Is sports governance fit for purpose?
Tuesday 27 September 2016
As stories about Sir Bradley Wiggins and now England manager Sam Allardyce dominate the sport headlines Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sports Enterprise at The University of Salford asks if a fundamental overhaul of sports governance is now required.
Professor Chadwick said: “We are confronted on an almost daily basis with stories about sport and the indiscretions, misdemeanours and transgressions of people working in sport. Even though such behaviour may often not break any rules, the behaviour of people leaves some of us questioning whether the behaviour has been within the spirit of sport's rules and whether, simply, it has been moral.
“The latest cases, involving England manager Sam Allardyce and cyclist Bradley Wiggins, have raised yet more questions for both the public and the media, leading one to question if governance standards in sport are fit for purpose? In both Allardyce's and Wiggins' cases, the fundamental issues are based around: what did they do, why did they do it, who did they tell, when did they tell them, and what benefit did they receive as a result?
“Increasingly, many of us believe that we have a right to know about such things, especially as standards in public life and peoples' tolerance of public figures and their private matters have fallen under intense scrutiny over the last decade. As such, while developments over the last week may have dismayed some people, they are simply two further cases of inadequate governance in an industry that increasingly appears to need to up its game when dealing with fundamental governance principles, notably: transparency, openness and accountability. Allardyce and Wiggins will no doubt continue to fall under the spotlight, at least in the short-term. But the more important, longer-term issue is how such behaviours are dealt with as a whole in the future.”
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Sam Wood
0161 295 5361
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