by Alan Reeves St. Georges PE Dept, Gravesend

Governing Bodies of Sport

To be recognised as a sport there must be a governing body to control the activities of the participants involved in that sport. Governing bodies are found at a local, national and international level. For example if we look at football we find the following structure:

We have an International governing body (FIFA), a European governing body (UEFA), a National governing body (English FA) and County governing bodies (Herts FA). Each of which have different responsibilities. You will find similar structures in all sports.

The roles of governing bodies:

• Setting rules for the sport
• Implementing the rules of the sport
• Changing rules of the sport
• Finding ways of improving the sport through technology
• Providing officials for matches
• Organising competitions
• Providing codes of conducts for players
• Disciplining players who break the rules or codes of conducts
• Fining or banning offending players
• Providing a system of drug testing
• Finding sponsorship for events and competitions
• Selling the rights to show the sport on televison
• Raising money for the sport
• Managing and developing the sport

Student activity
In groups of two use the internet, books and or journals to find out 3 recent occasions where a governing body has been involved in a sport in some way.

Funding for the Sports Industry
The sports industry is a large and varied industry and is funded in different ways. To start with we need to separate funding into two different areas:

1. Funding for participation by the general public
2. Funding to develop excellence for national and international competition

We have seen how sporting facilities for use by the general public are funded and that they fall into either the public, private or voluntary sector. Each of these sectors received their funding in a variety of ways.

Public sector funding

• Funding from the Local Authority gained from Council Tax
• Funding from the National Government through taxes
• Entrance fees and hiring charges
• Some small scale sponsorship
• Special grants
• Money from the National Lottery

Private sector funding

• Investment from a person’s income
• Sale of shares in a company
• Sponsorship
• Membership subscriptions
• Loans from banks

Voluntary sector funding

• Annual subscriptions from members
• Match day fees
• Fund raising events such as social evenings and fetes
• Local sponsorship often from their own members
• Grants from Governing Bodies
• National Lottery grants

Funding of teams and individuals
It is worth saying that while competitive athletes and teams will use facilities in the public, private and voluntary sectors they will also receive individual funding.

Teams
Teams involved in professional and high levels of sports will need to raise a lot of money to cover all their costs. For example, they will have to pay the wages of players, training staff and administrative staff (Manchester United paid their players and staff £44.8m in 2000), equipment and maintenance of facilities, travel costs, policing and safety costs. The more successful a team becomes then the higher its costs will become. Funding can be gained from the following sources:

Sponsorship and advertising
As a team becomes more high profile it becomes easier to attract sponsorship. Sponsorship is when company pays a team or Governing Body to promote its product and is widespread in sport. We get to know about new products and this makes us more likely to buy that product.

Sponsorship is beneficial to teams and individuals because it provides them with a new source of income. However, there will be drawbacks as well:

• The sponsor will demand certain conditions in return for their money
• Sponsorship often depends upon success

Income from Governing Bodies
This can be in the form of a yearly payment or for individual projects. The England and Wales Cricket Board pays a substantial grant to each of the County teams to ensure they can remain in business. This is because apart from international matches cricket receives little income from entrance fees.

Sales of tickets and memberships
This is always a significant income source for professional teams. For example, Manchester United takes in excess of £1.5m at each home game in gate receipts.

Television rights
The biggest change in the last 10 years has been the amount of money that sports and individual clubs receive from television companies such as Sky, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Eurosport. In the 2000/1 football season each Premiership football team received around £12m from television deals, with Arsenal receiving £17.5m. This has meant that clubs have more money to spend on better players and facilities. However, they also have had to change arrangements to suit the needs of television and fans will often complain of the start times of matches.

Merchandise sales
As sports have grown more popular so they have tried to cash in on selling merchandise. This is through the sale of replica kits and other merchandise through their own stores, sports shops and on their websites. Certain shirts have been designed to make them suitable to wear with jeans.

Individuals
Individuals will find it more difficult to gain income as they are not as big or powerful as teams. However, they have different sources of income:

Individuals will find it harder to fund themselves for the costs of training and coaching, travel to training and competitions, living costs, equipment and clothing. However, there is support for them.

Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
There have been several schemes put in place to assist athletes:

• World Class Performance Programme (£60m a year)
• Talented Athletes Support Scheme for athletes in Higher Education (£6m a year)
• Potential and Start Programm (£55m)

The DCMS was also responsible for setting up and managing the National Lottery

National Lottery
The National Lottery started in 1994 and has provided millions to sports facilities and individuals. Athletes can apply to gain Lottery funding once they have achieved a certain standard; they must then maintain that standard to enable them to keep the funding.

Sponsorship
This can be gained on an individual level to provide money for clothing and equipment. However, an athlete needs to be successful before a company will be persuaded to sponsor them.

Prize money
A great source of income but prize money varies between sports and events.

Key Learning Points

Facilities will fall into 3 categories and are funded individually:

1. Public sector funding comes from Local and National Government, the National Lottery, entrance charges and some sponsorship
2. Private sector funding comes from investment by individuals and groups; membership fees are a large source of income. They may need to take out loans from banks or find sponsors.
3. Voluntary sector funding comes mainly from subscription fees from the playing members as well as assistance from Governing Bodies and some local fund raising events.

Teams will be able to gain income from the following: sponsorship and advertising; income from Governing Bodies; sales of tickets and memberships; television rights and merchandise sales.
Individuals are more limited in where they can gain income but may use some of the following: Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS); National Lottery; sponsorship and through prize money.