M INC. focuses on a holistic approach to sport governance

Commonly accepted definitions of the scope of sport governance challenges and the nature of evolving good sport governance practices are yet to be established across sports, countries and regions. This task is particularly complicated in the world of sport, inasmuch as the nature and magnitude of governance challenges vary greatly among tens of thousands of sport organizations of very different sizes and with very different resources.

A one-size-fits-all approach cannot be value adding to all sport organizations. Consequently, M INC. › change the game helps sport leaders identify and address the most critical governance challenges to their organizations in for them value-adding ways. In doing so, M INC. focuses on a holistic approach to sport governance, as defined along the lines of two dimensions – a horizontal one and a vertical one:

Horizontal dimension of sport governance

• Internal governance : Standards for the political and operational integrity of a sport organization, i.e. rights and responsibilities of relevant internal and external stakeholders, including specific means of tackling key governance challenges such as nepotism in hiring, nepotism in selection of providers of goods and services, procurement as a source of corruption, giving/receiving gifts and entertainment as a source of corruption, excessive standards for travel and per diem rates, vote-buying in elections, conflicts of interest, lack of diversity, very long terms in office, culture of yes-saying, lack of a merits-based boardroom, no clear separation of roles and responsibilities between political and operational management, lack of transparency and accountability (for instance in not making audited financial statements publicly available), no formal voice to key stakeholders, development funding as a source of corruption.
• Athletic governance : Standards for a leveled playing field for athletes in the sport(s) that a sport organization oversees and/or is strongly associated with, including specific means of tackling key governance challenges such as doping, match-fixing, illegal betting, unequal access to participation in sport and to talent spotting and talent development, abuse of athletes, athlete safety, athlete agents as a source of corruption.
• Event governance : Standards for sport event integrity in the context of the events that a sport organization is in charge of and/or strongly associated with, including specific means of tackling key governance challenges such as bidding processes and selection of sport event hosts as a source of corruption, unfair ticket pricing and distribution, reselling of tickets as a source of corruption, selection of sponsors and granting of media broadcasting rights as a source of corruption. In the case of big sport events, key governance challenges also include critical societal issues that are directly associated with the building of event infrastructure and indirectly associated with the event being hosted by a particular country, i.e. concerns related to human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption.

Vertical dimension of sport governance

• Preventive governance : Standards for comprehensive and adequate rules and procedures of a sport organization, which are known and understood by the ones they apply to, i.e. specific rules and procedures in statutes, bylaws, policies and codes of conduct, including specific means of tackling key governance challenges such as risk assessment of governance issues, induction and regular training of board members, staff and volunteers, communication to other relevant internal and external stakeholders.
• Detective governance : Standards for monitoring the adherence to the rules and procedures of a sport organization, i.e. the actual identification and investigation of potential breaches of rules and procedures, proactively as well as reactively, including specific means of tackling key governance challenges such as privacy rights, rights and responsibilities of persons under investigation, execution of internal controls such as confidential channels for whistleblowing and internal and external audits.
• Sanction governance : Standards for deciding on and executing the sanctioning of proven breaches of a sport organization’s rules and procedures, for primary judicial bodies as well as judicial bodies of appeal, including specific means of tackling key governance challenges such as privacy rights, rights and responsibilities of persons to be sanctioned, independent decision making of judicial bodies.