Does the Sports Code require the possession of a diploma or specific title for the teaching of a Physical or Sports Activity (APS)?No, if this education is provided on a voluntary basis.Yes, as long as there is remuneration for the teacher, regardless of the amount of remuneration.
Article L.212-1 of the Sports Code
Article L.212-1 Sports Code provides:
"I.Only, in return for remuneration, can teach, animate or supervise a physical or sporting activity or train its practitioners, as a main or secondary occupation, on a regular, seasonal or occasional basis., subject to the provisions of the fourth paragraph of this article and of article L. 212-2 of this code, holders of a diploma, professional title or qualification certificate :
1 ° Guaranteeing the competence of its holder in matters of safety of practitioners and third parties in the activity in question;
2 ° And registered in the national directory of professional certifications under the conditions provided for in II of article L. 335-6 of the education code.
Persons undergoing training to prepare for a diploma, professional title or qualification certificate in accordance with the requirements of 1 ° and 2 ° above may also exercise against remuneration the functions mentioned in the first paragraph above, in the conditions provided for by the regulations for this diploma, title or certificate.
II.-The diploma mentioned in I may be a foreign diploma admitted in equivalence.
III.-The provisions of I apply from the registration of diplomas, titles for professional purposes or certificates of qualification on the list of diplomas, titles for professional purposes or certificates of qualification meeting the conditions provided for in paragraphs I and II , as and when this registration.
IV.- Persons who have acquired, in the period preceding the registration mentioned in III and in accordance with the legislative provisions in force, the right to exercise one of the functions mentioned in I for remuneration, retain this right.
V.-A decree in the Council of State determines the conditions of application of this article. It fixes in particular the methods according to which the list mentioned in III".
Thus, constitutes a manifestly unlawful disorder the fact for a person, moreover competent, to engage, in the absence of the required diplomas, in an activity of teaching (golf) for remuneration (CA Rouen, June 21, 1995).
The offense of complicity in teaching APS without a diploma
The penalties provided for by the'' article L.212-8 of the Sports Code
"Is punished by one year of imprisonment and a fine of 15 euros does it for any person
1 ° To exercise for remuneration one of the functions of teacher, instructor, educator, trainer or animator of a physical or sporting activity or to make use of these titles or any other similar title without having the required qualification in I of Article L. 212-1 or to carry out his activity in violation of Article L. 212-7 without having passed the tests to which the administrative authority has submitted him;2 ° To employ a person who exercises the functions mentioned in the first paragraph of Article L. 212-1 without having the required qualification or to employ a national of a Member State of the European Community or of a State Party to the agreement on the European Economic Area which carries out its activity in violation of Article L. 212-7 without having passed the tests to which the administrative authority has submitted it ".
The Court of Appeal - which declared the interested party guilty of the offense of exercising against remuneration for a function of teacher, instructor, educator, trainer or animator of a physical or sporting activity without the required qualification and, in repression, condemned him to the payment of a tort fine of 2 € - justified his decision since the contested judgment holds that the ULM instructor diploma of which the defendant holds does not allow him to teach, on the slopes of the great dune of Pilat, the practice of paragliding, which is a separate activity requiring the possession of a state patent of free flight and requiring a specific prior declaration.
Cass. Crim., December 14, 2004
The obligation to declare an activity
The L.212-11-212 L.12 articles and the sport have Code:
"Article L.212-11 Sports Code
Persons carrying out for remuneration the activities mentioned in the first paragraph of article L.212-1 declare their activity to the administrative authority.
A decree in Council of State sets the terms of this declaration".
"Article L.212-12 Sports Code
The fact that any person performs for remuneration one of the functions mentioned in the first paragraph of article L.212-1 without having made the declaration provided for in article L.212-11 is punished byone year imprisonment and a fine of € 15 000".
Examples :
- conviction of persons found guilty of carrying out without declaration of an activity of supervision and animation of a paid APS (tandem paragliding flight) (Cass. Crim., March 5 1997).
- are guilty of the offense provided for and punished by article L.212-12, the persons recruited by a company as ski instructors since these persons had not made the annual declaration to the prefect of the department, declaration making it possible to verify, in particular, the possession of the diploma registered on the homologation list without which the exercise of the activity is not authorized in application of article L.212-1 of the Sports Code (Cass. Crim, October 7 1998).
- are guilty of of complicity of the same offense the officials of the said company who, by knowingly having recourse to young people without a diploma to constitute the team of sports leaders, placed these monitors in an illegal situation by remunerating them for an activity reserved only for holders of receipt of a sports educator's declaration, and thus provided them with the means to commit the offense (Cass. Crim, October 7 1998).
En conclusion
