Govt. issues guidelines to check age fraud in sports

The Government has issued detailed guidelines to all sports federations, associations and other bodies in the country to ensure that overage players are not allowed to participate in national and other championships.

The guidelines have been issued to prevent age fraud in sports and ensure fair play, pending the formulation of a national code against age fraud in sports, an official press release said here today.

The guidelines, sent by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, advised the various sports bodies to treat age fraud on the same lines as doping as both amounted to cheating and violated the basic spirit of sport.

Terming it as a matter of serious concern, the Ministry said that several incidents of age fraud committed by athletes in some major tournaments and selection trials had come to the notice of the Government.

"In order to ensure fair play, it is imperative that stringent action is taken against athletes found guilty of committing age fraud and also against their abettors. Government has therefore decided that all sports federations/associations /bodies should take appropriate measures to check age fraud on the same lines as anti –doping measures as both amounts to cheating, which is violative of the basic spirit of sport," the letter sent to the federations said.

It said that it had become necessary to adopt a national code against age fraud in sports, which is duly supported by well laid down mechanisms to prevent, detect and penalize such offences.

Pending the formulation of the code, the federations were advised to follow certain broad principles:

(1) National Sports Federations should introduce a system of issuing identity cards to national athletes ,which should, inter-alia, contain name, photograph, signature and date of birth of the player, date of issue of the identity card and its validity period.

(2) The Federations should lay down a clear policy with regard to submission of documents for the purpose of age verification such as birth certificate, passport, school certificate, etc.,. The identity card containing the date of birth of the player should be issued only after the Federation has fully satisfied itself about the age of the player.

(3) The Federation should maintain an exhaustive and diligent record of the age along with proof of age of athletes who have participated in the annual national championships and other tournaments conducted by it. Each Federation shall be required to maintain a national register of athletes with state-wise details, which will be a public document.

(4) The Federation should conduct random age verification at regular intervals on the basis of the records maintained by it.

(5) The Federation should resort to medical examination of an athlete whenever any doubt arises with regards the age of an athlete on account of his or her physical appearance, receipt of any complaint or any other valid ground, which should be duly communicated to the athlete.

(6) The medical tests relating to age verification and medical procedures adopted for this purpose should be duly notified by the Federation and made known to all athletes.

(7) The Federation should notify in advance the list of empanelled hospitals for conduct of age related medical tests. The hospitals should be chosen on the basis of highest standards and credibility. Preference should be given to Government hospitals meeting these requirements.

(8) If an athlete contests the findings of the medical test in question, it would be incumbent upon the Federation to arrange for a re-examination, preferably at a reputed Government hospital.

(9) In the event of conclusive proof that an athlete has committed age fraud, he or she should be banned from participating in any sporting event for a period of 2 years on the first detection and for five years on any subsequent detection.

The Ministry has also advised all State Governments to adopt these procedures in respect of State Government sports bodies.

The communication stated further that the production of athlete identity card for participation in national and state competitions should be made mandatory with effect from February 1, 2010.

NNN