Chapter 3: The Face of Governance: Economics, Value and Visibility

Quite simply, governance is about the relationship between an organisation’s strategy, it’s decision-making processes, compliance issues and the interests of members and stakeholders. Sport has been slower than many other sectors to prioritise governance as a necessity. This is partly due to the voluntary, community-based model which dominates sport clubs and national governing bodies around the world. Traditional ways of administering and governing sport have enabled stakeholders to turn a blind eye to the question of who has power and how is it maintained.

The commercialisation of sport and the investment of public money has been an important driver in the attention being given to governance. Education is an important aspect of delivering the value of good governance and many sport organisations are committing and investing in such activities. But it is at strategic and decision-making levels that governance has become a ‘catch all’ for so many issues it could be viewed as overwhelming to address when there are other more important priorities.