Menu
International Football

Belgian Governance Study Finds FIFA Among Better Run Int'l Sports Federations

Belgium's leading university KU Leuven "screened 35 Olympic sports federations on good governance," according to Samindra Kunti of INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL. The report suggests FIFA "is among the better run international sports federations." The report "focused on the legitimacy crisis in international sports governance and presented the 'Sports Governance Observer [SGO],' a benchmarking tool for good governance in international sports federations based on the criteria of transparency and public communications, democratic process, checks and balances and solidarity." The report "was commissioned by the NGO Play the Game and the Danish Institute for Sports Studies." Dr. Arnout Geeraert, a research fellow at KU Leuven's faculty of social sciences, "executed the report." Geeraert's research indicated that FIFA "is not as badly governed as many may perceive." Geeraert said, "I have applied the SGO on all Olympic sports federations, those of which their respective sports are enlisted for the Olympic Games. FIFA is an Olympic sports federation. The last few months FIFA has been besmirched, and rightly so. Since the '70s a lot has been going wrong at FIFA: corruption and fraud [have become] warp and woof. Yet the media have often lost objectivity and nuance in their coverage about FIFA. FIFA got a score of 68 out of 100 on the SGO-index. That's of sorts for an organization of FIFA's magnitude and importance, but the other international sports federations are far worse [than FIFA]. ... FIFA's result is more of an indication about the other international sports federations. Twenty-six out of 35 Olympic sports federations have a score below 50. The governance situation in general is quite dramatic. The golf federation, the triathlon federation, there are plenty of problems and those are often translated into corruption scandals at federations that are less media-centric." In football, good governance failure "is endemic." Last week Transparency Int'l released a report, highlighting that football "is the perfect breeding ground for corruption: a staggering 81% of FIFA's 209 national associations have no financial records available" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 11/23).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2015/11/25/International-Football/Governance-study.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2015/11/25/International-Football/Governance-study.aspx

CLOSE