Play the Game 2017: A Home for the Homeless Questions

(ATR) Three of the most critical challenges for the Olympic Movement – doping reform, corruption and sexual abuse – spark intense debate to begin the 2017 Play the Game conference in Eindhoven.

Founder of Play the Game Jens Sejer Andersen says the 10th edition of the event continues to provide a unique forum for critics of international sport and those who govern it to openly debate the most pressing issues facing the sports world.

"Play the Game gives a home to the homeless questions in sport," Andersen told attendees to begin the conference. "We are riding waves of change. Many things have changed since 2010, and questions that were taboo 10 years ago are now all over the international agenda."

The four-day conference features 220 presentations and 400 delegates from the sport, journalism and academic sectors, including 30 government representatives.

World Anti-Doping Agency President Craig Reedie was one of the first presenters, a fitting start given the mounting tensions and questions about whether Russian athletes will be able to compete at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games next February and March.

Reedie detailed the scope of the Russian doping scandal over the past three years before fielding questions about the need for independence of WADA leadership (Reedie is both WADA President and an IOC member), the timeline for Russia to rejoin the Olympic Movement in full and why it has taken so long to root out this widespread form of cheating.

While admitting the profound cheating at the Sochi 2014 Games will continue to be met with resistance by Russian authorities, Reedie said WADA is resolved to help the country regain code-compliance.

"We’ve already come this far, it would be crazy to stop that effort," he said.

United States Anti-Doping Agency chairman Travis Tygart, Athletes Germany vice chair Silke Kassner and IOC member Richard Pound joined the debate on doping reform.

Tygart, a vocal critic of the lack of independence in WADA, once again referenced that having sport promoters also regulate their sports is like "having the fox guard the hen house".

"We advocate for a clear separation between those who promote sport and those who police it," Tygart says, "because it is really, really tough to make decisions against our sporting heroes."

Pound, the former director of WADA, equates the requirement of independence in the governance of sport to a complete failure of the system.

"All of this stuff about independence is quite interesting, but we have to accept that it means it’s a total failure on our part to deliver what we promised, which is clean and ethical sport," Pound says. "We’re now up here saying we can’t do that."

Although strides have been made in the formation of Athletes’ Commissions in many sport organizations, Kassner, a former German canoer, wants athletes to have even more authority in determining the future of sport.

"We feel powerless, frustrated, unable to act and be heard," Kassner said emphatically. "We want no decision without the athletes’ voice."

Near doping reform at the top of the international sports agenda, corruption and the efforts to eliminate it from FIFA and the IOC are top priorities. Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup secretary general Hassan Al Thawadi fiercely defended his country’s bid and organization of the world’s premier football tournament amid mounting speculation of vote-buying and human rights issues.

"The last seven years were not easy, whether for the criticisms we faced, geopolitical tensions that were at some times clandestine and covered up and other times because of actual challenges we faced on the ground," Al Thawadi said.

"But throughout the journey, the promises and commitments we made, the value that we saw out of this World Cup, we delivered on. This World Cup is a catalyst for positive change."

Al Thawadi spoke at length about the positive initiatives and progress made by efforts to deliver the World Cup amid a barrage of pointed questions about corruption in Qatar. He denied all claims of vote-buying in a panel discussion that went more than 30 minutes over the allotted time, a privilege allowed by a welcome reception that preceded the final presentation on sexual abuse and harassment in sport.

Karen Leach, a former swimmer in Ireland, opened the final session with a harrowing tale of her firsthand experience with sexual abuse by her swim coach when she was a child with dreams of making the Olympics. The abuse by her coach shattered those dreams, and after years of pain she says she is no longer the victim, she is the victor.

Leach and her fellow panelists of journalists and those seeking to help give victims a voice debated how best to prevent these atrocities from ever happening again as well as the role of journalism in these cases.

The creation of an Anti-Abuse Agency similar to WADA was contemplated, but the main message from Leach and others was simply to "listen and keep listening" to victims so they receive acknowledgement and a platform to share their stories.

Play the Game 2017 continues over the next three days with further presentations and discussions about anti-doping, Olympic corruption and good governance.

Reported and written by Kevin Nutley in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

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