It’s hard to turn on the news these days and not see a story about yet another scandal in the world of sport. Today, it is allegations of match-fixing in tennis.
Yesterday it was drugs in athletics. Last week it was more corruption at FIFA. And in the weeks before that, it was institutional doping in cycling and cheating in cricket.
It seems that irregularities, corruption and rule-breaking are rife throughout global sport, regardless of geography, legacy or popularity of a specific game. It is clear that sport — yes the whole thing — is in crisis.
The component parts that make up international sport have lost their collective moral compass.
People don’t watch, play or engage with sport to be duped. They are looking for a clean, competitive and fair challenge. Sport should be a physical activity that inspires and entertains, while enhancing society more generally.
Sadly, that is not happening at the moment.
The near daily revelations of wrongdoing in sporting are upsetting — they’re upsetting fans and putting people off participation. Some are angry. And so they should be when the full depth of the problem is revealed.
It is perfectly reasonable to ask: Is nothing sacred?
So how did sport get into this crisis — and more importantly how can it pull itself out of the nadir and restore people’s faith? These are big questions but they are critical ones to address if sport wants to rid itself of the association with a lack of fairness and foster greater engagement with young people in particular.
The reputation of sport and everything that underpins it hangs in the balance.
People have always wanted to win, sometimes cheating to achieve it, which is why we have referees. However, leaving that human element to one side, two main factors have contributed to the current, institutional crisis in sport.
The first is a belief that sport is somehow different to any other public activity with an obligation towards transparency. There has always been a sense that sport should not be dragged into the dullness of regulation and independent scrutiny.
That sort of thing is for companies and politicians. The modus operandi is that sport can self-regulate and its authorities have long argued that outsiders don’t understand their particular game, so shouldn’t interfere.
This default position would be fine in theory, and in the distant past it probably was right, except for the second contributing factor to the current sporting crisis: Money.
The increasing commerciality of sport has seen it become big business in itself. Fans are milked of their cash for merchandise and tickets, while those who can’t attend the swelling number of games played in person fork out for dedicated TV channels.
Meanwhile, stadiums are turned over to corporates for naming rights and players are tapped for lucrative endorsements with global brands.
Solutions are not easy, but they do exist. For starters, sport needs to rid itself of the outdated view that it is somehow different to any other part of civil society and therefore exempt from proper regulatory scrutiny and even criminal convictions for proven wrongdoing.
While money continues to play such an intricate role, we will need to have all of the appropriate frameworks in place to protect consumers and fans. And to protect the values and reputation of sport itself.
There is nothing wrong with the commerciality of sport. It actually offers much upside to fans and players, as well as being central to growth and development. However, it has to come with credible checks and balances; just as companies have shareholders, boards and executives — each responsible for ensuring compliance and transparency.
Make no mistake, the corporate world has walked a difficult path in moving towards standards of agreed responsibility — and there is more to be done. But great strides have been made and the checks and balances are mostly in place.
At present, few sports are run in the way companies are, or at least are meant to. Most sports authorities were born in the past, long before this sort of oversight was necessary.
But many sporting bodies have failed to evolve and keep pace with the changing world around them. Instead they have been consumed by it.
It is not too late to change tack, but it won’t be easy. Vested interests are embedded and mega money in sport is here to stay.
However, money can also be part of the solution, if big corporates insist that sport cleans up its act. We saw this with FIFA when the major sponsors effectively put an ultimatum to Blatter and the corrupt regime he presided over.
We need to see more of this.
If we have reached a point where a critical mass of stakeholders has simply had enough, the next step is to consider how the required change can be made.
Given the contributory factors of failed historical self-regulation and the rapidly increased role of money in sports, nothing less than a committee entirely independent of the current sporting hierarchy should be tasked to review a cross-section of sporting scandals to address the issues.
Whether this is convened as a new organ by the International Olympic Committee, or in coordination with the UN, or through other mechanisms, it should be entirely new and transparently funded with a public budget contributed to by member-states.
The committee should identify and define a list of key failings of sport as illustrated by recent scandals; set a specific mandate for effecting clean-up; and, outline the composition of a task force to conduct a systematic, cross-jurisdictional review of sporting bodies and prescribe specific changes and timelines for implementation.
The task force could, for example, investigate current practices and make recommendations on everything from governance to match-fixing, monitoring of performance enhancing drugs to regulating sports commerce.
There will be scepticism … establishing a committee to appoint a task force sounds bureaucratic. But, with correct composition, independence, a premium on transparency and accountability, and the effective use of tried and tested methodology, it will be an irreplaceable component in tackling with the current crisis.
If such a model works — and there are many reasons why it may not, but none sufficient to warrant accepting the status quo — it could subsequently be adapted to help deal with other societal imperatives entwined in sport, such as combating racism.
These ideas are radical but necessary. Just as in the business world, sport needs to be clean, transparent and fair to have any value to people.
Let’s just hope that there is a collective understanding of the severity of the crisis sport is now wallowing in, and that there is real willing to make it right.
Sam Turvey is Managing Director, Dubai, at Bell Pottinger. Steve Bainbridge is Regional Head of Sports Law & Events Management at Al Tamimi & Co.
