Penalty after racism incident

A serious racism case during the CSIT WSG2023 in Cervia led to a far-reaching ruling by the CSIT Court of Arbitration against an Italian athlete. This is not just a simple disciplinary case, but a massive violation of the core values of the CSIT and sport in general. At the end of a football match between Italy and France, an athlete from the Italian team turned to the referees and literally demanded: "You should have disqualified this nigger", pointing his arm at a French athlete.

The CSIT Technical Commission takes immediate action and immediately banned the Italian athlete from competing in the next competition. The CSIT Court of Arbitration upheld this measure as correct, but after extensive discussion and hearing testimony and examining the circumstances, took a more far-reaching and drastic measure and disqualified the athlete in question for the next CSIT World Sports Games in 2025.

For the full case, see here

Justification

The principle of fairness, fair play and respect is the foundation of modern sport and can be found in the codes of conduct of the world's major sports organisations. These values automatically apply to the activities of CSIT, which includes the official rules of all sports. Saying the word "nigger" ("negro") to an athlete by pointing at him or her is a disrespectful, offensive and racist gesture that must be punished.

CSIT published its Fair Play Policy in May 2016, which is available on the CSIT website as one of the association's main codes of conduct. The first page, "What is Fair Play?", clearly states that CSIT World Sports Games strive for fair competition, respect and friendship. In 2017, these principles were incorporated into the General Rules of the Technical Commissions (Chapter 5 on page 22).

The Fair Play Principles were also incorporated into the CSIT Disciplinary Regulations (Appendix 5, page 13). This states that "failure to comply with and accept a decision, award, obligation, requirement established by a CSIT body is a serious offence". Accordingly, the CSIT Court of Arbitration was required to impose one of the sanctions set out in Article 4.1.2 of the CSIT Disciplinary Code and has ruled in accordance with Clause 4.1.2.3: The athlete in question is excluded from the next CSIT World Sports Games in 2025.