Are the actions of the French sports federations in terms of ethics sufficient? The government’s response after the various scandals affecting French sport is the creation of a National Committee for Ethics in Sport, the list of twelve members of which is now known. As revealed by France Inter this Tuesday, the committee will therefore be chaired by Marie-George Buffet, Communist Minister of Sports between 1997 and 2002, and by Stéphane Diagana, world champion in the 400 meter hurdles in 1997.
Invited on France Inter this Tuesday, the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra wanted to welcome the participation of“a series of absolutely irreproachable experts who will help us to make sport more ethical, more democratic and to have better protection for practitioners”. The stated goal of the committee is to strengthen ethics and democratic life in sport.
“Concrete and definitive changes”
In detail, the ten other personalities who complete the cast of this committee are sailor Isabelle Autissier, fencer Jean-François Lamour, former Arsenal coach Arsène Wenger, football referee Stéphanie Frappart, fencer Emmanuelle Assmann, handball player and sports sociologist Béatrice Narbusse, former judoka Brigitte Deydier. Next are Jacques Donzel, member of the International Observatory of Sports Policies, Bernard Foucher, President of the Federal Committee for Rugby Ethics and Deontology and of the Ethics Commission of the International Cycling Union, and Franck Latty, Associate Professor at the Paris Nanterre University and President of the Ethics Committee of the French Tennis Federation.
When announcing the creation of this committee, the Minister of Sports regretted March 2 in The world “a succession of governance crises in French sport, of various natures and varying intensities”. “Whether they are the result of unacceptable managerial practices or inappropriate behavior, breaches of ethics, shortcomings in the fight against all forms of violence or even a lack of democratic ropes, they all say the need to support concrete and definitive changes to strengthen the institutions of French sport”continued Amélie Oudéa-Castéra in her gallery.
According France Info, the twelve members of the Ethics Committee should meet quickly in order to have concrete proposals by next fall. Three lines of work are targeted: governance of sport that is more ethical, more democratic and more protective of practitioners, men and women alike. Concretely, this work should lead to proposals for laws, changes to regulations and a framework for the statutes. The announcement of the creation of this committee was made in the wake of the resignation of Noël Le Graët from his position as president of the French Football Federation and one month after that of Bernard Laporte from the presidency of the French Rugby Federation. .