Governance im Profi- und Breitensport – Aufgaben und Inhalte des Sports Governance Kodex

Warum verbindliche Richtlinien, ein einheitlicher Verhaltenskodex und professionelle Führung auch in Sportorganisationen ein immer wichtigerer Bestandteil erfolgreicher Zukunftsstrategien werden, darüber schreibt u. a. Andreas Hecker, LLM. oec. unter dem Titel “NEXT STEP FOR IMPROVING GOVERNANCE IN SPORT -THE SPORTS GOVERNANCE CODE” in der aktuellen Ausgabe der FOOTBALL BUSINESS INSIDE.

Lesen Sie den Volltext des Fachbeitrags hier auf dem Hoffmann-Liebs-Blog:

NEXT STEP FOR IMPROVING GOVERNANCE IN SPORT -THE SPORTS GOVERNANCE CODE

After a year of hard work, a German commission of 35 members published the Sports Governance Code in June 2021. The Code is intended to support sports organisations such as professional sports clubs, amateur sports clubs, federations and league organisations. In particular it will help in the active further development of their own governance, to summarise best practices and to contribute to the publicity of good governance in sport with voluntary declarations of conformity.

Sport is not free of scandals – just like other economic sectors and other areas of society. Therefore, structures are becoming more and more professional across ports and leagues, in mass sport as well as in professional sport. This concept, which is described as good governance can help to strengthen organisations, raise potentials and improve credibility. Clear and comprehensible recommendations and best practices have become essential pillars. Corporate governance codes have long been established in other sectors of the economy. Reporting on sustainability aspects is also well known. In some cases, the application of these codes is mandatory, but in many cases they are applied voluntarily.

The Sports Governance Code, which has now been published, provides sports organisations of all kinds – initially in Germany – with an in-strument to review their own governance, to develop it further on the basis of best practice recommendations and to report on a voluntary basis. Comparable to the German Corporate Governance Code for listed companies, the Code contains suggestions and recommendations that are oriented towards the needs and particularities of sports organisations.

The Code is designed in such a way that it can be applied across legal forms, across sports and at different levels of organisational size and professionalism. The recommendations concern (i) the structure of the sports organ-isation, e. g. with regard to the management body and any supervisory body, (ii) conduct, e.g. in the areas of sustainability and ethics, as well as (iii) transparency, especially with regard to the involvement of and communication with stakeholders. By publishing statements of compliance, sports organisations report on which recommendations they do not adhere and why, by way of “comply or explain-reporting. In this way, any third party, especially the stakeholders of the sports organisation, can easily and transparently find out how the sports organisation in question deals with the issue of governance.

Now that the Code is published, the first organisations are already working on reviewing their own status with regard to the recommendations and are thus preparing for future reporting.

The Code Commission supports interested sports organisations in applying the Sports Governance Code in the future and in reporting on their own governance in the form of declarations of conformity. You can find more information about the Sports Governance Code, the reporting and the commission under:

Sports Governance Code Homepage

You can claim your own copy of the recent FBIN magazine following this link.

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