National Sports Development Bill threatens NSF's independence: Survey

The proposed National Sports Development Bill (NSDB) has regulations which might strengthen the stranglehold of the government and threaten the independence of National Sports Federations (NSF) and Indian Olympic Association (IOA), according to a FICCI survey.

As per the survey by the industry body, the preliminary draft of the bill falls far short of the expectations of NSFs and professionals as it does little to address the problems dogging the overall development of sports.

The survey, conducted in the north, central and south campus colleges of Delhi University in addition to CEO's and senior officials of corporate India having interest in sports, reveals that there is an imperative need to bring transparency and accountability in the functioning of NSFs.

A whopping 93.9 per cent of the respondents were in favour of bringing all the NSFs under the RTI scanner.

Majority of the respondents were of the view that public-private partnership must be accorded a bigger role than sponsorships alone.

Among other findings, the survey also states that commercial sports disputes (brand endorsements, sponsorship, media rights, club management rights etc) should come under the ambit of "Sports Ombudsman Scheme", which should be created as an independent body outside the purview of IOA and the government.