Swiss government steps up fight against abuse in sport

In order to combat abuse and harassment in elite sport more effectively, the Swiss sports ministry is to boost checks on associations that receive federal subsidies. It also wants to guarantee funding for the new independent court of arbitration and create a legal basis to regulate data exchange. These three recommendations come from the internal auditors of the sports ministry. Sports Minister Viola Amherd has instructed the Federal Office of Sport (FOSPO) to implement these measures by the end of 2024, the sports ministry said in a press release on Monday. Following a scandal in 2020 that revealed abuses committed by national gymnastics managers, the government launched a project to strengthen ethics in sport. The first phase – successfully completed according to the auditors – saw the opening of an independent service for reporting cases of abuse in January 2022. A charter outlining the ethical behaviour to be adopted in Swiss sport has also been drawn up. + Swiss gymnastics...