--- title: "How to Build an Ethics Code for Your Sports Organisation" url: https://tidyhq.com/blog/how-to-build-ethics-code-sports-organisation date: 2026-05-22 updated: 2026-04-21 author: "Isaak Dury" categories: ["Governance", "Guides"] excerpt: "An ethics code is not a legal document. It is a statement of what your organisation stands for - written so that a volunteer at 9pm on a Tuesday can actually use it." --- # How to Build an Ethics Code for Your Sports Organisation > An ethics code is not a legal document. It is a statement of what your organisation stands for - written so that a volunteer at 9pm on a Tuesday can actually use it. ![Study for Composition VIII (The Cow) by Theo van Doesburg, illustrating How to Build an Ethics Code for Your Sports Organisat](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/bp0k7h82/production/63d0a780dfd21c2c80014ebd3760b78529842f42-1015x752.jpg?w=1200&fm=webp) ## Key takeaways - An ethics code states principles - a separate set of guidelines translates those principles into practical advice for specific situations - Smaller clubs can embed ethics commitments as a clause in their constitution rather than creating a standalone document - Different sports need different adaptations - cycling has doping concerns, equestrian has animal welfare obligations, combat sports have duty-of-care risks - Tone from the top matters more than the document itself - if leaders do not model the code, nobody else will follow it - Distribution without acknowledgement tracking is distribution without evidence - and evidence is what you need when something goes wrong Every sports organisation has values\. They are usually listed on the website, printed in the annual report, maybe read aloud at the AGM\. Respect\. Integrity\. Fair play\. Inclusion\. And then someone on the committee awards a contract to their brother\-in\-law, and everyone looks at each other and says, "Well, there's no rule against it\." That is what an ethics code prevents\. Not by being a legal document \- it is not one \- but by being a clear, written statement of what your organisation considers acceptable behaviour\. When the committee member says "there's no rule," the ethics code says actually, there is\. ## The difference between a code and guidelines The [Good Governance in Grassroots Sport](https://goodgovsport.eu/) project, led by [ISCA](https://www.isca-web.org/) and [Transparency International](https://www.transparency.org/) Germany, draws a useful distinction that most sport organisations miss\. An **ethics code** states principles\. It is short, high\-level, and applies to everyone \- committee members, staff, coaches, volunteers, members\. **Guidelines** translate those principles into practical advice\. They are longer, more specific, and often role\-dependent\. The guideline for conflict of interest might explain what constitutes a conflict, describe the declaration process, and outline what happens if someone fails to declare\. Most organisations try to do both in one document\. The result is either too vague to be useful or too detailed to be readable\. Separate them\. ## What goes in the code The ISCA framework suggests five sections\. I would not treat these as sacred \- your organisation might need four, or six \- but they cover the ground well\. **Tolerance and respect\.** Your anti\-discrimination commitment\. Race, gender, sexuality, disability, religion, age \- but also less obvious forms: bullying, exclusion, public humiliation at training\. Be specific\. "We treat all members with respect" is a platitude\. "Coaches will not criticise players publicly during matches or training" is a standard people can be held to\. **Sustainability\.** Not recycling bins at the clubhouse\. The long\-term health of the organisation\. Financial sustainability \- not spending reserves on short\-term projects\. Governance sustainability \- building systems that survive committee turnover\. Mihai Androhovic from the Romanian Sport for All Association emphasised that sustainability in grassroots sport means building organisations that function independently of any single person\. **Integrity\.** Conflicts of interest\. Financial probity\. Decision\-making processes\. This is the section that protects you when things get political \- and things always get political\. Your code should make the process for handling conflicts of interest unambiguous\. **Zero tolerance\.** Name the things that result in immediate consequences\. Match\-fixing\. Doping\. Sexual harassment\. Violence\. Financial fraud\. Dorte With from DGI in Denmark was clear: zero tolerance only works if the consequences are defined in advance and applied consistently\. **Transparency and data protection\.** Members have a right to know how the organisation is run\. They also have a right to privacy\. Financial reports should be available to members\. Committee minutes should be published\. Individual disciplinary matters should remain confidential\. ## Small clubs: you do not need a standalone document If you are a 50\-member social netball club with a volunteer committee of five, a standalone ethics code might be more infrastructure than you need\. The ISCA guidelines acknowledge this directly\. For smaller organisations, a clause in the constitution works\. Something like: "All members, committee members, and volunteers of Club Name\] are expected to act with integrity, declare conflicts of interest, treat all participants with respect regardless of background, and report concerns about misconduct to the committee\. Breaches of this clause will be addressed under the disciplinary procedures in Section X\]\." That is a paragraph\. It covers the essentials\. It gives you something to point to when behaviour crosses a line\. As the club grows, the clause can evolve into a standalone document\. ## Sport\-specific adaptations Here is where many off\-the\-shelf templates fail\. The ISCA research, with contributions from Prof\. Antonio Borgogni and colleagues at the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, found that ethical risks vary significantly by sport\. A cycling federation needs anti\-doping provisions that a chess club does not\. An equestrian organisation needs animal welfare standards\. Combat sports have duty\-of\-care obligations around concussion that differ from non\-contact sports\. Your ethics code should reflect the specific risks of your sport\. A football club that copies a rowing club's ethics code will have nothing to say about crowd behaviour, betting, or agent relationships\. Start with the five sections above, then ask: what are the ethical risks specific to our sport? Add those\. ## Tone from the top This is the part that no document can solve on its own\. The ISCA systematic approach \- the compliance framework that runs from ethics codes through to sanctions \- places "tone from the top" as step three, immediately after the code and zero\-tolerance commitments\. There is a reason for that ordering\. An ethics code that the president ignores is worse than no code at all\. Sylvia Schenk of Transparency International Germany was direct about this: governance begins with the behaviour of leaders\. If the chair of your committee does not declare conflicts of interest, nobody else will either\. I have seen clubs where the president declared a conflict of interest at a committee meeting and left the room while the matter was discussed\. The effect on the rest of the committee was immediate\. It normalised the process\. Within six months, other committee members were declaring interests they would previously have kept quiet about\. Behaviour change starts at the top\. Always\. ## Distribution is not implementation You have written the code\. It is excellent\. You have had it reviewed by a lawyer\. The committee has adopted it unanimously\. You email it to every member and every affiliated club\. Now what? The honest answer, for most organisations, is nothing\. The code sits in an inbox\. Some people read it\. Most do not\. When an incident occurs eighteen months later, the code is cited in the response, but there is no evidence that the person involved ever saw it\. This is the gap between distribution and implementation\. And it is where most ethics codes fail \- not in their content, but in their reach\. For governing bodies managing affiliated clubs, this gap multiplies\. You are not just distributing to individuals \- you are distributing to organisations, each with their own committees, their own turnover, their own communication habits\. A code sent to the club secretary in March may never reach the coach who joins in September\. [TidyConnect](/connect) was designed to close this gap\. When a governing body distributes an ethics code through TidyConnect, every recipient \- whether that is a club president, a welfare officer, or a coach \- receives the document with an acknowledgement request\. The governing body's dashboard shows who has read and acknowledged the code, who has not, and which clubs have gaps\. When the code is updated, the new version is distributed with its own acknowledgement cycle\. Version control is automatic\. There is a clear record of which version each person acknowledged and when\. This is not about surveillance\. It is about evidence\. When a governing body needs to demonstrate to a funding body, a regulator, or a concerned parent that its ethics code was distributed and acknowledged \- that evidence either exists or it does not\. ## Getting started If your organisation does not have an ethics code, here is where to start\. Draft the five sections above, adapted for your sport\. Keep each section to two or four paragraphs\. Use plain language \- the person reading this at 9pm after a long day should understand every word without a law degree\. Have the committee discuss and adopt it formally, with a minuted resolution\. Decide whether you need separate guidelines \- if your organisation has specific processes for conflicts of interest, disciplinary matters, and safeguarding, then yes\. If you are a small club, the code itself may be sufficient\. Distribute it to every member, volunteer, and committee member\. Not just an email \- an acknowledgement\. Keep the record\. Review it annually\. Re\-distribute with acknowledgement when it changes\. And above all: live it\. The code is only as strong as the behaviour of the people who adopted it\. That starts with the committee\. Every meeting\. Every decision\. Every conflict of interest declared openly\. That is what an ethics code is for\. Not the document\. The culture it creates\. ## References - ISCA & Transparency International Germany\. [Guidelines for Good Governance in Grassroots Sport](https://www.isca-web.org/files/GGGS_Web/Guidelines_for_Good_Governance_in_Grassroots_Sport.pdf) \(PDF\)\. Chapter 5: Example of an Ethic Code\. - Sport England & UK Sport\. [A Code for Sports Governance](https://www.sportengland.org/funding-and-campaigns/code-sports-governance)\. - Transparency International\. [Global Corruption Report: Sport](https://www.transparency.org/en/publications/global-corruption-report-sport)\. 2016\. - WADA\. [Governance Framework](https://www.wada-ama.org/en/who-we-are/governance)\. World Anti\-Doping Agency governance and ethics standards\. - IOC\. [Basic Universal Principles of Good Governance](https://www.olympics.com/ioc/integrity/universal-principles-for-integrity)\. Updated 2022\. - NCVO\. [Governance Guidance](https://www.ncvo.org.uk/help-and-guidance/governance/)\. Ethics and governance guidance for voluntary organisations\. --- Header image: *Study for Composition VIII (The Cow)* by Theo van Doesburg, via [WikiArt](https://www.wikiart.org/en/theo-van-doesburg) --- Canonical: https://tidyhq.com/blog/how-to-build-ethics-code-sports-organisation | Retrieved from: https://tidyhq.com/blog/how-to-build-ethics-code-sports-organisation.md | Published by TidyHQ (https://tidyhq.com)