Good governance in
international sports
organisations
drs. Arnout Geeraert
arnout.geeraert@kuleuven.be
dr. Michael Groll
groll@dshs-koeln.de
AGGIS – Action for Good Governance in
International Sports Organisations
•
Project funded by European Commission’s Sport Unit
•
Project co-ordination
•
Project partners
AGGIS – Action for Good Governance in
International Sports Organisations
• Tool for assessing good governance in international sports
organisations
• Academic work on transparency, accountability,
compliance, monitoring, democratic procedures...
• Presentation of the project: Brussels, 8 April 2013
• More information: http://www.aggis.eu
Good governance
• Current global quest for so-called “good governance”
• Is about the quality of governance. In essence prescriptive.
• Checklists of factors that are indicators of good governance by
•
International institutions
o UN Development Programme; European Commission; OECD;
World Bank; IMF
Checklists include key concepts
o Accountability, efficiency, effectiveness, predictability, sound
financial management, fighting corruption and transparency
o When referring to the political area: participation and
democratisation
Good governance checklists for
• Public governance
•
•
o
End of the cold war: questioning of the quality of political and economic
governance systems of countries in international fora
o
Urging of governments to heed higher standards of democratic
representation, accountability and transparency
Corporate governance
o
“corporate governance” or “good corporate governance”
o
Make private and public held companies accountable to their internal and
external stakeholders
o
Originates from early stages of capital investment and regained
prominence out of scepticism that product market competition alone can
solve the problems of corporate failures
International organisations and NGOs
o
More recently: calls for GG in IOs and NGOs
What about... Good governance in
international sports organisations?
• Only recently, calls for better governance in sport
o
o
Traditionally: closed, self-governing sporting world
No government interference: Switzerland
• Commercialisation of sport
o
o
Exposed governance failures such as corruption and
bribery
Money in sport attracts cross-border criminals (cf matchfixing, players agents, human trafficking)
Why is good governance in sport important?
• Economic sustainability
• Ensure effectiveness in an increasingly complex
environment
• Corruption jeopardises important sociocultural values of
sport
• International sport organisations have huge impact on
society
Good governance in sport: knowledge gaps
Situated at two levels
• What constitutes good governance in INGSOs?
o
o
No generally accepted “checklist” of factors
INGSOs are peculiar kind of organisations: existing GG codes
cannot blindly be applied
• How bad is the situation?
o
o
Lack of empirical data on the internal functioning of INGSOs
High-profile scandals tell us that there is something wrong
structurally
-> Premise for our paper
Paper in the framework of AGGIS project
• Good governance in International Non-Governmental
Sport Organisations: an analysis based on empirical
data on accountability, participation and executive
body members in Sport Governing Bodies
Arnout Geeraerta,b,c, Jens Almd,e and Michael Grollf
aHIVA-Research
Institute for Work and Society, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; bInstitute for International
and European Policy, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; cPolicy in Sports & Physical Activity Research
Group, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium;
dDanish
Institute for Sports Studies/Play the Game, Copenhagen, Denmark; eDepartment of Sport
Sciences, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden;
fInstitute
of European Sport Development and Leisure Studies, German Sport University, Cologne,
Germany
Purpose of the study
• Gather empirical evidence
o
o
o
From 35 organisations
Define structural problems
How bad is the situation?
• Incorporate concepts from political science
o
o
Interpreting the empirical data
Theory building: what constitutes GG in international
sports organisations
Quid international sports organisations?
• Before we look into the governance of international sport
organisations...
• Typology needed on international sports organisations!
Typology of International Sport Organisations
Background:
- Quite a few expressions:
Global Sports Organisations (GSO)
Sport Governing Bodies (SGB)
International Federations (IF)
International Sport Organisations (ISO)
- Only a few efforts on typologies
Examples
Gomez, Opazo & Marti (2008)
Hybrid
Global
Primary purpose:
promotion of
participation &
specific
values/services
Examples: CIFP, CAS,
ICSSPE, AIOWF,
ASOIF
Regional/ Primary purpose:
Selective promotion of
participation &
specific
values/services
Examples:
Confederation
Europeanne Santé
National Primary purpose:
promotion of
participation &
specific
values/services
Examples:BASES,
Youth Sport Trust
Governmental
Primary purpose: Primary purpose:
managing/organisi event organising
ng sport, athletes Examples: IOC, IPC
and events
Examples: FIFA,
UCI
Primary purpose:
regulation
Examples: WADA,
ICSSPE
Primary purpose:
regulation &
utilisation
Examples: UNESCO,
WHO
Primary purpose:
managing/organizi
ng sport, athletes
and events
Examples: UEFA,
EHF
Primary purpose:
event organising
Examples: Pan
American Sports
Organisation
Primary purpose:
regulation
Examples: WADA
Regional Offices
Primary purpose:
regulation &
utilisation
Examples: EU, Council
of Europe
Primary purpose:
managing/organizi
ng sport, athletes
and events
Examples:
domestic sport
federations
Primary purpose:
event organising
Examples: British
University Sports
Associatiuon
Primary purpose:
regulation
Examples: some
national Anti-Doping
Organisations
Primary purpose:
regulation &
utilisation
Examples: UK Sport,
Sport England
Sawyer, Bodey & Judge (2008)
Typology of
Global Sport Organisations (GSO)
Team Sports Bodies
Solo Sports Governing
Bodies
IHF
FI
S
IAAF
...
...
FIFA
Sport Event Governing
Body
IOC
Specialist Bodies
WADA
FIMS
ICAS
...
Forster & Pope (2004)
Typology of
International Non-Governmental Sport Organizations (INGSOs)
Sport Governing Bodies
Sport Event Governing
Bodies
Special Task Bodies
Representative Bodies
Typology of
International Non-Governmental Sport Organizations (INGSOs)
Sport Governing Bodies
Team Sports
Bodies
Solo Sports
Bodies
Sport Event Governing
Bodies
Bodies of Olympic
/Paralympic
Events
Bodies of
Non-Olympic
Events
Special Task Bodies
Governing
Relevance
Informational
Relevance
Representative Bodies
Sport Bodies
Stakeholder
Bodies
Typology of
International Non-Governmental Sport Organizations (INGSOs)
Sport Governing Bodies
Sport Event Governing
Bodies
Team Sports
Bodies
Solo Sports
Bodies
FIFA
FIS
IOC
IWGA
IHF
IAAF
IPC
FISU
...
...
UEFA
EAA
EHF
UEG
...
...
PGA
Bodies of Olympic
/Paralympic
Events
Bodies of
Non-Olympic
Events
Governing
Relevance
Sport Bodies
Stakeholder
Bodies
WADA*
FIMS
ICAS
ICSSPE
ASOI
F
FIFPro
Supporte
rs Direct
...
...
EUPEA
EOC
FARE
...
EPFL
...
OCA
ANOCA
Continental / Regional Level
CGF
Representative Bodies
Informational
Relevance
Global Level
Other
* = Hybrid Organisation
Special Task Bodies
...
...
Typology of
International Non-Governmental Sport Organizations (INGSOs)
Sport Governing Bodies
Team Sports
Bodies
Solo Sports
Bodies
FIFA
FIS
IHF
IAAF
...
...
UEFA
EAA
EHF
UEG
...
...
PGA
Sport Event Governing
Bodies
Body of
Olympic
Events
IOC
Bodies of
Non-Olympic
Events
Special Task Bodies
Governing
Relevance
Representative Bodies
Informational
Relevance
Sport Bodies
Stakeholder
Bodies
Supporte
rs Direct
IWGA
WADA
FIMS
ASOIF
FISU
ICAS
ICSSPE
FIFPro
...
...
Global Level
OCA
EUPEA
EOC
FARE
...
EPFL
...
AGGIS Research
Area
ANOCA
Continental / Regional Level
CGF
Other
...
...
Methodology
•
Focus on 35 Sport Governing Bodies
•
Explorative set of indicators
o
•
•
Based on academic literature +
other GG codes
Lack of publicly available data!
o
Focus inevitably on available data
(e.g. statutes)
o
Website research
o
SGBs were not cooperative
Focus on areas perceived as
problematic: accountability,
stakeholder participation and
executive body members in SGBs
Accountability
What?
A
Has to explain and justify conduct
Actor
Forum
Can pose questions and pass judgement
B
C
Three elements: A, B & C
Accountability arrangements help to make sure 3 elements are present
Accountability
Why?
• A lack of accountability arrangements constitutes a
breeding ground for
o
Corruption
o
Concentration of power
o
Lack of democracy and effectiveness
The importance of accountability
arrangements
Usually explained in 3 ways:
(1) A democratic means to monitor and control government
conduct
(2) To prevent the concentration of power (checks and
balances)
(3) It induces the executive branch to learn
The importance of accountability
(1) A democratic means to monitor and control government conduct
In parliamentary democracy
In corporate governance
Here, accountability arrangements make sure the actor acts in the interest of the forum
(principal – agent relationship) + WATCHDOG FUNCTION of the forum
The importance of accountability
(1) A democratic means to monitor and control government conduct
In Sport Governing Bodies
• SGB: no shareholders or citizens
• Member Federations own the organisation since they have created it!
In principle, executive body of SGB should be accountable to the Member
federations!
Member federations have an important watchdog function
The importance of accountability
(1) A democratic means to monitor and control government conduct
The problem in Sport Governing Bodies
•
•
•
Often, SGBs make vast sums of mony, which has made them
independent from their Member federations
Member federations are partly dependent on the funding they receive
from their SGB
Nothing wrong with funding, but risks:
o MFs may become benevolent towards or servants to their SGB
o Funds can be used to ensure votes, support a certain agenda,
ensure the re-election of officers
o As such, MFs may become lapdogs instead of watchdogs!
The importance of accountability
(1) A democratic means to monitor and control government conduct
To prevent haphazard us of funds: paramount that funds are distributed
•
•
Transparently
According to pre-established, objective criteria
The importance of accountability
(2) To prevent the concentration of power (checks and balances)
An ethics committee could be called to adjudicate on the behaviour of members of the
executive body of the SGB.
Has to explain and justify conduct
SGB Executive body
Ethics committee
Can pose questions and pass judgement
The importance of accountability
(2) To prevent the concentration of power (checks and balances)
In order to be an effective accountability mechanism, an ethics committee
must be:
• Independent from the
governing body
• Able to perform
investigations on its own
initiative (ex officio)
o without referral by the
executive body/ president
The importance of accountability
(3) It induces the executive branch to learn
• Possibility of punishment in the event of errors and shortcomings
motivates the executive body to search for more intelligent ways to run
their businesses
• Accountability makes sure that executive body reflects on governance
failures resulting from their past conduct
Thus, lack of accountability mechanisms prevents the impetus for change
in SGBs!
Participation
Participation of the governed in their government is, in theory,
the cornerstone of democracy.
No participation
Participation
• More research is needed, because mere consultation offers no
assurance that athletes’ concerns and ideas will actually be taken into
account
• Institutionalised consultation does not equal actual participation, since
the latter requires that affected parties have access to decision making
and power
• Participation will lead to legal certainty
o
o
Including stakeholders in decision making process gives them
sense of “ownership”
They will come to see the decisions of the SGB as their own
decisions
-> less likely to contest these before legal courts
Executive body Members
Nationality issues
•
•
Anachronistic dominance of European continent
Can decisions be devised in the overall global interest?
NaCaCa: North America, Central America and the Caribbean
Executive body Members
Nationality issues
NaCaCa: North America, Central America and the Caribbean
Executive body Members
Gender inequality
Overwhelming overrepresentation of male members within SGBs executive
bodies
However, 16 SGBs have some form of regulation in place assuring female representation
Executive body Members
Tenure issues
In general, term limits constitute a remedy for several tenure issues
• High rates of reelection stemming directly from the advantage incumbents
enjoy over challengers
• Apathetic voters due to the certain reelection of incumbents
• Monopolisation of power
Conclusion
• Paper does not paint a comprehensive picture on governance issues
in SGBs
• A lot of data left to be uncovered and many research avenues are still
to be explored.
• In spite of the obvious limitations, the presented empirical evidence
clearly supports the recent calls for good governance in sport.
• SGBs need to agree upon a set of well-defined criteria of good
governance and take action towards compliance with those. Only then,
the self-governance of sport will be credible and justifiable.