State sports federations could be brought under the purview of the National Sports Code, Sports Minister Vijay Goel said on Tuesday. The sports code is a set of rules that have been issued by the Sports Ministry for national sports bodies. It includes age limits for office-bearers and tenure restrictions, among other guidelines.
National Sports Federations themselves “suggested that the code of conduct should be implemented on the state federations as well”, said Goel. “So the state secretaries and ministries can think about it if we can implement this code on the state federations after proper discussion and consensus (sic). We have to implement this code of conduct on approximately 95% of the federations and the High Court has also given us the go ahead,” he added.
The Sports Ministry has already started preparing for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, Goel said. The ministry had formulated the Target Olympic Podium, or TOP, scheme last year to support potential medal prospects for the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games.
“Although there was no complaint from any athlete regarding the TOP scheme, many asked why it was not implemented earlier,” Goel said. “So, though the Tokyo Olympics is still four years away, our ministry is working keeping in mind that it is happening next year so we plan to prepare in next two months the team selection, their coaching, Indian coach, foreign coach and other things (sic),” he added.
