national agency
Target group
Description
Sport clubs affiliated to the Scottish sport national agency
The Sport Scotland national agency has the ambition to support clubs in defining a child safeguarding policy with the aim of protecting children in sports clubs.
The standards for Child Wellbeing and Protection in Sport provide a framework for sport stakeholders to promote a safe and child-centred culture in both Scottish governing bodies and their clubs.
There are eight standards with minimum criteria in each to meet. These set a benchmark for good practice to help ensure children and young people’s rights are realised in an enjoyable and safe space.
The standards for Child Wellbeing and Protection in Sport (CWPS) club tool are a self-assessment and action planning resource for clubs. This assessment allows clubs to see how well they are doing against the CWPS standards. An interested club can take a questionnaire by answering a series of questions to
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Links
identify areas for development and create an action plan to help you create a positive and safe culture and better safeguard children and young people.
Once the self-assessment is completed, a club can see where it sits in relation to the standards through a percentage and traffic light system and see the areas that need development.
https://www.scottishgymnastics.org/safeguarding-childwellbeing-protection-sport-club-tool
https://www.children1st.org.uk/help-for-families/childwellbeing-and-protection-in-sport/information-on-standardsand-cwps-tool/
https://www.scottishgymnastics.org/sites/default/files/imce/ safeguarding/CWPS%20new-standards-min-criteria-feb2021.pdf
Parallels with the SPORTBOARD project
The accompanying approach is interesting and may be retained for the SPORTBOARD project.
After the test phase of the pilot programmes, a support package in the form of a self-assessment - so that clubs can see where they stand in promoting ethical behaviour among their young people - can be considered.
Country/Region
Name
United States / Canada / The Caribbeans
Universal Standards on Youth Development and Child Protection in Sport.
Type of good practice Guidelines and recommendations
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Lead organisation
Target group
Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA)
Sport clubs working with youth (as defined until their age of majority)
Description
This initiative was launched with the ultimate goal of maintaining a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of prejudice, discrimination or abuse of young athletes.
With this, the SIGA stives to establish a set of standards and requirements for the management and operation of a Sports Organisation in order to embed the highest standards on youth development and protection in sport. The requirements within this standard are intended to enhance the development and protection young athletes in Sports Organisations and are underpinned by the commitment to take a positive and proactive stance in ensuring best practice regarding the recruitment, training, education, and protection of young athletes across all stages and levels of their sporting activity.
This standard is intended for Sports Organisations to implement on a bronze, silver, or gold level, and can also be of use by governments and regulatory authorities in the establishment of appropriate policies aimed at supporting youth development and protection in sport.
Links
https://siga-sport.com/
https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.128/t9i.e65.myftpupl oad.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/SIGA-UNIVERSALSTANDARDS-ON-YOUTH-DEVELOPMENT-for-upload.pdf
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Parallels with the SPORTBOARD project
2.5 Match fixing
In the same idea as the Sport Scotland national agency’s selfassessment tool, this is an interesting approach to helping clubs achieve ethical behaviours standards.
For the SPORTBOARD pilot programmes, the standards to be achieved may be different from those proposed by SIGA. However, the proposal of models to be achieved to guide clubs after the test phase.
According to the Council of Europe's analysis, match-fixing corresponds to the manipulation of sports competitions. In accordance with article 3 paragraph 4 of the Macolin Convention, manipulation of sports competitions refers to any intentional arrangement, act or omission aimed at an improper alteration of the result or the course of a sports competition in order to remove all or part of the unpredictable nature of the aforementioned sports competition with a view to obtaining an undue advantage for oneself or for others14 .
While match-fixing affects the validity of competitions and matches, it also influences the values and behaviours of athletes. In order to combat match-fixing, the aim is not only to sanction it but also to raise awareness about bad practices and the negative effects of match-fixing on sport.
2.5.1 Protocols defining match fixing to tackle it
Country/Region
Name
Europe
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“Towards a framework for modern sports governance”
14 Council of Europe, European Treaty Series – n° 215. Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions. Magglingen/Macolin, 18.IX.2014.
Type of good practice Recommendations and policies
Lead organisation
Target group
Description
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Countries members of the Council of Europe
The Parliamentary Assembly recognises the breaches in the integrity European sports organisations. In order to overcome these violations, the Parliamentary assembly again encourages the establishment codes and standards of good governance. It highlights that sport has other specific aspects that must be taken into consideration when drawing up proactive policies and regulatory frameworks, including when it concerns match fixing. The drafting of a code of ethics which would include the issue of match-fixing, with a precise definition and the means to sanction such practices is a means of combating such behaviours and practices.
Links
https://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTMLEN.asp?fileid=24443&lang=en
Parallels with the SPORTBOARD project
Match-fixing may be a topic that is far from the minds of young athletes in amateur clubs and their coaches. However, this issue should be kept alive at grassroots level. A code of ethics mentioning match-fixing, its definition, and sanctions to prevent such behaviour is a way to fight against such practices.
2.5.2 Raising awareness on match fixing
Country/Region
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Worldwide
Name
Youth Workshop Kit and Quiz – as part of “Believe in Sport”
Type of good practice Training
Lead organisation
Target group
International Olympic Committee
Trainers delivering workshop activities to youth between 14-18 years old
Description
In the framework of its large campaign “Believe in Sport” put in place since 2018, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) launched several initiatives to raise awareness on manipulation of competition towards youth.
One of them is the “Youth Workshop Kit and Quiz”. This activity aims to educate on mainly four key messages of the code of conduct of the IOC; It is meant to be easy to run and provides a great learning experience for the participants. The kit includes a complete roll out of the workshop, indications regarding the necessary setup and materials and the game storylines that can be set up. In addition to all of this, a three-minute quiz for young athletes which allows to test their knowledge about the manipulation of competitions can be taken. The workshop kit is available in ten languages. It contains call outs of athlete role models and gives basic information about the topic without being extremely extensive, which makes it easier to use.
Links
https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/Oly mpicOrg/IOC/What-We-Do/Protecting-CleanAthletes/Betting/Education-Awareness-raising/YouthWorkshop-Kit.pdf
https://olympics.com/ioc/prevention-competitionmanipulation/education-during-youth-olympic-games
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Parallels with the SPORTBOARD project
The complete content of the kit and the playful dimension are interesting. The scenarios are well explained and accompany the educators in the implementation of the workshops and games.
This playful dimension to tackle more complicated subjects such as manipulation of competition must be retained.
Country/Region
Name
Type of good practice
Lead organisation
Europe
FIX the FIXING
Erasmus + Sport project
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences
Target group
Description
Sport stakeholders
The "FIX the FIXING" study is a research project designed to provide a concrete response in the fight against the manipulation of sports matches.
The project took place between 2016 and 2017 in three phases. As a first step, a study was conducted to understand match fixing in sports. A mixed method design was employed to collectdata about match fixing. Athletes, coaches, executives, journalists, and people involved in sports took surveys and took
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Links
part in focus group interviews to better understand the psychological process underpinning match fixing and how it is done. Then, educational tools were developed on the base of scientific evidence that were found during the research phase. The third phase was dedicated of the test of the educational tools developed.
https://fixthefixing.eu/
The complete content of the kit and the playful dimension are interesting. The scenarios are well explained and accompany the educators in the implementation of the workshops and games.
This playful dimension to tackle more complicated subjects such as manipulation of competition must be retained.
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Parallels with the SPORTBOARD project
