The Federal Office of Sport BASPO has allocated an additional funding of 600,000 Swiss francs per year to the National Independent Reporting Office for Swiss Sport. Swiss Olympic will also provide Swiss Sport Integrity with an additional 400,000 Swiss francs per year.

This is due to the urgent situation resulting from the high number of reports received by the Reporting Office and the associated high workload. After receiving 264 reports in 2022, it is expected that there will be around 400 reports of potential ethical violations or misconduct by the end of the year. 

Cases range from organisational misconduct to discrimination and psychological, physical, and sexual transgressions. The additional funding of one million Swiss francs will be used to meet the growing need for human resources and external expertise. Additional resources are particularly needed for legal proceedings.

Urgency and need recognised
Discussions with the Swiss Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (VBS), in the presence of the head of the department, Federal Councillor Viola Amherd, and BASPO, have highlighted and recognised the urgency and need for additional support.

The Executive Board of Swiss Olympic has also expressed its support for increasing its contribution to Swiss Sport Integrity. Ulrich Kurmann, President of Swiss Sport Integrity, welcomes this signal. "We sense a lot of goodwill and are grateful to our donors for taking the necessary steps to ensure the credibility and quality of the Reporting Office", he said.

Markus Pfisterer, Head of Ethical Violations at Swiss Sport Integrity, is also pleased with the additional funding. "Over the past two years, our ethics team has made an incredible effort. The additional resources will now allow us to process reports promptly and with the high quality that stakeholders rightly expect, even if the number of reports continues to be high," he finished.