• Female athletes were the target of 87% of all abuse
• 65% of all abusive posts warrant intervention from social media platforms
In line with its commitment to making athletics a safe and welcoming environment for everyone, World Athletics today publishes findings of a study conducted during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to identify and address targeted, abusive messages sent to athletes via social media.
Reported revenues for the year are £97m (£167m in previous year) and profit to reserves £20.5m (loss of £27.1m in prior year).
Revenues in the year were nearly £120m less than pre-COVID forecasts with an underlying loss to reserves of £21.3m (c£30m worse than pre-COVID forecasts).
Following feedback from Clubs remaining in this season’s Papa John’s Trophy, the EFL can confirm Clubs will be permitted to make five substitutions from the seven they nominate for the remainder of the 2021/22 competition.
The amendment to Competition Rule 10.1 comes into effect ahead of the next round of ties which will take place during the week commencing Monday 29 November 2021.
The change was made after consideration of the proposal which highlighted concerns of a demanding fixture schedule over the coming months.
Approval of Independent Ethics Board; additional seats on Executive Committee for an athlete representative and an independent member, and on Foundation Board for athletes and National Anti-Doping Organizations; and establishment of WADA Athletes’ Council
Athletes’ Anti-Doping Ombuds Program to be piloted next year
ATP has announced new rules relating to toilet breaks, attire changes to come into effect from 2022, in addition to a proposed change to the Medical Time Out rule (start date TBC).
The European Parliament today adopted a comprehensive resolution on EU Sport Policy and called for action to protect European sport from the threat of breakaway competitions like the attempted European super league. Spearheaded by former Polish international football player, MEP Tomasz Frankowski, the Resolution was approved by an overwhelming majority of the European Parliament’s members from the 27 member states of the European Union.
At the request of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and as was the case for previous Olympic Games, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) posts the IOC’s Anti-Doping Rules (Rules) and accompanying circular letter applicable to the Olympic Games Beijing 2022 (2022 Games) taking place in February 2022.
The independent Disciplinary Panel of the British Horseracing Authority will convene from Tuesday 30 November 2021, with five additional dates reserved, to consider whether Licensed Jockey Robbie Dunne is in breach of the following Rules of Racing:
Pakistan fast bowler Shaheen Afridi has been fined 15 per cent of his match fees for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct during the second T20I against Bangladesh in Dhaka on Saturday
This weekend sees the launch of Play Safe – an ongoing national FA-led campaign to ensure everyone understands how to play their part in safeguarding children throughout football.
Play Safe is being run in partnership with the NSPCC and has the full backing of the Premier League, EFL, Barclays FA Women’s Super League and the FA Women’s Championship. It’s also supported and being run across every other level of the game.
The International Testing Agency (ITA) is set to manage yet another independent and expert-led anti-doping program for a major event, after completing its missions for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020 and the upcoming Olympic Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. The International World Games Association (IWGA) has entered a collaboration with the ITA for its next major event, The World Games 2022, to be held in July in Birmingham, Alabama (USA).
Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston has said that an independent regulator may be created for cricket following the ongoing racism scandal.
Following Azeem Rafiq’s testimony at a Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee where he detailed the racism that he suffered throughout his cricketing career Huddleston said he found it “alarming” and “harrowing”.
The WNBA Board of Governors approved changes to the league’s playoff format and postseason seeding, effective with the 2022 season, the WNBA announced today. The reconfigured postseason structure will include three rounds of series-play using a best-of 3-5-5 format.
Beginning with the WNBA’s 26th season, the eight teams with the highest winning percentages over a 36-game schedule regardless of conference will qualify for the playoffs and be seeded based on their record. All eight playoff teams will participate in first-round, bracket-style play consisting of four best-of-three series.
Last year, the ECA’s General Counsel decided to have a rethink at what sort of legal services ECA should be delivering to its members. The latest stage of that process is the introduction of the ECA Legal Journal.
The first issue is available to read now and, going forwards, will be published on a bi-annual basis.
As ECA CEO Charlie Marshall explains in his introduction to this new publication, “Many of you will remember the ECA Legal Bulletin, our annual publication designed to provide you with useful and practical information regarding football law matters.
Manama: Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa met with the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) President Karma Tsering Sherpa, with the AFC General Secretary Dato’ Windsor John also in attendance.
Shaikh Salman welcomed the ANFA President to Bahrain and emphasised the importance of continuous engagement with the Asian football family and discussed the possible ways to further develop the game, as well as to strengthen the spirit of collaboration between the AFC and its Member Associations (MAs).
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is pleased to announce its Independent Observer (IO) program teams for the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing, China, which will take place from 4-20 February and from 4-13 March 2022, respectively.
WADA’s IO program, which has been running since the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, and has included more than 50 major events during that time, is an important element of WADA’s compliance monitoring of Major Event Organizations. The IO teams provide an independent review of all aspects of the anti-doping programs as delivered at major events, including the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) meets in Paris today and tomorrow and appears certain to once again avoid urgently needed governance reforms to address the escalating crisis facing the global anti-doping effort.
SA Rugby and SA Rugby Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus have advised the independent misconduct committee and World Rugby that they have both withdrawn their notices of appeal to the misconduct decision and sanction issued by the independent disciplinary committee on 17 November, 2021.
The Innovation in Action and Reimagine Football ventures are exploring new ways to take the sport forward in the fields of fan engagement and carbon footprint reductions.
UK Sport has for the first time introduced pregnancy guidance for Olympic and Paralympic athletes and sport governing bodies.
The guidance includes advice for both pregnancy and continues once the athlete has given birth. UK Sport said “starting a family and being an elite athlete should not be mutually exclusive.” Five-time Olympic archer Naomi Folkard who gave birth in early 2021 before competing at this years Tokyo Olympics said “Female athletes should no longer have to make a choice between their athletic career and having children. I hope in a short time it will encourage sports science to not only begin to cover women and men equally, but also have pregnancy specific research projects for female athletes.”
Singh joins English football’s governing body after five years with the prestigious United States Golf Association. As chief commercial officer, he led the USGA’s global commercial strategy for its assets including the major men’s and women’s U.S. Open championships.
Bernard Guasch, owner and president of Catalans Dragons, has tonight been fined £10,000 (£2,500 suspended for three years) for comments made about the match officials following last month’s Super League Grand Final.
The tribunal found Guasch to have breached the following Operational Rules.
The WNBA announced today that former Atlanta Dream players Courtney Williams and Crystal Bradford have been suspended without pay for their roles in an altercation outside of an Atlanta-area club in May and for related health and safety protocol violations. Williams’ suspension is for two games and Bradford’s suspension is for one game.
I write to address the misunderstandings caused by an inaccurate and wayward attack on our International Federation in recent days.
Discussions around the future composition of Modern Pentathlon and especially the Riding discipline have stirred emotions since UIPM announced the 5th Discipline consultation process on November 4. This is nothing new. There were question marks around Riding when I competed in the 1980s and early 1990s (even the IOC President, Juan Antonio Samaranch, suggested after the Olympic Games Barcelona 1992 that horses should be replaced by bicycles).
The International Cricket Council today unveiled its global growth strategy which places women’s cricket firmly at the heart of its long-term ambitions. The strategy which has been developed in partnership with ICC Members is aimed at strengthening, growing, and protecting the game with the vision of more players, more fans and more nations enjoying cricket.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) today confirmed Geoff Allardice has been appointed as the organisation’s permanent CEO after more than eight months in the role on an interim basis.
Allardice, a former first-class cricketer, was the ICC General Manager, Cricket for eight years having previously held a similar role at Cricket Australia.
The World Athletics Doping Review Board has agreed that the application of one Russian athlete has met the exceptional eligibility criteria to compete in international U20 competition as a neutral athlete in 2021 under Eligibility Rule 3.2 while the Russian national federation (RusAF) remains suspended.
The resource was designed by the ITA to support all National Olympic Committees taking part in the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 with the Anti-Doping Education of their athletes and athlete support personnel ahead of the games.
The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee Athletes’ Advisory Council (AAC) and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) are honored to have been invited to the first-ever ONDCP anti-doping forum including Olympic and Paralympic athletes, the USOPC, AAC, USADA, and U.S. corporate sponsors held on Friday, November 12, 2021.
The next edition of the FIBA Intercontinental Cup is set to mark a landmark in the history of the competition which started 56 years ago, as it will be held in February 2022 in Cairo, Egypt, taking place in an African country for the first time.
The event is poised to further enhance its unique transatlantic status by also becoming the first club competition in basketball history to feature contenders that will be representing four different regional leagues.
Following presentations from RusAF Acting President Irina Privalova and Chair of the Russia Taskforce, Rune Anderson, the World Athletics Congress has today approved the World Athletics Council’s recommendation that the Russian Federation continues to be suspended while the Council oversees completion of the Russian reinstatement plan.
Andersen presented the Taskforce’s latest report before the Congress vote. All other documents and decisions will be published at the conclusion of the Congress tomorrow.
An Amnesty International report has claimed that migrant workers are still being trapped and exploited in Qatar as they work on new stadiums for next year’s FIFA World Cup.
The EFL has today confirmed that Derby County Football Club has received a nine-point sporting sanction with a further three points suspended after admitting to breaches of the League’s Profitability and Sustainability (P&S) rules.
This matter has been determined under the terms of an ‘Agreed Decision’ reached between the League and the Club and was formally ratified by an Independent Disciplinary Commission Chair as per the requirements of EFL Regulations.
We have today launched a version of the Football Leadership Diversity Code tailored for the National League System, Women’s pyramid and grassroots football, aiming to tackle inequality and improve representation of diverse groups across senior leadership positions, wider team operations and coaching roles.
The Football Leadership Diversity Code has been developed in collaboration with club leaders, community football representatives, County FA chief executives and others across the game to ensure English football at all levels better represents our modern and diverse society.
