Types of disputes and appeals

Types of disputes and appeals

The NST deals with a range of different types of sporting disputes including anti-doping rule violations, disciplinary disputes, selection or eligibility disputes, and bullying, harassment or discrimination disputes.

Overview

The NST is able to hear most disputes for eligible parties within a sport. This might include alleged breaches of a constituent document of a sport, eg a policy, or a dispute about a decision made by a sporting organisation.

Generally, the disputes will fall into one of the categories below, but the CEO may also allow a dispute that does not clearly fall into one of these categories. The NST legislation restricts the NST from hearing limited disputes as outlined.

Types of disputes we handle

Disputes before the NST are categorised and heard as follows.

Dispute type NST division Methods
Anti-doping rule violations Anti-doping and Appeals Arbitration
Disciplinary General and Appeals Arbitration, case appraisal, mediation, conciliation
Selection and eligibility General and Appeals Arbitration, case appraisal, mediation, conciliation
Bullying, harassment and discrimination General and Appeals Arbitration, case appraisal, mediation, conciliation
Other (CEO approved) disputes General and Appeals Arbitration, case appraisal, mediation, conciliation

Types of disputes we do not handle

We cannot deal with the following types of dispute:

  • where one party wants the NST to order another party to pay damages in arbitration (money to compensate for a breach of contract or loss)
  • disputes occurring ‘in the field of play’ or the equivalent context in a particular sport.

Time limit for making applications

There are specific time limits for applications:

  • Anti-Doping Division – within the time period specified in your sporting body’s anti-doping policy or 21 days after the day the athlete or athlete support person receives the rule violation notice from the sporting body
  • General Division – within the time period specified in your sporting body’s rules or a reasonable period after the event that caused the dispute. If the rules of the sport do not define the ‘reasonable period’, our CEO must  consider the timing reasonable
  • Appeals Division – following a decision or determination, the application to appeal must be made within:
    • the time period specified in your sporting body’s anti-doping policy or 21 days for anti-doping matters
    • 30 days for any other type of dispute.