Compliance with best practice governance principles of South African sport federations

Abstract

The heightened interest in sport shown by politicians, legislators, sponsors and government carries with it an inherent demand to justify long-term sustainability as well as compliance with best-practice corporate governance principles. A questionnaire based on the seven pillars of good corporate governance identified in the King II Report (Institute of Directors, 2002) was administered to the universum (n=90) of South African sport federations registered with the South African Sports Commission with the aim of measuring the compliance of these federations with the principles of good corporate governance on a five-point Likert scale. Results indicated an overall mean compliance score (x) of 3.77 (maximum of 5.00) with the pillars of good corporate governance but a further detailed analysis of all 83 statements in the questionnaire revealed areas of serious concern regarding the subelements of accountability, transparency, social responsibility, independence, fairness and discipline.

Keywords: corporate governance, pillars of good corporate governance, compliance, best-practice governance principles

South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation Vol. 27(1) 2005: 11-20