Code of Ethics and Ethics Committee of the Finnish Student Sports Federation

Ethics Committee 2022-2024

Tarja Mäki-Punto-Ristanen
Timo Santavuo
Jenni Tuomainen

Contact: etentienlautakunta@oll.fi

Code of Ethics

Approved at the general assembly on 10-11 November 2021.

Section 1 Persons and collectives within the scope of the code

The following are subject to the federation’s code of ethics:

• OLL member collectives
• Representatives appointed by OLL member collectives at OLL events and activities
• Members of member collectives who participate in OLL activities
• Participants, trainers and organisers of OLL events and activities
• OLL staff and persons in positions of trust
• Organisers and participants in Finnish championships
• Finnish participants and Finnish organisers of EUSA games championships, as well as Finnish participants and organisers of SELL Student Games championships.

Section 2 Nature of infringements

Penalties can be imposed on those who:

1. breach any rules, regulations or decisions that are in force and have been put in place in accordance with the rules of the federation;
2. intentionally mislead or attempt to mislead the federation or any body set up by the federation;
3. seriously and/or repeatedly breach any rules concerning safe spaces at federation events or other activities;
4. engage in activities that cause substantial damage to the federation;
5. behave unlawfully or repeatedly in an unsportsmanlike manner in a competition. Unsportsmanlike conduct is determined by the code of conduct for the sport in question;
6. break the law or behave in an unsportsmanlike manner while representing the Finnish Student Sports Federation outside actual competition events or during an official programme outside the competition area of the event, or in the games village;
7. interfere with the physical integrity of a referee or threaten a referee in a competition;
8. violate anti-doping regulations, whether during a competition or outside it, or fail to comply with the obligations under the anti-doping regulations of a person assisting a competitor;
9. who engages in, attempts to engage in or proposes to engage in sport with a view to a predetermined outcome or otherwise manipulates or seeks to manipulate competitive events (or fail to inform the federation of any such misconduct);
10. bet on an event in which they are participating.

Section 3 Types of penalties

1. The following types of penalties can be imposed:
   1. a verbal warning;
   2. a written warning;
   3. removal from an event;
   4. a fine or claim for damages;
   5. an event-specific or competition-specific ban, fixed-term ban or temporary ban on participation for up to five years;
   6. annulment of a result;
   7. the denial of rights to organise events for up to five years.

2. The fine must be paid on pain of the person being subjected to further disciplinary action, such as a ban from federation activities.
3. The ban may be limited to a specific event or competition, or it may apply to all federation activities.
4. Different types of penalty can be imposed at the same time.

Section 4 Right of punishment

1. The body with the power to impose penalties for infringements of these rules is the federation’s ethics committee.
2. The composition of the ethics committee is decided by the General Assembly on a proposal from the board of directors of the federation for three years at a time. At least one member of the ethics committee must be a student at the time of appointment.
3. The ethics committee reviews board proposals for the removal of a member based on significant harm they are found to have caused before the board takes a decision.

Section 5 Reporting of infringements

1. A formal report of an infringement can be made only by a party to the incident in question or by the organiser of an event, a participant, a referee, an observer, a delegate, or an impartial person specifically approved by the ethics committee of the federation.
2. A person other than a person referred to in section 5.1 may make a detailed report of an infringement and must submit it in writing to the relevant sanctioning body within one week of the infringement or of the date on which it came to light.
3. Reports of infringements as specified in section 5.2 can be made in writing via the notification form that is available on the OLL website or by email. In such a case, the report can only be dealt with by the relevant sanctioning body for particularly compelling reasons.
4. If such a reason exists, infringements that have been brought to the attention of the relevant sanctioning body may be dealt with even if they have not been reported.

Section 6 Hearing of parties

1. In the handling of reported infringements, statements must be requested from the parties from whom information or material relevant to resolving the matter can be obtained.
2. Once sufficient testimony has been obtained, the party subject to the disciplinary proceedings must be given the opportunity to respond to the allegations.
3. This response must be submitted in writing within one week of it being requested, on pain of the matter being resolved without it. The response can be submitted by email. The response may be requested via the collective with which the person subject to the disciplinary proceedings is associated.
4. The ethics committee may impose a temporary ban on the party against which the allegation has been made pending the outcome of the matter.
5. The ethics committee may, at its discretion, seek further clarification or request the party against whom the allegation has been made to provide a statement in person.
6. The reports and other statements submitted in response to the request for information are for the information of the parties concerned only.

Section 7 Decision on the penalty

1. A reasoned written decision on the matter must be verifiably communicated in electronic form to the party who made the allegation or to the collective which they are associated within three days of the decision being issued.
2. The decision must be immediately emailed to the party found to have committed the infringement or to the collective with which they are associated.
3. The notice to the latter party must be accompanied by instructions for appeal of the decision.
4. The decision may also be communicated verbally to this party or to a representative of the collective with which they are associated.
5. The decision must also be made publicly available, unless there are particularly compelling reasons for not doing so. Special care will be taken in decision-making concerning the disclosure of personal data.

Section 8 Right of appeal

The party found by the ethics committee of the federation to have committed the infringement has the right to appeal against the decision of the sports arbitration board (Urheilun oikeusturvalautakunta) of the Finnish Olympic Committee under the conditions set out in the rules of the board.

Section 9 Penalties register

The ethics committee must maintain a record of reports of misconduct, penalties imposed, appeals made, and the action taken in response to them.

Section 10 Enforcement of penalties

The penalty imposed will be enforced regardless of whether it is appealed to the aforementioned sports arbitration board. However, the ethics committee may order the suspension of imposition of the penalty pending the outcome of the appeal.

Section 11 Expiry of penalties

The ethics committee may, for particularly compelling reasons, deem the penalty to have lapsed if at least two years have elapsed since the ban on participation in events or matches or on officiating was imposed.