“National Olympic Committees are using the relaxing of Olympic Charter Rule 40 as a Public Relations campaign without any real meaningful changes. Athletes want the backward-looking Rule 40 to be abolished”.

18 November 2019: Global Athlete has today agreed to fully support Team GB athletes’ (British Olympic athletes) legal action against the British Olympic Association (BOA) over the restrictive nature of the organization’s Olympic Charter Rule 40 guidelines around marketing at Tokyo 2020. The BOA published its so-called “relaxation” of the controversial Rule 40 last month, yet the revised guidelines fall far short of the demands of British athletes.

Global Athlete has pledged to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Team GB athletes in their call for the BOA to meaningfully reform Rule 40; the changes announced last month are superficial and do little to alleviate the athlete community’s overarching concern that the rule is restrictive, backward-looking and fails to put athletes first.

“The BOA has always prided itself on being an athlete-centric organization, however the recent tweaks it made to Rule 40 guidelines clearly show that it is failing to put its constituents – the athletes - first,” said Global Athlete Director General, Rob Koehler.

“The stance of the BOA indicates that National Olympic Committees are using the relaxation of Rule 40 as nothing more than a public relations campaign without any substantive change.  The BOA statement is a smoke and mirrors exercise; it’s another example of sports leaders trying to win the support of public opinion rather than winning the support and buy-in from their athletes. The BOA (and other NOC’s) model continues to line the pockets of administrators while leaving their number one stakeholders, the athletes, fighting for basic survival,” added Koehler.

Team GB athletes rightly expected that the BOA’s changes to their guidelines would result in a fair balance between the rights of all GB athletes and the commercial rights of the BOA. That has simply not happened, and British athletes are appalled. National Olympic Committees including the BOA stand to gain from significant changes to Rule 40; increased athlete rights will not only enhance the commercial appeal of Team GB athletes, but the British Olympic Association’s own brand will benefit, too. This isn’t an either-or situation; this is a win-win if the BOA embraces the change its athletes demand.

“Rule 40 is an analogue rule in a digital age – it symbolises the prevailing athlete view that the Olympic movement is antiquated and out-of-touch. It’s time the rule is abolished; it’s time to drag the Olympic movement into the 21st century,” added Koehler.

The legal challenge from Team GB athletes builds on a growing worldwide athlete movement demanding reform of Rule 40. Earlier this year, the Australian Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee made changes to their respective Rule 40 Guidelines to provide their athletes more earning potential. These changes followed the impressive work of the German Athletes Commission (Athleten Deutschland) in 2018 which lead the way for relaxing Rule 40.

Global Athlete has previously called on the IOC and the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) to mandate all National Olympic Committees meaningfully relax Rule 40 to ensure a level playing field and afford Olympic athletes their rightful earning potential.

For more information on the request Team GB athletes are making to the BOA and details on what they are seeking to achieve, please visit the following Q&A.