Governance in sport should always be evolving

Professor Peter Thomas MBE, Honorary Vice-President of the Alliance, blogs about the evolution of sports governance over the years.

It was as long ago as 1979 that I was elected the vice-chairman of the Division of Interested Organisations of what was then the CCPR, automatically entitling me to a place on its very large executive committee. It was years later that I realised this was the beginning of a very long journey on what I now know as the corporate governance of sport.

I had entered this arena at a time of large and unwieldy committees, when the power was really vested in the general secretary, the chairman, and the honorary treasurer. As an indicator of progress, even the term honorary treasurer is now almost irrelevant in the sport sector. Although there was a time scale on the length of appointments - in my case a two year term of office, with the potential to seek re-election - there was no constraint on the overall term of office, apart from the chairman and vice-chairman. As a consequence, elected members could serve for very long spells and, very often in my experience, elected members could remain in post for ever.

I remained as a member of the executive committee for some ten years but continued to represent my professional association in the division. Concerns I raised about the corporate governance of the CCPR, which influenced my decision to step down from the executive committee, eventually resulted in major changes and in 1997 I returned to the fold; both as chairman of the division and once again as a member of the executive committee. I quickly had the opportunity to greatly influence change and was elected firstly as a member, and subsequently chairman of the Organisation and Services Review Group which produced a consultative document - It is Time for Change.

As a consequence of this review the unwieldy executive committee and general secretary was replaced by a small board of directors and a chief executive. The new board published a director’s handbook, which in turn set the scene for a whole host of NGBs and other national sports organisations to begin to address their own many and varied corporate governance issues. Over the next decade this focus on improving the governance of sport, in part kick-started by the review and overhaul at the CCPR, led to the publication of the first “Voluntary Code of Good Governance for the Sector” by the Sport and Recreation Alliance in 2011.

A new foundation stone has been laid in recent years through the publication of Voluntary Code by the Alliance. Hugh Robertson, then Minister for Sport and the Olympics, reiterated in his foreword to the Code that: “Dedicated professionals working within strong, independent, transparent and accountable organisations are the best way of ensuring that their sport is able to reflect the identity and expectations of the whole community”.

Needless to say, some 36 years after the beginning of my journey, two things are certain: there has been considerable improvement in the governance of sport; and it has been the sector itself that has been responsible for its own improvements. This is reflected in the assertion that “the power of the code is that it was created by the sector, for the sector” made by Brigid Simmons, Chair of the Alliance at the launch of the code in 2011.

Despite this progress, good governance remains a process that needs continual monitoring and improvement. As such, I am very confident that the recently announced partnership between the Alliance and the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) to develop The Advanced Certificate in Sports Governance and Administration, will greatly enhance the quality and development of sports governance in the UK.

Find out more about the course here.

Professor Peter Thomas MBE, is a former Senior Education Officer and Head of the Arts, Sport & Recreation Service for Buckinghamshire Council; a former Visiting Professor and Director of Sport for Bucks New University and an Honorary Vice-President of the Sport and Recreation Alliance.

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