Ethics in Sports 8
8.1 Introduction
It is now being increasingly realised that sports contribute
to the physical, psychological and emotional well-being of
an individual. Sports play a significant role in healthy social
development and interaction. It helps people learn how to set
and achieve goals through discipline and hard work. It nurtures
the development of decision-making and leadership abilities,
while teaching people to manage both success and failure.
Today, it has become one of the most popular activities being
organised at regular intervals. In it’s true sense, sports means
much more than just to compete in a few events organised at
certain intervals for the highest honour of one’s state/country.
Sports is a human activity that contributes to the holistic
development of individuals. It is recognised as an individual
activity which offers the opportunity for self-knowledge, self-
expression and fulfilment of personal achievement; skill
acquisition and demonstration of ability; enjoyment, good
health and well-being. Sports also engages us in a collective
effort to pursue human excellence. It provides us an opportunity
for social interaction. It is a source of pleasure, but more than
that, sports inspires, brings cultures together, and can bridge
social divides. Sports can enrich society and foster friendships
between nations. Sports is also responsible for the application
of rules and for adherence to values such as mutual respect,
solidarity and fair play.
Sports today, faces the pressures of modern society and
new challenges. When sports events like Olympic games,
Common-Wealth Games, Asian Games or those related to
Cricket, Football, Volleyball, Tennis, Hockey or Badminton take
place, millions of spectators, viewers on television, internet or
listeners on radio become intensely engaged even though a
selected few participate.
Sports is primarily a competitive activity where winning is
the be all and end all. Do you agree with this statement? Perhaps
that is why, in this highly competitive sports environment, we
quite often hear about unethical behaviour which includes
cheating, bending the rules, doping, abuse of food additives,
physical and verbal violence, harassment, sexual abuse and
trafficking of young sportspersons, discrimination, exploitation,
unequal opportunities, unethical sports practices, unfair
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means, excessive commercialisation, use of drugs in sports
and corruption.
These are just a few examples of what may go wrong with
sports. There is not just one reason for these, part of the
problem is that people ignore ethics while making decisions.
It is in this context that ethics occupy a critical place. In the
present chapter we shall discuss various dimensions of sports
ethics.
8.2 What is Sports Ethics?
Before discussing various dimensions of sports ethics, it is
important to understand the meaning of ethics. Ethics, morals
and values are used interchangeably in everyday language,
though these terms are not synonyms. The concept of ethics is
technically understood as a branch of philosophy that defines
what is good for the individual and society and establishes the
nature of obligations, or duties, that people owe themselves
and to one another. But without going into the complexities of
this concept, it is relevant to understand ethics as the practice
of making principled choices between right and wrong: a code
of conduct that guides human behaviour, a set of standards
that guides our conduct. It is generally viewed as the system
or set of rules, norms or laws by which attitudes and actions
Box 8.1 are determined to be either “right or wrong”. The fundamental
problem of ethics is determining what constitutes proper
Ethics is much
conduct. It defines how individuals, professionals in different
more than playing
fields, organisations, associations, federation and corporations
within the rules,
choose to interact with one another.
as it covers notions
In view of the above, sports ethics is a positive concept
such as friendship,
that guides human action in sports. It is defined as the code
respect for others
of conduct for promoting and ensuring healthy sporting
and the sporting
practices. Sports ethics signifies not just a certain form of
spirit.
behaviour but also a particular way of thinking. It promotes
fair play among children and young persons via educational
and preventive measures and encourages the dissemination
of good practices to promote diversity in sport and combat all
forms of discrimination.
Every child and young person has the right to play sport
Box 8.2 and games to gain satisfaction from the experience. The code
of sports ethics applies to all levels of skills and commitment,
Institutions and
recreational activities as well as competitive sport. It involves
adults must be the
the elimination of all types of negative behaviour on and off
guarantors of the
the field. More importantly, it promotes equity and sporting
right to play sport
excellence.
and games.
Sports ethics is also focused on equity in sport which should
be an expression of human excellence. It has two dimensions:
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Ethics in Sports 111
(a) Institutional: Discrimination based on Activity 8.1
criteria other than performance must be
rejected, rules must be applied uniformly • Gather information from the
and without resorting to arbitrary decisions; literature on sports regarding
(b) Personal: There is a moral obligation to the codes of sports ethics
abide by the rules, in accordance with the developed, documented and
principles of fair play. It tries to ensure that issued by various sports bodies
sporting excellence must be an expression at global and regional levels.
of human excellence and performance • Collect such codes of sports
and results should emerge from the ethics documented by
deserved and meritorious development of government and sports bodies
individual talent. The codes of sports ethics in India.
documented by the Olympic Committee • Compare the international and
and other international and national sports Indian codes of sports ethics.
bodies, governments, sports federations
and associations, sports sponsoring
concerns and specialised research institutions provide
a comprehensive view of sports ethics. These clearly
suggest that sports ethics is a set of standards that guide
the conduct of all concerned with sports — the sports
persons, trainers, referees, managers, administrators,
parents, teachers, journalists, doctors and pharmacists,
nutritional expert, sports sponsoring concerns, top level
sportspersons who serve as models and even spectators.
These ethical standards are universal and objective and
are not based on subjective guidelines. They have been
proven over time.
8.3 Sports Ethics: Standards
What are sport ethics or standards? Commonly described as
six pillars of fair play, Standards are integral elements of all
sports activities, sports policy and management, and apply to
all levels of ability and commitment, including recreational as
well as competitive sports. These are: trustworthiness, respect,
responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.
8.3.1 Trustworthiness
• Always pursue victory with honour.
• Demonstrate and demand integrity.
• Observe and enforce the spirit and letter of the rules.
• Do not engage in or tolerate dishonesty, cheating, or
dishonourable conduct.
8.3.2 Respect
• T
reat the traditions of the sports and other participants
with respect.
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112 Health and Physical Education — Class IX
• D o not engage in or tolerate disrespectful conduct,
including verbal abuse of opponents and officials,
taunting and inappropriate celebrations.
• Win with grace and lose with dignity.
8.3.3 Responsibility
• B
e a positive role model on and off the field.
•
Safeguard your health. Know what you’re putting in
your body. Just because a substance is legal or natural
doesn’t mean it’s permitted or safe in health context.
•
Take responsibility and educate yourself about issues
of anti-doping. It’s up to you to comply with anti-doping
policies.
8.3.4 Fairness
• A dhere to high standards of fair play.
• Ensure that teams and athletes play by the rules and
treat others fairly.
• Anything that gives an unfair advantage violates the
spirit as well as the integrity of the sport.
8.3.5 Caring
• D emonstrate concern for others. Never engage in careless
behaviour that could injure yourself or others.
• Help the team by encouraging your teammates.
• Never tolerate unhealthy or dangerous conduct by your
teammates. Encourage your teammates to make healthy
choices and be prepared to report any dangerous
behaviour.
8.3.6 Citizenship
• P lay by the rules. Sports is defined by the rules. These
rules may be yours or your team’s or your teacher’s.
• Follow the spirit of the rules. Resist the temptation of
gaining an advantage by bending the rules. Take pride in
your performance while abiding by the rules. You have
worked too hard to throw it away by cheating.
Activity 8.2
• As a member of a community, whether in a team, in
Write a report about a classroom, or with a family, think how your choices
your own experience impact other community members.
on sports ethics 8.4 Responsibility for Observance of Sports Ethics
regarding any
competition held in The responsibility to ensure observance of sports ethics
the neighborhood or belongs to all those who are directly or indirectly, associated
at the school level. with sports and especially those who influence and encourage
the involvement and participation in sports. These include:
• Governments at all levels, including the agencies working
with governments.
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Ethics in Sports 113
• S
ports-related organisations including sports federations
and governing bodies, sports sponsoring concerns,
physical education associations, coaching agencies and
institutes, medical and pharmacological professions and
mass media.
•
The commercial sector, including sports goods
manufacturers and retailers, sponsoring concerns and
marketing agencies; and
•
Individuals including parents, teachers, coaches,
referees, officials, sports leaders, physical education
expert, administrators, journalists, doctors and
pharmacists and those role models who have achieved
levels of sporting excellence and fame; those who work on
a voluntary or on a professional basis. Individuals may
also have responsibilities in their capacity as spectators.
Each of these institutions and individuals have a
responsibility and a role to play. This code of sports ethics
is addressed to each one of them. This can be effective if all
involved in sports are ready to take on the responsibility
identified in the code.
8.4.1 Government
Government has the following responsibilities:
• to encourage and follow ethical standards in all areas of
society where sports are conducted;
• to improve controls with regard to integrity and ethics in
funding of amateur and leisure sport;
• to stimulate and support those organisations and
individuals who have demonstrated ethical principles in
their sports-related activities;
• to cooperate in promoting and monitoring the
implementation of the code of sports ethics;
• to empower and encourage physical education and
sports teachers and instructors to promote sports ethics
in school curricula and refer to the positive contribution
of sports to humankind and society;
• to commit in preserving the integrity of sports under
threat especially from match fixing, trafficking in young
sportsperson and illegal betting;
• to support, as far as possible, all initiatives aimed at
promoting sports ethics, particularly among youths, and
encouraging institutions to make sports ethics a central
priority;
• to continue to promote, in cooperation with the sports
movement, the promotion and monitoring of the
prevention of racism, xenophobia (hatred and fear of one
another) and racial intolerance in sport;
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• t o encourage research, both nationally and internationally,
in order to improve our understanding of the complex
issues surrounding young people’s involvement in
sports; and
• to identify the opportunities for promoting sports ethics.
8.4.2 Sports-related Organisations
Sports-related organisations have the following responsibilities:
A. Concerning the framework and context of sports ethics
• t o publish clear guidelines on what is considered to be
ethical or unethical behaviour and to ensure that, at all
levels of participation and involvement, consistent and
appropriate incentives and/or sanctions are applied;
• to ensure that all decisions have been taken in accordance
with a code of ethics for sports;
• to raise awareness of the concept of sports ethics within
their sphere of influence by means of campaigns, awards,
educational materials and training opportunities. Such
initiatives should be closely monitored and their impact
evaluated;
• to establish systems which reward sports ethics and
personal levels of achievement in addition to competitive
success;
• to consider and formulate rules governing the right to
participate in competitions and the organisation of
categories in competitions in the light of the principles of
sports ethics; and
• to assist and support the mass media in highlighting
the contribution made by sports ethics to education and
society.
B. Concerning work with young people
• t o ensure that the structure of competition acknowledges
the special requirements of growing children and young
people and provides the opportunity for graded levels of
involvement from recreation to high-level competition;
• to encourage modification of the rules to meet the special
needs of young people and put the emphasis not only on
success in competition but also on sports ethics;
• to ensure that safeguards are in place within the context
of an overall framework of support and protection for
children, young male/female, both to protect them
from sexual harassment and abuse and to prevent the
exploitation of children, those with gifted abilities; and
children with special needs.
• to ensure that including those associated with a sports
organisation, who bear the responsibility for children and
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Ethics in Sports 115
young people are qualified at an appropriate level to guide,
train and educate them. It is also to be ensured that they
understand the physiological and psychological changes
associated with the child’s process of development and
that they are familiar with and take into account the
emotional and relational functioning of human beings.
8.4.3 Individuals
Individuals have the following responsibilities:
A. Concerning personal behaviour
• t o behave in a way which sets a good example and
presents a positive role model for children and young
people;
• to refrain, in all circumstances, from rewarding unfair
play, demonstrating it personally or condoning it in
others and to take appropriate sanctions against such
behaviour; and
• to ensure that their own level of training and qualifications
is appropriate to the needs of the child at the different
stages of sporting commitment.
B. Concerning work with young people
• t o make the health, safety and welfare of the child or
young sportspersons is the first priority and ensure that
such considerations come before everything else, i.e.,
reputation of the school, club, coach or parents;
• to extend the initiatives taken by the international
federations and organisations in order to promote quality
standards in the activity of sports agents;
• to provide a sporting experience for children that
encourages a life-long commitment to healthy physical
activity;
• to avoid treating children as small adults, but be
aware of the physical and psychological changes which
accompany their development and how these affect
sporting performance;
• to avoid placing expectations on children which they are
unable to meet;
• to make the participant’s pleasure and enjoyment
the priority and never exert undue pressure on the
child which impinges on their right to freely choose to
participate;
• to take the same level of interest in all young people
regardless of their talent and emphasise and reward
personal levels of achievement and skill acquisition in
addition to competitive success;
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116 Health and Physical Education — Class IX
• t o be attentive and responsive to children’s needs, so that
each child feels appreciated as an individual, irrespective
of his or her sporting prowess;
• to encourage young children (a) to devise their own games
with their own rules, to take on the roles of coach, teacher,
official or referee in addition to that of participant; (b)
to devise their own incentives and sanctions for fair or
unfair play; and (c) to take personal responsibility for
their actions;
• to provide young people and their families with as much
information as possible to ensure awareness of the
potential risks and attractiveness of reaching high levels
Activity 8.3 of performance.
The intent of this exercise is not to tell you what is right or wrong. These are just a few
examples of ethical choices that sports provide. Out of the four options against each
example, tick one out of four choices. Remember, it is important for you to decide what
you will do when faced with these choices. Be proactive by setting your standards
before you get to the heat of the competition.
Sl. Practical Examples Clearly Somewhat Somewhat Clearly
No Ethical Ethical Unethical Unethical
1. In a basketball game, the coach
tells the team to be as physically
aggressive as they can and get
away with it.
2. In football, a lineman deliberately
seeks to inflict pain on an
opposing player to intimidate
him.
3. At a crucial point in a big game,
a player fakes an injury to get a
needed time-out for the team.
4. In tennis, the ball is called out
though the player is certain it hit
the line. The player says nothing
and takes the point.
5. There is a loud appeal for caught
behind, which was denied by
the umpire. But the batsman
goes back to pavilion, as he/she
knows his/her bat had touched
the ball.
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Ethics in Sports 117
6. A coach uses bad words and
personal insults while coaching.
7. In soccer, the best player on
the other team already has a
yellow card. As an opponent you
deliberately fake a foul hopping
that player will be given a red card
and removed from the game.
8. The team captain argues with
an official intending to influence
future calls.
9. Coming back from an injury,
an athlete uses prohibited
substances – not to get ahead –
just to get back to where he/she
was before the injury.
10. You know your teammate is
doping and you do not confront
him/her or anonymously report
about it.
11. An athlete takes 25 different
supplements with the intent to
enhance the performance. None
of the supplements have any
prohibited substances listed on
the labelled in text.
12. During a cricket match, some
of the spectators move into the
field and manhandle the umpire,
because he/she has given LBW
decision against a batsman who
was in reality not out.
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Assessment
Answer the following questions
1. Explain ethics in sports.
2. What is the importance of ethics in sports?
3. Write about the various standards of sports ethics.
4. Explain the responsibilities of Government regarding
sports ethics.
5. Write about the role of sports related organisations with
respect to sports ethics.
Fill in the blanks
(i) Sports is recognised as an……………activity.
(ii) Sports provides opportunity for ……….interaction.
(iii) Ethics, morals and values are used ….in daily life.
(iv) Sports ethics signify not just a certain form of ………
but also a particular way of ………….. .
(v) Code of sports ethics promotes ……. and sports….. .
Tick (P) mark either Yes / No
(i) Truth worthiness is one of the standard of ethics.
(Yes/No)
(ii) Governments encourage adopting high ethical standard
in society through sports. (Yes/No)
(iii) Sports organisation formulates rules of the competition
in the light of sports ethics. (Yes/No)
(iv) Always adhere to the high standard of fair play.
(Yes/No)
(v) There are six standards of fair play. (Yes/No)
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