Government unveiled an official code of ethics and conduct yesterday in an effort to encourage better sportsmanship within the local sporting arena.

The 16-page handbook is a final draft of guidelines that will aid local athletes, administrators, coaches, parents, spectators and the media in identifying their individual roles and responsibilities under the new code of ethics and conduct.

However, Sports Minister Dale Butler pointed out that no local sporting body would be bound by the new code of ethics and conduct.

?Discipline will take place within the associations. There are no penalties as the idea came from them (sporting bodies),? stated Butler, at a Press conference at the Cabinet Building.

?The 16 pages in this handbook represent a broad perspective of standards to which all involved in sports must adhere in order to create a sports environment that celebrates the attributes of the sport experience, including fair play, respect, team work, co-operation, discipline, commitment and goals and practices that support a positive sport experience.

?Subscribing to these principles ? not only by assent ? but by consciously executing and implementing this code, will temper our behaviour, guide the development of our athletes and provide a support structure that produces great sports persons.?

Butler said in recent years, behaviour in and around sport in Bermuda had deteriorated considerably.

?The department noted the declining codes of behaviour in sport in Bermuda and asked national sport governing bodies to join us in addressing these issues expeditiously before matters spiralled out of control,? the Minister added.

?A steering committee was subsequently appointed to assist the department in developing a code of ethics for sport for use by all sports bodies. ?The committee agreed that their report would target specific sport disciplines and elements, i.e: coaches, spectators, players and officials, and that it would be categorised so that each component sport entity would identify its responsibility under the code of ethics.?

Before work began on a final draft for the handbook, various local governing sports bodies were given eight weeks to consider and respond to a list of proposals taken from an initial draft compiled by a group of assembled sports representatives.

Members of the ethics in sport committee included Director of Youth and Sport Brenton Roberts, senator Neville Tyrell, former Ministry of Sport advisor Philip Guishard, Bob Legere, track and field coach Clarence Smith, Ian Gordon, former top cricketer Wendell Smith, Charles Brown, Annette Hallett, Ellen Kate Horton, Penelope Henry and Brenda Dale.

?I commend them for helping to produce the code of ethics and conduct for sport in Bermuda handbook and my Ministry is very pleased to lead this initiative in partnership with the national sport governing bodies,? said Butler, thanking all those involved in the new initiative that encourages better sportsmanship at sports venues across the Island.

?In compiling information for the code of ethics and conduct for sport in Bermuda handbook, the committee also reviewed similar documents used by overseas jurisdictions and we have adapted some universal standards of appropriate behaviour and expectations of sports communities,? he added.

?We submit that if we keep these ideals and principles in mind when we enter the sport environment we will live out the creed of our recently held National Sportsmanship Day slogan,? Sportsmanship the Goal of the Game?.?

Meanwhile, Bermuda Referee Association (BRA) president Richard Knight welcomed the new code of conduct but questioned how Government now intended enforcing it.

?In the past a lot of unruly behaviour has been allowed to go on,? he noted. ?It?s generally been accepted and it should not be tolerated by clubs or officials. And that is one concern we have had for many years now.

?So I think this is something that really needs to be looked into and I don?t have any problems with the rest of it.?