Public Authority for Sport calls changes to sports law ‘premature’

• The draft, to amend Sports Law 87 of 2017, limits the board to seven members, with a four-year renewable term. Candidates need ten years of sports experience or a 50,000 dinar pledge and they must also hold at least a diploma and be 35 to 65 years old.

• Candidates for the club’s board must have ten years of sports experience, a diploma, and be between 40 and 70 years old.

The Public Authority for Sport stated that any discussion regarding amendments or changes to Sports Law 87 of 2017 is ‘premature.’ They clarified that no amendments or new provisions have been approved in the law so far, and there is no truth to the circulating rumors about canceling the current Sports Law or replacing it with a new one, as reported by Al Rai newspaper.

Bashar Abdullah, the acting director general of the authority, said in a press statement that “what happened was nothing more than an inquiry about a proposal submitted earlier by a former sports leader, which was referred to the Fatwa and Legislation Department for consideration without any decision being made regarding it.”

Abdullah added that “the authority is committed to adhering to legal rules and procedures in a responsible, professional, and transparent manner, and that no amendment to the law will be made until all opinions and consultations with the relevant sports bodies, most notably the Kuwait Olympic Committee, are completed. This ensures that any proposed amendments are well-studied, based on sound foundations, and free from unintended consequences.”

The draft proposal that was circulated sparked controversy as it included passages that were nearly identical, and others that were exactly identical, to those in Egyptian Sports Law No. 71 of 2017.

According to the circulated draft, it was evident that the wording of many articles from the Egyptian law had been copied, with attempts made to modify them by replacing or omitting certain terms related to definitions and general conditions.

The draft proposal to amend the Kuwaiti Sports Law closely mirrored its Egyptian counterpart, particularly concerning penalties, which were outlined in Chapter Fourteen of the proposal under the title “Violations and Penalties,” and in Chapter Ten of the Egyptian law under the title “Penalties.’

For example, “the texts of Articles 110, 111, and 112 in the proposal were identical to the texts of Articles 92, 93, and 94 of the Egyptian law, to the extent that Article 110 specified the penalty as “one hundred thousand pounds,” while in other articles, the text was copied without referring to the value of the penalty or the fine specified in Egyptian pounds.

In terms of content, the most notable aspect of the draft proposal to amend the law is the limitation of the number of members on the club’s board of directors to only seven. The membership term for the board of directors is set at four years, renewable for one continuous or intermittent term.

Additionally, candidates must have at least ten years of experience in the sports field at the club. However, any candidate who submits a written pledge to provide financial support of no less than 50,000 dinars, to be deposited in the club’s bank account within a month of obtaining board membership, is exempted from the experience requirement.

Furthermore, candidates must hold a qualification of at least a diploma and be between 35 and 65 years old at the time of nomination.
The draft proposal specifies that the Federation’s Board of Directors shall consist of seven members, serving a term of four years, renewable for one continuous or intermittent term.

Candidates must have at least ten years of experience in the sport, whether as a player, coach, referee, or administrator, according to the records of the Sports Federation. Additionally, candidates must hold an educational qualification of at least a diploma and be between 40 and 70 years old at the time of nomination.

The number of members of the Board of Directors of the Olympic Committee was also set at seven, with a term of four years, renewable for one continuous or intermittent term. Candidates must have served on the Board of Directors of a local, continental, or international sports federation for at least two terms, hold a university degree, and be between 50 and 70 years old at the time of nomination.

The draft proposal also called for the establishment of specialized sports federations and the creation of the Kuwait Sports Investment Fund, aimed at achieving sustainability and financial efficiency to develop professional sports generation aligned with professional and social values.