*PruthviGerben Patel

This article examines the role and impact of Codes of Ethics (CoE) in Indian sports governance, particularly in light of the National Sports Governance Act, 2025 (NSGA). It explores how ethical frameworks, if effectively implemented, can strengthen institutional integrity, transparency, and accountability across National Sports Federations. Drawing parallels between sport and governance, it argues that internalising CoE is essential to professionalise sports administration and restore trust after past scandals. The paper also discusses evaluative methodologies for assessing CoE effectiveness and highlights the need for sustained research and leadership commitment to embed ethical governance within India’s sporting ecosystem.

Introduction

Imagine an institution compromising on having a code of ethics. The situation would be akin to a tournament final where a football team has one player sent off within five minutes. The team, now disadvantaged, faces an uphill battle. The odds are clearly against it, and thus, the coach and players must rely on mental resilience, unwavering faith and discipline to compete. The stakeholders would be in a dilemma, but then it would be up to the management and team to encourage each other to play with mentally strength. 

This is similar to not implementing a code of ethics (CoE) in an institution. Although the ethics codes can establish norms for followers to aspire to and follow, actual behaviour is guided by personal and context factors including the personality traits of the administrators, implicit biases, confirmation bias and other cognitive processes, and social and contextual factors. In addition to its scrutiny, with the lack of binding nature, it remains a matter of internal control and sanctioning, since there is no ‘ethics police’ external to the institution. Thus, if the company does not encourage its employees to respect rules of conduct and efficiently monitor them, they remain futile.

In contrast to the above, with the football team playing the final with all eleven players on the pitch, does the situation change much? The stakeholders might be less in a dilemma, and their mentality ideally should not waver in comparison.. Similarly, when institutions internalise the CoE or an integrity booklet (safeguarding, ethics, privacy, etc.), it strengthens the backbone of an institution. The CoE serves as a guide in sensitising the stakeholders to ethical issues and instructs them on how to respond to, or at least think about, the ethical dimensions of a wide range of professional situations. The CoE benefits them by ensuring freedom from disciplinary actions if they follow its standards. Moreover, the CoE also has the goal of promoting the discipline of the industry by establishing minimal standards of conduct that the public can expect of them. For example, when a patient confronts a psychologist, they can reasonably be assured that they will adhere to the standards in the COE.

Giving a brief visual of the CoE, of the cause and effect of an ethics code, let us focus on the topic at hand – how will the CoE have effect in the Indian sporting industry with the newly enacted National Sports Governance Act (NSGA), 2025? This blog will briefly describe the different approaches to the mentioning of CoE in the NSGA as well as possible methodologies on assessing the impact of CoE in the national sports bodies. The author argues that a keen interest in further research on integrity should be manufactured in assisting the large and diverse Indian sports fraternity.

The Integrity Question in Indian Sports

The 2010s had a boon and bane effect towards the 2020s of the sporting fraternity in India.

The boon is what we observe in today’s date, and that is the commercialisation of Indian sports. The movement in introducing GST reforms, or reforming CSR mandate of companies to invest in sports, creation of educational bodies and career opportunities, adamant social media outlets, hosting sport-specific leagues and (inter-)national events, and other such milestones have driven a sporting movement that wants growth and global statements. This is a positive sign for the well-wishers of Indian sports.

Simultaneously, there is a bane to it, which has not been resolved till date – the professional attitude towards sport. In comparison to the above successful reforms, various issues in terms of integrity and governance put a break on the equilibrium. The scandalous activities in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2015 betting scandal in the IPL, governance issues raised in National Sports Federation, increase in doping cases, and additional incidents disturbed the reputation of the country. 

The consequences have a lingering effect till date. If the top national sports federations, such as the All India Football Federation, Hockey India, Athletics India, Wrestling India had been issued with orders from their respective International Sports Federation or the MYAS to reform their governance structure, one certainly can imagine the ethical and integrity issues in other bodies. 

The icing on the top was given to the IOA, when the IOC warned them for governance matters, and till date, this stance has not changed. Recently, the IOC publicly stated that it raises concerns with regard to the trajectory of governance, anti-doping and mega-sporting event hosting in India. Mr. Michael Payne, former IOC Marketing Director, made it clear to AFP, the French News Agency that, “the IOC will want to be sure that, before granting the games, the hosts has a strong anti-doping policy and governance in place. The challenge is however, not confined to doping”. Payne added in conversations to the AFPthat India’s greatest obstacle remains operational trust, “the bigger issue is delivery capability. And on that front, India has a long way to go”. This statement is not only targeted towards the Indian Olympic Association, but all the stakeholders involved in promoting and developing the Indian sports.  That includes the bureaucrats of the central and state governments, the research institutions, the NGOs, the schools, all are compromised by that statement.  The emphasis on Payne’s words regarding delivery capability and operational trust should be earmarked, and a friendly reminder in improving health and safety standards, pollution and cleanlines.should be vouched for.

So, although commercially, the sporting community has been uplifted through various impactful initiatives, nevertheless, the assurance in improvement of governance standards through strictly implementing codes of conduct/codes of ethics/ to abolish throne-seekers will take a generation or two.

Currently in the 2020s, after observing the integrity issues in the previous decade, Indian sport regulators  are taking conscious steps to counter them. 

The National Sports Governance Act, 2025: Ethical Foundations

The NSGA, 2025 represents India’s most ambitious attempt yet to professionalise sports governance. Its preamble emphasises aligning with international standards, particularly the Olympic and Paralympic Charters, and adopting ethical practices rooted in principles of universal good governance.

How will the  key provisions of article 4(c), 6(e)(f), 12 and 13 of the NSGA, professionalise the movement? The preamble outlines the substantive element of developing and integrating ethical and fair play practices based on international standards and practices developed through the Olympic and Paralympic Charters. It also emphasises the procedural aspect that is to adopt ethical practices based on the principles of universal good governance. 

To mandate the preamble, Article 4(c) has been stated as follows- “an Ethics Committee (EC) to be constituted as per its bye-laws and the International Charters and Statutes”. This raises the question, do all the NSBs have bye-laws and if yes, then is there a clause of EC or CoE? If not, this means that a lot of meetings within the national, state and regional sports federation and a relook at their bye-laws will have to be sought. The article nevertheless, provides a comfortable approach to the non-abiding NSBs. It states that if there is no EC within the NSB, then the CoE of the National Olympic Committee, that is the IOA, shall be referred to. This could imply that the NSBs will have to restructure the bye-laws redirecting to the IOA for integrity matters; the IOA will have to recognise, prepare and enforce their bye-laws for the matters of NSBs; and also educate and monitor the ethical standards for all NSBs. It seems like the “ethics police” will have to make some calls. In all these years, no one has done it, so who will it be this time? The answer was given in 2016, when Anurag Thakur, back then the Union Minister, proposed the National Sports Ethic Commission Bill. This came in light of several non-ethical incidents occurring in that decade, hence the befitting proposal was to set up a National Sports Ethic Commission consisting of judges and eminent sportspersons to frame guidelines and rules for ensuring ethical practices in sports bodies. The professionalism lookabout can be reconstructed based on the pros and cons of the proposed Bill, but such an initiative must be a response to the direction of autonomy and IOC values. 

Moving forward to Article 6(e)(f) – where the national sports board will issue guidelines for the formulation of the CoE as well as the safe sport policy for the NSBs. The influence of the national sports board is imminent, nevertheless,the question that arises is if they will be able to enforce these guidelines and mandate the multiple NSBs that are in the country. The hypothetical scenario could be that the national sports board will have to issue guidelines, and thereafter, the NSBs will be able to seek recognition. With that, Articles 12 and 13 come into play – the national sports board will have to ensure that in their booklet of guidelines, these articles coincide. It is not an easy task that the national sports board has given to itself. Both articles elaborate on the substantive and procedural aspects as outlined in the preamble. The positives are firstly, that the CoE focuses on all stakeholders instead of the management. Secondly, a minimum standard of duties and responsibilities will be established and although the types of sanctions are not mentioned, it is safe to believe that the EC will enforce them. Thirdly, protection will be given to vulnerable stakeholders through both articles. Fourthly, in Article 13, there will be an internal grievance redressal body adopted by the NSB for handling matters. Lastly, the IOA and the national sports board will be overseeing the process, hence, administrators with experience and professionalism will be ensuring the highest standards.

The AIFF provides a revealing case study of both the necessity and complexity of CoEs in practice. Remember the 2015 FIFA Corruption Scandal? The outbreak led to a redefined and detailed 2016 CoE, which also replaced the 2008 version of the AIFF CoE. The current 2017 version AIFF CoE is comprehensive and reinforces the principles that stakeholders must abide by. In comparison to other NSFs, the AIFF has established integrity mechanisms focused on safeguarding athletes, ensuring fair play, and promoting transparent elections. A question arises — will the (without CoE) state and regional football federation reach out to AIFF for ethical matters or the IOA? This ought to be thought of as well.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Codes of Ethics

Although there has been no evidence that CoE improves ethical standards of an organisation, itis accepted that CoE could affect particular behaviours. There are various measures regarding its effectiveness that can be brought forth. Firstly, the method of self-reporting by individuals, albeit biased, the respondents can speak about their own behaviour after implementation of the code. Secondly, a survey method can obtain information from respondent companies on the types of violations that have happened, the perceived reasons for their occurrence, and the presence of particular organisational attributes, such as the presence of a code. While the existence of a code is not associated with frequency of violations, its use has been associated with reduced ambiguity of standards and a contingent reward system. Another method researched is the vignette method – the strategy intended is to assess the respondent’s likely behaviour in hypothetical situations, which in the corporate world has been utilised to ascertain the ethical reasons (or principles) for decisions in hypotheticals. Another classic method that has been adopted is the comparison of two institutions; those with and without a code of ethics.

Referring to the previous section, a narrative of cultural contrast is found out. Whereas, the above paragraph provides a temporary solution to it, this solution has been put in practice by the European Union’s Horizon Europe which has sponsored 17 doctoral candidates that are capable of understanding, developing and critiquing the complex ethico-legal challenges in sporting contexts around the globe. The research objectives of the DAiSI are as follows: 

Research objectives:

1. Conceptualise sports integrity in a coherent and complex model, drawing from multiple disciplines and stakeholders’ standpoints, identifying and classifying specific threats to sport integrity to be adopted across the distributed network and establishing a “paradigm” for the field;
2. Investigate 17 specific threats to sports integrity and their causes at macro (Organisational integrity: national and international), meso (Competition integrity), and individual (Personal integrity) level, laying the argumentative and evidentiary bases for public policy makers and sports organisations to deal more consistently and effectively with these and related threats;
3. Develop, justify, and disseminate a holistic and strategic interdisciplinary methodology drawing together disciplinary traditions, theories, and research findings to form a paradigm for all future integrity research;
4. Develop evidence-based policy recommendations for governmental and sport ruling bodies governance development and reform, helping them deal more effectively with the scandals and other threats to the integrity and values of sport that undermine its societal function and legitimacy.

Can the above take place in India? By whom and for what will it be funded? Whether it will be listened to or implemented in the current environment? How will it go forward? Once one researches and practices within Indian sports, they realise the types of deep-rooted issues which can be fixed through leaders going by a code of conduct.

Conclusion

Humans have the tendency to interpret the codes of ethics using a “low road” of ethical decision-making (e.g., what not to do) vs. a “high road” (e.g., what one ought to do). Codes of ethics are critiqued for representing aspirational goals that are difficult to obtain.

Nevertheless, the NSGA, for young athletes, allows them to know that there is a framework protecting them from harassment, exploitation, or arbitrary exclusion and hence, builds trust. For administrators, a CoE provides clarity in navigating conflicts of interest. For fans and the public, it signals that a sport is not merely about winning medals but also upholding values.

Like the full-strength football team, a CoE does not guarantee victory. But it ensures that the team—whether AIFF, IOA, or another NSF—is not handicapped from the start.

*PruthviGerben Patel, an avid ultratrail runner and football player, is currently a Doctoral student at the University of Paris-Nanterre. By background, a sports lawyer, he is the legal representative of the Bharat Centre of Olympic Research and Education, and encompasses competencies in strategic partnerships, cultivating youth in sports, and exploring research opportunities. Through his multiple experiences at multi-sporting events, he visualises that the National Sports Governance Act and the focus on code of ethics will mandate the Indian organisers towards professionalising other (inter-)national sporting events.