Being Students of International Sport
We live in a fast-paced world and often we do not always pay due attention to just how interconnected the world has become.
There is a tendency for those of us in the Caribbean to operate as though we live in a cocoon, protected from outside influences. In much the same way, we have adopted a view that what is happening in other parts of the world does not necessarily apply to us.
The problem for us therefore is that we have come to adopt a way of life that leaves us believing that we cannot influence change beyond the narrow confines of our own little neck of the woods. Such an approach, unfortunately, does not allow us to go beyond being a mere passenger on the international sport train, swaying ‘to and fro’, as it winds its way around the globe.
It is not surprising, therefore, that while we have produced some of the finest sportspeople in the world, we have not been able to exert an equivalent in terms of allowing our experiences to systematically locate us in the echelons of the international sport community’s decision-making processes.
It may well be that too many of those involved in sport in the Caribbean fail to take the time to become genuine students of sport, knowing its history and understanding the changes that have been taking place in order to be better informed and engaged in ongoing discussions impacting the future of sport.
Taking membership seriously
Most international sport is governed by an international body that seeks membership of national federations in many countries around the world. As international federations, they develop a structure that allows for the establishment of continental groupings of their member federations. This seems a logical framework for the management of the sport, globally.
Membership of an international organisation comes with a commitment to compliance with the constitution of the body and that of its continental arm, in all aspects.
It is often the case that national federations become so focused on participation in competitions at the local, regional and international levels that they ignore the other aspects of being a member of an international sport organisation. This is one of the reasons that many of our Caribbean national sports federations are not in attendance at the continental and international meetings/congresses where critical decisions regarding the development of the sport are made. There have been numerous cases where decisions have been made at the international level that negatively impacted the status of Caribbean member federations in the respective sport. Basketball and Boxing are two examples where international congresses essentially left our Caribbean federations out in the cold, having reviewed the structure of the competition groupings, with dire consequences for the latter’s capacity to reach higher levels of competition for World Championships and the Olympic Games.
It is important that when national federations affiliate to the sport’s international parent body that they make a very careful study of their rights, obligations and responsibilities, and remain in the know of changes necessitated by different emerging circumstances. Membership must be meaningful.
Structure of National Federations
Many national federations are composed of teams rather than clubs. This leaves a very weak structure that bodes no good for the federation. Teams are transient. They are formed only for participation in competitions. Unlike clubs they are largely unstructured, without any constitution and system of rules governing their membership. Any national federation founded on teams as opposed to clubs is doomed to failure as the former has no long-term commitment to being in existence beyond one season or competition because of the uncertainty of their own membership. Members of teams have nothing that binds them to the organisation
It is commonplace to find teams disappearing during competitions due to lack of planning and financing for their continued engagement.
The majority of international federations now insist on national federations being founded on clubs. They assist national federations with the establishment of appropriate club structures in order to be sustainable. With increased financial commitments being made to national federations to bolster their own international standing, international federations need guarantees that their investments at the local and continental levels are being taken seriously given the importance of consistent and continued growth and development of the sport and its international ranking.
Regardless of the size a country, a national federation tends to craft and sustain a structure aimed at consistent growth and development and this involves the qualification of appropriate personnel at every level.
National federations must seek to foster continuing education of its stakeholders so that they develop competence in every aspect of the sport – administration, technical competition, medical, psychological. In this regard they tend to mirror the structures of their respective international governing bodies, only at a smaller scale, and conscious of their resources and professional competencies.
Increasingly, where once national federations were inundated with individuals whose only experience was having practised the sport, today, they are increasingly recruiting professionals in the ever-expanding array of sport career options and are more fit-for-purpose relative to the needs of the organisations they serve. This does not mean an end to having former players involved. Indeed, they are still needed but increasingly they must develop their capacities through continuing education programmes offered by the international federations and an ever-increasing number of agencies and institutions.
National sport federations must engage in periodic needs analyses if they are to keep pace with the changes taking place in their own sports but also in the global sport environment.
The Continental and International federations
The rush to gain relevance in the world of sport is driven by the desire to become popular and wealthy. The two are now bedfellows.
Sport federations are struggling to control the dismissal of all the positive values that were once paraded as the most important aspects of engagement and success. Given the exponential growth of sporting incomes for athletes and almost everyone associated with modern sport, the inevitability of crass corruption is almost normative.
National federations must remain astute and committed to their all-round development, becoming important pillars in communities and across nations. They must insist on making themselves relevant to the peoples of the countries they populate. They must not surrender their commitment to their national cultures and their importance to the building and sustaining of national pride, regardless of how much money they bring to the national treasuries.
Continental and international federations have important roles to play in making sport relevant to human society and its development.
National federations must write their respective histories, nationally, regionally and internationally, and consistently craft their legacies for generations as yet unborn. There is an irreplaceable role in mankind’s journey through history.
National federations must insist on their relevance of the educational programmes of their respective countries as much as any other subject area on the national agenda.
In the case of the Caribbean, national federations must engage their continental and international bodies to encourage the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) to allow biographies of our sporting icons in every aspect of sport, to be acceptable in the School Based Assessments on offer. Likewise, they must engage with and empower the University of the West Indies to significantly expand the options in the Faculty of Sport and the Academy of Sport.
The global sport industry
There was a time when the interest in sport as an industry was at best, very tame. However, once sport had placed behind it the insistence on amateurism and the recreation of the wealthy classes, professionalism pounced, and the rest is history. Today, sport remains one of the fastest growing industries of all time. The options seem endless.
Sport has transformed the lives of professional athletes, many of whom would probably have been unable to own a home and sustain a viable family. Today, sportsmen and sportswomen have audaciously expensive homes, several of which have become unsustainable and are up for sale.
Here in the Caribbean, cricketers who once had to commit to playing with injury while representing the West Indies, and who once complained about being asked by the West Indies cricket authorities to play too much cricket in any given year, are now hustling from one tournament to another, like tennis and golf athletes, in pursuit of greater financial rewards.
Sport careers are emerging as fast as the cash comes in and in every instance the inspiration is the accumulation of wealth.
New sports are emerging almost daily and their growth and fast-tracked path to success allow them to pose major threats to the traditional sports. The latter, fearful of being overrun or found irrelevant, are eagerly seeking out modifications and innovations
The recent growth spurt in international sport has come in the form of legal betting. As one commentator put it, suddenly, the world in being forced back into coping with the debilitating consequences of the gambling habit.
As one commentator recently noted, today, the casino in in everyone’s pocket. Access to gambling is on the cell phone and record losses and impoverishment, to say nothing of the destruction of family, are already reaching historic heights.
Where once we thought that match-fixing was the odd event in professional sport, we are witnessing an almost cataclysmic resurgence.
Wealth is now more prevalent in sport than any other time in human history. The consequences are also at an historic peak.
National federations are under pressure to push the envelope to produce elite athletes, like never before. Athletes are no longer under the control of their federations but rather, become pampered, used and abused by coaches and agents who often enrich themselves to the detriment of the athletes.
