tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/sport-ethics-21643/articlesSport ethics – The Conversation2023-02-03T05:57:21Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1980162023-02-03T05:57:21Z2023-02-03T05:57:21ZFuture of Welsh rugby at stake after misogyny allegations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507603/original/file-20230201-10491-xvmqx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C3882%2C1827&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Allegations of sex discrimination should be a watershed moment not only for Welsh rugby but the people of Wales</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Prime Minister Harold Wilson said “a week is a long time in politics”, it’s unlikely that many thought Welsh rugby would one day be the subject of this truism. But a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64333230">BBC Wales investigative documentary</a> has exposed a “toxic culture” within the sport’s governing body, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), highlighting some very serious allegations of sexism and misogyny on the part of union employees.</p>
<p>The union’s CEO, Steve Phillips, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/29/steve-phillips-resigns-wru-chief-executive-toxic-culture-claims">resigned</a> in the days following, saying it was time for someone else to lead the way. And an announcement was made that an investigation would be held into the culture of the Welsh game.</p>
<p>This should be a watershed moment – not only for rugby but, more contentiously, for the people of Wales. Rugby has huge <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01443330710741084/full/html">historical and social importance</a> for the country, and is a vital part of its <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09523360008714148">national identity</a>. What happens next is critical not only for the sport but for Wales as a whole.</p>
<p>However, knowing what to do next has a lot to do with understanding how we got here in the first place. And in that regard, there had been plenty of warnings to suggest that something seismic was about to happen in Welsh rugby. </p>
<p>In late 2021, businesswoman Amanda Blanc told the WRU it had “deep-rooted” cultural and behavioural problems when she <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/59335487">resigned from chairing the Professional Rugby Board</a>. In autumn of the same year, a group of 123 former women internationals <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/58547024">launched a petition</a> calling for improvements to the women’s game in Wales.</p>
<p>At that time, the WRU conducted a review into the women’s game, the results of which have yet to be published. But its current acting CEO Nigel Walker has told the Senedd a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-64497272">redacted version</a> will be made available. Walker also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/acting-wru-chief-walker-apologises-handling-sexism-allegations-2023-01-30/">apologised</a> for the WRU’s handling of the sex-discrimination allegations that have emerged.</p>
<p>Such incidents suggest the governing body has long had a patriarchal culture, which is reflected in the uniformity of its leadership. There is only one woman currently sitting on the <a href="https://community.wru.wales/governance/rugby-boards/wru-board/">WRU board</a>, and no people of colour.</p>
<p>The events of the past week reflect a deep-seated challenge to ensure greater diversity in Welsh rugby. This is a goal which could do much to reduce the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-19799-5_18">toxic masculinity</a> that arises within some rugby practices and environments. </p>
<p>The institutional challenges faced by the WRU are aggravated by problems the sport faces as a whole. <a href="https://www.premiershiprugby.com/news/new-research-shines-the-light-on-discrimination-in-womens-rugby">Research</a> found that 55% of women and girls agreed that “many women feel unwelcome to play rugby because of the jokes and negative language some people use about women”. Some 37% had heard homophobic slurs at their club in the last year, while 59% had heard sexist slurs and negative jokes about women.</p>
<p>In the same week as the WRU crisis, transgender women in Scotland were <a href="https://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12505/12794861/scottish-rugby-union-bans-transgender-women-from-contact-rugby">banned from contact rugby</a>. In England, there has been <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/rfu-tackle-height-law-change-waist-backlash-b2270623.html">pushback against the Rugby Football Union’s edict on changes to the tackle law</a>. (The governing body had wanted to lower the permitted tackle height to the waist for safety reasons, but this decision was met with opposition from across the game.)</p>
<p>Debates on player welfare, particularly regarding <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/19/amateur-players-launch-lawsuit-against-rugby-authorities-over-brain-injuries">head injuries and concussion</a>, as well as on attitudes towards alcohol and levels of aggression in rugby union are ongoing. Alongside the evident sex discrimination, it suggests rugby, at least in terms of how it might be perceived by outsiders, is in a reactive, out-of-step state. </p>
<p>For a growing part of the population, the sport can no longer be a neutral, innocent space for escaping everyday life. It is a place in which the spotlight of social justice is increasingly relevant. </p>
<p>By perpetuating the status quo for so long, the WRU has been unable to embrace the internal self-reflection and self-critique needed for gradual reform. This moral drift has made it a bigger and easier target for criticism when the revelations finally exploded.</p>
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<img alt="A cloudy sky above the Principality Stadium. The river Taf runs alongside it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C0%2C5326%2C3532&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Principality Stadium in Cardiff is the home of Welsh rugby.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Glitch Images/Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Walker admits <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/30/welsh-rugby-future-danger-nigel-walker-wru">the future of Welsh rugby is in danger</a>. Based on the experiences of other institutions such as the <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/mark-rowley-david-carrick-met-metropolitan-police-suella-braverman-b1055472.html">police</a>, the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35657868">BBC</a> and the <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/05/measuring-the-impact-of-metoo-on-gender-equity-in-hollywood">film industry</a>, significant reform will be needed if the WRU wants to be an ongoing part of the conversation on the dynamics of Welsh society and culture. </p>
<p>A first step towards redemption is for the WRU to achieve greater diversity in its leadership, so as to better reflect the people of Wales. Having different voices will go a long way to preventing cultural and social inertia in the future. </p>
<p>Regarding the women’s game, a rethink of financial resources is needed. This should aim to meet the demands of grassroots players for more opportunities to participate. It should also enable women to play professional rugby in Wales on a par with the game in England, and to implement the principle of equal pay for men and women at international level.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alun Hardman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A BBC Wales investigation reported claims of a ‘toxic culture’ of sexism and misogyny within Welsh rugby’s governing body.Alun Hardman, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Sport Ethics, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1808902022-04-12T20:01:28Z2022-04-12T20:01:28ZHas the monitoring of professional athletes’ intimate information gone too far?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457596/original/file-20220412-17-cmehf3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C56%2C4179%2C2441&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past decade, the top end of sport has become saturated in data. Some of this is visible — such as match statistics, maximum speeds and distances covered — but a tremendous amount is invisible. </p>
<p>Athletes are continuously being tracked. Details on their precise location, physiology, well-being, sleep, and more are recorded round the clock through an array of <a href="https://science.org.au/datainsport">body-worn and observational technologies</a>. </p>
<p>This information, most of which is personal and sensitive, is processed by a complex and opaque transnational system of commercial entities, including cloud providers, device manufacturers, analytics developers and athlete management systems. </p>
<p>Given the sheer scale and number of entities involved, few people know where this information goes. It’s rare for sports scientists and support staff to be able to account for it, and rarer still for sports governing bodies and athletes themselves.</p>
<p>The justification from technology vendors and sports clubs is that all this information is collected to improve performance and reduce injury risk to athletes. </p>
<p>But a number of people in the sports sector have started asking questions: is the data collection actually delivering athletes benefits? What are the costs? And what are the implications beyond the sector?</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457220/original/file-20220410-41099-kjw8l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457220/original/file-20220410-41099-kjw8l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457220/original/file-20220410-41099-kjw8l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457220/original/file-20220410-41099-kjw8l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457220/original/file-20220410-41099-kjw8l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457220/original/file-20220410-41099-kjw8l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457220/original/file-20220410-41099-kjw8l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457220/original/file-20220410-41099-kjw8l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Professional athletes have their information collected around the clock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Armelle Skatulski/UWA Minderoo Tech and Policy Lab.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Assessing the state of play</h2>
<p>To answer these questions, the Australian Academy of Science convened an <a href="https://science.org.au/datainsport">expert working group</a> over the past 18 months. The group, which we co-chaired, comprised a dozen experts from a range of fields including sports science, sports medicine, sports governance, artificial intelligence, law, policy, and social science. </p>
<p>The project drew on experience from a number of the working group’s members, who have worked for the past three decades in basketball, cricket, netball, rugby league, rugby union, football (soccer) and Australian rules football. We also interviewed 25 sports practitioners with experience working on professional sport codes in Australia, the United States and Europe.</p>
<p>Our findings, published today in a <a href="https://www.science.org.au/datainsport">discussion paper</a>, reveal the degree of personal and sensitive information collected from professional athletes is excessive, and often unjustified. </p>
<p>Our scientific review of the types of data being collected, and their use in professional sport, showed that much more information is collected than is demonstrably beneficial to athletes.</p>
<p>What’s more, how the information is being collected and used falls short of requirements laid out in Australian law. Excessive data collection that is neither demonstrably beneficial, nor lawful, has costs — not just for athletes, but for everyone who works in sport. </p>
<iframe title="vimeo-player" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/572057579?h=dc90a17b0f" width="100%" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<h2>The great unpredictable drama of sport</h2>
<p>Currently in professional sport, the approach to athlete data is “collect everything you can” and “save it in case it’s useful”. This is the sort of environment susceptible to snake oil salesmen peddling the promise of artificial intelligence and machine learning. </p>
<p>But as our expert group warns, there’s a crucial limit to any promise that if we can just gather enough data, we can leverage it to predict injury and performance. </p>
<p>We found what we <em>can</em> collect on athletes is almost always a second-order proxy of what we actually <em>need</em> in order to understand causal mechanisms of performance and injury. </p>
<p>Say we want to predict the risk of soft-tissue injury. Metrics routinely collected in professional sport such as total running time, distance covered, and repeat sprint efforts can be used to calculate macro measures of muscle work. Some sports might also make relative assessments of muscular strength deficits and asymmetries.</p>
<p>Ultimately, these are all low-resolution data inputs about athlete movement, attempting to reflect how hard the muscles are working. But this is a long way from describing the multi-scale complexity of human function. No amount of machine learning can bridge this gap. </p>
<h2>Turning around unaccountable monitoring</h2>
<p>Where do athletes figure in how sporting leagues and clubs handle the often intimately revealing information about them? </p>
<p>Current practices in professional sport are out of step with <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2021C00452">Australian legal requirements</a>. Two major disconnects stand out. First, the category of “performance data” widely used in sport is not a legally recognised concept. </p>
<p>Rather, in law, the vast majority of what’s collected is actually health information, and requires much more robust protection and active athlete engagement.</p>
<p>Second, under <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2021C00452">Australian law</a>, sporting organisations are limited to holding information that is “reasonably necessary” to their functions or activities. Australia’s leading privacy regulator has <a href="https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/australian-privacy-principles-guidelines/chapter-3-app-3-collection-of-solicited-personal-information">confirmed</a> information “being entered in a database in case it might be needed in the future”, or being collected as part of “normal business practice”, simply <a href="https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/australian-privacy-principles-guidelines/chapter-b-key-concepts">does not satisfy</a> this test. </p>
<p>Professional sport is a workplace. Few of us would be comfortable in a workplace where, rather than being judged on the outcome of our efforts, our every tiny movement was being unnecessarily observed and judged.</p>
<h2>Remembering what works</h2>
<p>Athletes risk having their livelihoods affected by data and systems that do not adequately reflect them, and that they can’t contest. </p>
<p>At the same time, increasingly invasive data collection risks replacing expert specialists — such as exercise physiologists, biomechanists and sports psychologists – with data analysts who lack domain expertise in the complexities of human function, especially in the small and highly specific populations who compete at the pinnacle of sport. </p>
<p>Our paper calls for a conversation about legal and ethical guardrails, and improvements in literacy and governance needed to ensure athletes have their rights protected and promoted. This is both in their own interest and in the public interest. </p>
<h2>Change is coming</h2>
<p>In a tangible sense, we are pleased that key players in the sector have been inspired by our work to tackle the challenge.</p>
<p>Player associations like the Rugby League Players Association are working with researchers to establish scientifically rigorous studies in specific areas to validate whether players’ intimate information can be linked to health outcomes. This is happening at a small scale before being considered for a wider rollout.</p>
<p>The Australian Institute of Sport, and associated state and territory entities, have initiated the award-winning <a href="https://www.ais.gov.au/fphi">Female Performance & Health Initiative</a>. This has already led to restrained practices around <a href="https://player.vimeo.com/video/573552207?h=7fc352cd34">menstrual tracking</a> and other information collected on female athletes. </p>
<p>More broadly, the high performance system is implementing a long-term project, in partnership with the University of Western Australia, to establish a leading approach to athlete-centred data stewardship.</p>
<p>Just as Australia punches above its weight in the sporting arena, it has a historic opportunity to set forward-looking norms and standards around how it approaches athlete information. Let’s get ahead of the game.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wearable-tech-at-the-olympics-how-athletes-are-using-it-to-train-to-win-163860">Wearable tech at the Olympics: How athletes are using it to train to win</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180890/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Powles is Chief Investigator on a grant to improve data governance and ethics in high performance sport, funded by the Australian Institute of Sport and National Institute Network. She is also Director of the UWA Minderoo Tech & Policy Lab, which receives unrestricted gift funding from Australian charitable organisation, Minderoo Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Toby Walsh receives funding from the Australian Research Council as an ARC Laureate Fellow. </span></em></p>The collection of athlete data in professional sport has outpaced legal requirements and scientifically-proven benefit to athletes.Julia Powles, Associate Professor of Law and Technology; Director, Minderoo Tech & Policy Lab, UWA Law School, The University of Western AustraliaToby Walsh, Professor of AI at UNSW, Research Group Leader, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/589992016-05-09T00:55:55Z2016-05-09T00:55:55ZFans deserve fair play in major sports, not cheating and corruption<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121486/original/image-20160506-450-5nhkft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fans who go to the stadium or barrack from their living rooms need to be assured that sport is real. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Oleksii Sidorov</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Why is global sport business booming and why does this come with the increasing frequency and growing size of integrity scandals of bribery, corruption and cheating?</p>
<p>This is something I have been giving serious thought to as I prepared for today’s biannual <a href="http://www.vucentenary.com.au/events/integrity-sport-forum-2016">Integrity in Sport Forum</a> in Melbourne, co-hosted by the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and Victoria University. </p>
<p>I think that the digitisation of sport combined with big data analytics has dramatically increased the attractiveness of the product on sale. With that comes the desire to win or be associated with winners, a longing for social acceptance and narcissistic craving to shine.</p>
<p>Ultimately, there is no market without a product that is in demand. And sport is hot property.</p>
<p>One very important reason why sport has been in demand for decades is its primordial simplicity. Every human being understands “you against me”, “them against us” and winners trumping losers.</p>
<p>But it is the digital production and distribution of sport competitions that now allows for global and instant access to a mass market for sport businesses. Big data analytics and near real-time digital responsiveness have enabled the slicing and dicing of sporting contests into endless sub-products. </p>
<h2>Odds on</h2>
<p>Betting agencies are selling odds to <em>parts</em> of the sporting contest, such as who will score the first goal, who will commit the foul next or what will be the half-time score. </p>
<p>With these multiplying moments of monetisation of sport comes the opportunities for criminals to exploit the loopholes and gaps in integrity safeguarding. </p>
<p>Bribing an athlete to ensure that one tiny aspect of the sporting contest can be predicted is enough to make millions, such as the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-01/40-professional-tennis-matches-flagged-for-match-fixing/7127240">scandal in world tennis</a> revealed in January this year.</p>
<p>Further fuelling the sport business gravy train are the rich, but not so famous (yet). They use high-profile sport to show off their economic power and bask in the reflected glory of their team – in the process creating a sense of personal achievement and social acceptance.</p>
<p>But are they the right reason to be involved in sport governance.</p>
<p>Could <a href="http://www.theherald.com.au/story/3766345/im-sorry-says-tinkler/">private sport ownership</a> in Australia lead to similar excesses? </p>
<p>In order to access the benefits that global sport offers as a platform, winning at all cost is too often required on the sporting field, but also in the sport business corridors. </p>
<p>It may be achieved by taking performance enhancing drugs that deliver superhuman performance, or using excessive financial resources to buy influence to stay in power.</p>
<p>So is sport business at the crossroads? </p>
<h2>Whom do you trust?</h2>
<p>In sport governance, whom do we trust? Are the current crop of sport governors and sport managers capable, skilled and equipped well enough to combat the forces that seek to illegally exploit the exploding profit potential of sport?</p>
<p>How do we prepare, train and educate the future managers of sport? Can the primal spirit of sport be maintained and its integrity kept safe? </p>
<p>A global compact between the leading international sport federations on what should be the basic business principles that underpin and regulate the trade in sport is required. </p>
<p>A coalition of sport governing bodies, government, international authorities, business, academia and civil society was announced earlier last month in the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (<a href="http://www.theicss.org/en/news/read/new-sport-integrity-global-alliance-siga-launched">SIGA</a>). </p>
<p>The Alliance needs to agree on how far the commodification of sport can be allowed to progress before the integrity of its production and consumption is irrevocably tarnished. </p>
<p>Educators, researchers, administrators and politicians need to combine their brainpower and industry knowledge. An admirable and crucial initiative, but one is left wondering how key principles that more than 40 organisations signed onto are implemented and enforced. </p>
<p>How, for example, is such an Alliance going establish an</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] independent betting monitoring platform, capable of providing sport integrity intelligence alerts to sporting, law enforcement, betting operators and government stakeholders to assure early warning advice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Or</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] establish independent monitoring, audit and oversight in relation to all sport-related development programs and financial transactions. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And how can this happen when sports themselves are competing against each other for the best TV rights deal, host city arrangement, biggest sponsorship deal and slice of the gambling dollar, not to mention the best available athletic talent to take their sport to the next level? </p>
<p>Those people who go to the stadium or the fans barracking from their living rooms need to be assured that sport is real. </p>
<p>They need to be confident that their cheers are part of a real contest, that the outcome remains unpredictable, the contest limited to those competing in it, and that there is always a chance that the underdog can win. </p>
<p>Only then can the superstars of world sport be role models for the millions of weekend warriors in communities around the world. </p>
<p>All of us, those who will only ever play sport for the fun of it, and who use sport to meet and congregate will decide if sport remains worthy of such prominence in society. If that primal spirit of sport is lost, so will be its profit potential, because nobody is prepared to pay a premium for a fake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hans Westerbeek does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the business of sport booms why does this come with an increasing frequency of integrity scandals of bribery, corruption and cheating?Hans Westerbeek, Dean, College of Sport and Exercise Science and Institute of Sport, Exercise, Active Living, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/588702016-05-08T20:05:06Z2016-05-08T20:05:06ZIntegrity in sport needs to grow from the grassroots level<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121461/original/image-20160506-5708-rsag58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Integrity in sport should start from the bottom up.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-1633145p1.html">Shutterstock/Paolo Bona</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The sporting world was shocked by yet another scandal last week when the Parramatta Eels were found guilty of what National Rugby League CEO <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/video/video-sport/video-rugby-league/parramatta-eels-deliberate-system-of-cheating-20160503-4eeft.html">Todd Greenberg called</a> “a deliberate, coordinated and sustained system of salary cap cheating”. </p>
<p>This sort of behaviour doesn’t just affect the major league team. It can have consequences at all levels of the game.</p>
<p>This means global and national attempts to improve governance and safeguard sport from corruption need to have community sport reach if they are to be effective.</p>
<p>The International Centre for Sport Security announced in April this year the creation of a 50+ nation Sport Integrity Global Alliance (<a href="http://www.theicss.org/en/news/read/new-sport-integrity-global-alliance-siga-launched">SIGA</a>) to drive reform in sport. </p>
<p>The tipping point for reform was likely the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32897066">FIFA scandal</a> that has rocked the soccer world since 2015 with claims of widespread corruption. SIGA is a neutral coalition of international stakeholders across the government and private sector seeking to promote good governance and financial transparency in sport.</p>
<p>In Australia, there have been widespread changes to rebuild sport integrity and public trust. Much of this follows the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/this-is-the-blackest-day-in-australian-sport-20130207-2e1i3.html">crisis in Australian sport</a> in 2013, which included the Australian Crime Commission report into organised crime in sport and the AFL supplements scandal. </p>
<p>In addition to expanded policing powers, the Australian government has established a <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/national-integrity-of-sport-unit">National Integrity in Sport Unit</a>. The peak body Exercise & Sports Science Australia (<a href="https://www.essa.org.au/">ESSA</a>) has developed a sport science accreditation scheme.</p>
<p>Professional sport organisations are increasingly employing integrity officers and the market is filling with sport integrity-related courses, workshops and seminars.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that substantial international and national efforts will be required to re-establish the credibility of sport. That’s a theme that will feature prominently at today’s <a href="http://www.vucentenary.com.au/events/integrity-sport-forum-2016">Integrity in Sport Forum: In Governance We Trust</a> in Melbourne, sponsored by Victoria University and Sport Australia Hall of Fame.</p>
<p>The Forum will bring together more than 200 of Australia’s elite and community sport governance and integrity officials, as well as business and community leaders. The aim is to discuss ways forward to meet a range of sport integrity challenges. </p>
<h2>From the bottom up</h2>
<p>While there is a need for these coordinated efforts to target doping, match fixing, financial corruption and other threats to sport integrity, more support is needed at the local sport level.</p>
<p>Research presented at a sport stakeholders forum in July last year suggested that local communities <a href="https://www.vu.edu.au/contact-us/dennis-hemphill">may be unaware</a> of the extent to which performance enhancing substances and methods, illicit drugs and illegal gambling markets have filtered down to the community sport level.</p>
<p>Managers, coaches and players who might be aware of them are willing to do something about it. But they may not be aware of who to contact for more information or how to report suspect behaviours. </p>
<p>In a sport sector managed largely by volunteers, there may simply be insufficient time to implement procedures to prevent and police these dubious behaviours and practices.</p>
<h2>From the top down</h2>
<p>Moreover, the high-performance ethos, which may be appropriate at the elite sport level, has gradually filtered down to community sport level. </p>
<p>With that has come some of the threats to sporting integrity. It is not uncommon to see increasing training loads and the use of supplements or other means to improve performance or manage pain and injuries. Player and umpire abuse by overzealous coaches and fans is another symptom.</p>
<p>At the same time, the rise of sport betting, even at junior sport levels, increases the risk of cheating to lose.</p>
<p>Sport integrity can be thought of as the consistent living up to declared standards and principles. These principles are different at elite, school and community sport levels.</p>
<p>It goes without saying that elite sport focuses on the value of performance excellence. </p>
<p>But the educational value of school sport is still thought to lie in skill acquisition, fitness and character building. The mission statements and mottoes of community sport organisations usually centre on participation, fun, doing your best and community building.</p>
<h2>Leadership from above</h2>
<p>One way forward is for the governing bodies of sport to provide the leadership and additional resources to help local sporting clubs “walk the talk”, that is, uphold the values and principles that are appropriate to community sport.</p>
<p>The Australian Sport Commission provides resources for <a href="http://www.ausport.gov.au/supporting/integrity_in_sport/integrity_partners_and_community_programsgood">sport integrity</a> and <a href="http://www.ausport.gov.au/supporting/governance/governance_principles">governance</a>, as does <a href="http://vicsport.com.au/good-governance-framework-toolkit-update-released/">VicSport</a> and the <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/national-integrity-of-sport-unit">National Integrity in Sport Unit</a>.</p>
<p>Victoria University is currently working with Sport and Recreation Victoria on a sport integrity readiness project. This aims to provide the state’s sporting associations and eventually community clubs with a handy self-assessment tool to improve awareness and management of sport integrity risks.</p>
<p>There is no reason why such tools could not be adopted by other Australian states and territories, or even clubs and associations overseas.</p>
<p>More is still needed to improve the uptake of these resources and their effective use by local communities to safeguard sport for the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58870/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dennis Hemphill, as part of a Victoria University research team, has received funding from the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services to conduct an analysis of, and develop resources for sport integrity awareness and management capability in community sport. </span></em></p>Efforts to wipe out doping, match fixing, corruption and other threats to sport integrity need to start at the local level.Dennis Hemphill, Associate Professor of Sport Ethics, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/487192015-10-15T14:49:37Z2015-10-15T14:49:37ZIs it time for rugby to ditch the scrum?<p>For the first time in the Rugby World Cup’s comparatively short history, the hosts have not progressed to the knock-out stages. It’s not only the England team that is in trouble, the game itself is facing significant challenges. There are concerns about <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/21/world-rugby-rules-concussion-head-injuries">head injuries</a>, the brutal nature of the game more generally and worries about methods used to attain the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/11859913/Rugby-uncovered-Union-is-the-dirtiest-sport-in-Britain-and-its-doping-problem-is-growing.html">massive physiques</a> required to survive and thrive in the modern era. </p>
<p>These are all genuine moral issues, but my concern goes right to the heart of good sporting contests. Although many people baulk at the very concept of sports ethics, moral principles are fundamental to the very notion of a sporting contest. Justice, fairness and merit are definitive. We want contestants in sport to deserve their victories. We want their victories to be caused by their efforts. The physical characteristics of speed, power, strength, fitness, skill and resilience coupled with the mental qualities of tactical acumen and applied with tenacity, courage and determination are what should take a team to victory. </p>
<p>Rugby is such a complex game and its <a href="http://laws.worldrugby.org/?law=showallbynumbers">laws</a> are being constantly broken. The referee must exercise judgement in deciding which offence to punish. Some are more difficult than others and we are familiar with expressions such as: “referee X is fussy about the contact area” or: “referee Y is really hard on players not releasing”. The referee tries to make sure the game is being played according to the laws so that as far as possible the best team wins. </p>
<h2>The trouble with the scrum</h2>
<p>This is not an easy task in any facet of play, but identifying the offender or offenders in the event of a scrum is particularly difficult. If the scrum collapses, or “pops up” or “wheels” too far the assumption is that a player or players have committed one of many possible offences. </p>
<p>A prop might have broken a bind, exerted downward pressure or not pushed straight. The frustrating thing for spectators and players alike is that often the decision by the referee looks like an educated guess at best and an arbitrary pronouncement at worst. </p>
<p>The consequence, however, can be absolutely decisive – the difference between winning and losing, being world champions or runners up. Awarding a penalty for a scrum offence can provide a team with the opportunity to kick for goal and secure the decisive points needed to win the game. </p>
<p>There is scope for mistakes in all decisions, but the scrum is fundamentally flawed. It is often impossible to follow (not offend) or apply the laws (identify the offender). First, the sheer <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-our-new-scrum-technique-will-make-the-rugby-world-cup-safer-for-players-47530">biomechanical complexity</a> and the combination of forces involved means that even the most advanced sports scientist in a laboratory could not isolate the cause of a scrum collapsing, wheeling or “popping up”. </p>
<p>Let me focus on one offence. A scrum collapses as a result of a chain of events involving both teams. Even if the latest technology could map the sequence of events accurately, we would still be required to decide which one would be seen as decisive – the “cause” of the collapse. Referees will never have technological aids to tell them who caused the collapse and therefore who should be punished 100% of the time. They have to rely on other cues, experience and intuition. They may of course be right on occasions, but that is not an expression of genuine knowledge. </p>
<h2>Unfair punishment</h2>
<p>If they are uncertain, the referee should reset the scrum. Potentially therefore, there could be an infinite number of scrums. Justice should not be rushed, but players and spectators alike would soon turn their back on a game where scrums proliferate. Referees are thereby required to act decisively to avoid repetitive scrums by identifying and punishing an offender. Despite the absence of unequivocal evidence, the referee has to make a call. Often the team deemed to have the weakest scrum is penalised.</p>
<p>It certainly doesn’t follow that the weakest team is guilty. Scrummaging superiority is often attributed to “<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/alan-watkins-time-for-enlightenment-on-dark-arts-of-front-row-515419.html">dark arts</a>” – dubious and deceptive tactics which force the opponent’s scrum to disintegrate. </p>
<p>But even if the referee could be certain that the scrum collapse was a result of one team failing to withstand the pressure from the other team, this does not mean that they should be punished. It may be physically impossible for them not to break the law. The combination of forces on their body means that they are not acting, but being acted upon. Their actions are out of their hands – they are subject to forces that they cannot resist. </p>
<p>This is not an observation about the relative ability or intention of any given player, but an observation about the scrum. The players did not intend to collapse the scrum, in fact they may have been trying their best not to, given the potential consequences. When a player is singled out as the offender, they are often being punished for an act over which they had little or no control. Strictly speaking, they don’t deserve to be punished and their team surely does not deserve to lose. </p>
<h2>Just rewards?</h2>
<p>Some may counter that the penalty is just reward for superior skill, but there are problems with this approach. What is a weaker scrum to do? Retreat backward towards their own try line in an orderly fashion? Even if they attempted to stay bound, keep square on with shoulders above hips, they will inevitably offend or be judged to have offended. </p>
<p>The reward for superior skill in rugby should be tries and the scrum is supposed to provide an opportunity for one team to gain possession and attack the open field. Instead the scrum is a lottery providing a slow ball at best and a sequence of penalties at worst. For teams who are dominant, it is now used as a tactic to get a penalty or a penalty try and potentially to reduce the opposition numbers as a result of a yellow card. </p>
<p>So the scrum as practised today has little to do with justice, fairness or merit and perhaps more importantly for the World Cup, has little to do with entertainment. Let’s hope that the decisive score in this year’s World Cup isn’t the result of the referee guessing who offended.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48719/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carwyn Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s impossible to police a scrum properly, and the consequences of the wrong decision are simply too great.Carwyn Jones, Professor in Sports Ethics, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.