FEATURE | GOVERNANCE
Over the past 30 years or so the commercial and social importance of sport has increased almost beyond measure. But Patrick Nally, one of the architects of the commercial revolution which changed the face of sports bodies in the 1970s and 80s, argues that the institutions and processes which run sport today are too insular to realise its broad, long-term potential.
By Patrick Nally
t is almost impossible nowadays demands our attention in a way which I consider it the more convinced I have to turn on a computer or open a become that the governing structures newspaper without being deluged by stories that seem to highlight all So sport is not doomed, but it does narrow in their outlook. Ithat is wrong with sport. ' On more or less any given day you important to understand where it has realise its potential to deliver on so ' commercial to the cultural, taking in governing bodies were pale, and usually sports is routinely questioned, as are the health and education en route. # Money changed all that. Working with ' = & ^ administrators like João Havelange at the wealth created through broadcast [ & # and sponsorship deals. However, the the IOC, we were able to put in place are constantly being challenged over a commercial and media programmes ^ & ' believing that sport is ‘going to hell in a devices under its current structure. revolutionary and opened the gates to a handcart’ and that there is nothing to be Back in the late 1970s and 1980s my done to save it. company West Nally worked with the We developed a master plan that was International Olympic Committee (IOC), sides to this coin. Against this background [ events, by creating new championships, dedicated and clean sportsmen and sports bodies, on programmes which and at the same time having the ability women continue to write their own stories, with courage and determination to push themselves to new heights. Sport the wider world and the way they think still delivers unpredictable yet thrilling about themselves. them new power and credibility, and entertainment that captures attention / enabling them to recreate themselves and like little else. At its best sport is utterly on the current situation, and the more previously been the case.
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IOC president Thomas Bach’s Agenda 2020 initiative delivered a series of practical initiatives which may change the Olympics, but probably not sport
' ensuring that the world’s leading sports The IOC is not really a world authority N N % for all sport and shouldn’t be expected to /%; operate as one. And while that may be a skewed perception, /%; ' < too many sports more or less dependent on % by commercial brands. As a result we sport took on a new relevance and began to either stay within or break into the magic \ & ; ^; Olympic circle. / % Yet the IOC is not really a world ' /%; # ; have some input into the way it operates / ; organiser and promoter whose concern three decades or more, and the lingering is to grow its two events and protect a # brand whose values, laid down by Baron [ ^ Pierre de Coubertin all those years ago, can be traced back more than 40 years are among its strongest selling points. ' / Perhaps our success in building the that as governing bodies have become brand, and the power it now wields in government, media and corporate circles, remarkable things. But it does serve to become somewhat more insular. make the point that despite the change in / * ' & \]\] the structures currently in place to govern initiative is a case in point. It stuck to its today operate in more or less the same way as they did in the last century. relating to the Games rather than trying When we created that original master
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Adidas and Coca-Cola helped bankroll the transformation of professional sport through sponsorship, and have remained involved for the long term attitudes have changed. Many claims are ' " ' happens to potentially great athletes ^ and governance which threaten the in education, and in promoting healthy ¬ potential. Do they simply have to accept thinking across the board and challenge away to become nationalised by a country doing things. which does have the ability to pay? [ Or perhaps there is another way. What stakeholders – including governments, moment on elite athlete development `% programmes. It seems to me that – N institutionalised doping aside – there more actively supported by, international ^ programmes being run in nations with developing the best athletes no matter big budgets and those operated by the ´ ' old Soviet Union and East Germany. % /[ Inevitably, there are more questions ' than answers out there and the only way ´ Perhaps companies around the world answers that unite rather than divide the could be encouraged to invest in a ‘Global R ^ Corporate Citizen’ programme which Among the key issues are the hosting some cases, reducing the budget available would see them investing and actively participating in sports programmes, David Davies/PA Archive/Press Association Images David Davies/PA Koji Sasahara/AP/Press Association Images
WADA president Sir Craig Reedie and IOC vice president John Coates are among a generation of administrators who have now spent decades at the top
88 | www.sportspromedia.com FEATURE | GOVERNANCE Mike Fiala/AP/Press Mike Association Images AP/AP/Press Association Images
The actions of João Havelange and Sepp Blatter at Fifa and Juan Antonio Samaranch at the IOC saw elite sport realise its true commercial value including providing the resource for debate through its grouping of sports While we naturally hope that one elite programmes for those whose own ministers from around the world, known conference will make some difference nations’ supply cannot support them. as MINEPS. Becoming a Global Corporate Citizen You may be surprised that an understand that the UNESCO event is would be more than a mere badge of organisation such as UNESCO – which only the beginning of a longer process. honour, but a statement of the values is far better known for other things – has Our aim is to create and facilitate the and social awareness of each participating much of an involvement in sport, but in world’s biggest conversation about company and, with companies effectively many respects it is the perfect partner. the future of sport, by endorsing, pitching in to fund sport, governments While sport is inevitably focused towards promoting and reporting appropriate may consider tax breaks to make dealing with its own issues, UNESCO and relevant events, and creating an participation even more attractive. is ideally positioned to act as a lightning The hosting of major events is another rod to use to the power of sport where be analysed and discussed by some of area of concern and while I congratulate it is needed in key areas of education the brightest minds in the sector, drawn the IOC for beginning to address these and culture. UNESCO is, of course, from professional groups, student issues through Agenda 2020, I would like umbilically linked to the governments bodies and individuals. to see discussions that focus on newer who dictate sports policy at a local level The aim of this project is not to and whose buy-in is critical to the hosting generate conversation for its own sake but There could be further changes to some of events and funding of sport of various to stimulate and record original opinion of the ground rules, to open doors for levels in their own countries. and fresh thinking from many different In 2013 MINEPS met in Berlin and stakeholder groups, and make it available demands made on them, and to create delivered a declaration that touched on to governments and other organisations many points of major concern, and called bidding process. ^ help shape their own decision making. Ultimately I believe that sport needs to The world is changing fast in almost R My company West Nally continues to every conceivable way and I can’t help a situation in which talented athletes are work with UNESCO to organise this feeling that sport has become so important sucked away from their home countries event, scheduled to be held in Paris in in so many ways and to so many groups to realise their potential and where only June. This will follow a discussion of that it has outgrown the mechanics of already-prosperous nations have an some of the key themes and issues at organisation and governance that were opportunity of hosting major events. the SportAccord Convention in Sochi created in the last century. These are only two of the many issues & # Advocating change for its own sake facing sport and I am not suggesting for inform the Paris agenda and debate. has never been a sensible policy and a moment that I alone have all or any of The UNESCO event will bring together there is certainly no need to throw ' ^ everything that has been achieved over individual or single group does and that sports governing bodies, the media, the years out of the window. But where is precisely why I have spent time over brands and world-renowned experts it is clear that there is a need for a new recent years working with UNESCO – from many other stakeholder groups, to approach and to adopt new systems and ¬ ` # examine the potential to discover new procedures, it is essential that decisions and Cultural Organisation – to support ways of making sport more powerful and on future direction are the result of the its own efforts to create a broader relevant in the 21st century. most broadly based discussions.
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