Trends in sports governance - a look at the year ahead

In his latest blog for the Alliance, Governance Officer, Rob Tate, looks ahead at the major events (sporting or otherwise) to come this year and how good governance is increasingly important in our sector.

The New Year has well and truly begun. After weaning ourselves off mince pies and long lie-ins, we’ve reset the alarm clocks, stocked up on a variety of healthy breakfast cereals and, now that January is over, both made and broken most of our New Year’s resolutions. Now that we’re all suitably settled back into the swing of the working week, it seems like a perfect time to take stock and cast an eye ahead to what we can expect from the world of sports governance in 2015.

It’s a quiet year on the major events front, with some exceptions like this autumn’s Rugby World Cup, the FIFA Women’s Football World Cup and the Canoe Slalom World Championships, for example, but as we know, that doesn’t correlate with a reduction in workload. With Rio just around the corner, and the usual selection of individual World and European Championships, our athletes and administrators will have plenty on their plates.

We also have the upcoming General Election to look forward to. With only a few months until the polling booths open, even seasoned political commentators are finding it difficult to pick a favourite, and all signs point to a close fought race.

Regardless of the outcome, a new parliament will bring change and have a knock-on effect for sport; particularly for governance within the sporting sector. All signs point to continued austerity and with that, increased pressure for funded bodies to justify the public funding they receive.

Sport, perhaps unfairly, has sometimes received a bad reputation for poor governance; brought to public attention through the Dutton inquiry, and not helped by the well-publicised PR disasters and accusations of potential cover-ups levelled against some international federations.

In an attempt to make sure that that reputation doesn’t stick, and in light of the growing commercialisation of sport, it is important that we as a sector continue to look to build aspects of good corporate governance into our standard practice. In doing so, we reassure everyone involved, from athletes and volunteers to sports councils and government, that our organisations are well-run, transparent, accountable and free from corruption. Importantly we create healthy, effective organisations which are in the best form to protect and develop their respective sports within the UK.

Thankfully, the prevailing opinion within the sector is in support of better governance. To date, nearly 100 national governing bodies like the British Athletes Commission, Hockey Wales and Volleyball England have signed up to the Voluntary Code of Good Governance; and with the upcoming launch of a revised second edition, it is hoped many more will join them in the near future.

The Code takes inspiration from the UK Corporate Governance Code and the Code of Good Governance for the Voluntary and Community Sector but tailors their principles to apply directly to sporting organisations. Importantly, as the name suggests, compliance with the code is completely voluntary. The code is not a tick-box exercise, and there is no assessment. Those who sign up are not doing so to satisfy funding requirements, but instead they are showing willingness to work towards their own self-improvement, demonstrating the sector’s ability to self-regulate.

Lord Moynihan’s Governance of Sport Bill (analysed by my colleague here) serves as a portentous reminder of parliament’s willingness to legislate on our behalf, should we be unable to regulate ourselves. As a sector, it is important that sport and recreation organisations improve our level of governance on our own terms, in the hope of avoiding potentially burdensome regulation from on high.

Taking a different approach, Sport Wales is working with its partner organisations to build a governance framework that will be launched this year.

The framework integrates the principles of the Voluntary Code whilst ensuring they are applied appropriately to Welsh sports bodies, taking into account their unique nature and governance maturity.

In conclusion, whilst it’s a quiet year for competitors, there’s still lots to be done in the world of sports governance.

Despite uncertainty surrounding our future political landscape, it is clear that good governance in sport will be an issue of growing importance, and one with the potential to spend a great deal of time in the spotlight this year.

With that in mind it is perhaps time that we make a collective New Year’s resolution; committing ourselves to ensuring outstanding standards of corporate governance within the sector. By integrating a few small changes to our existing structures we have the potential to leave a lasting legacy for sport in the UK; though unfortunately, unlike your other resolutions, this one is unlikely to get you any closer to those New Year’s fitness goals.

Share this article:

Back to all news