It was the NBA great Shaquille O”Neal who famously uttered the line, “I’m tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.”
Ask anyone who follows sport when the emphasis shifted from the game, to how much money players, teams, and all the peripheral businesses make from sport, and few will be able to tell you. There is no doubt once players attire started to carry sponsorship messages the momentum started to shift.
Now there are hundreds of spin off business making money off sport. For example businesses have been set up to tell potential sponsors how many minutes of vision their logo will get in a match if it is placed on a athlete’s shorts, on their chest or their back.
As has been covered in the past one area where a great deal of money is to be made is in private coaching clinics. There is nothing new in ex players setting up coaching companies, and many do an outstanding job, whether it be developing elite players and improving a player’s skills and game awareness, or simply giving young children good technique to be able to enjoy the game at whatever level they end up playing.
Just as there are good coaches there are also bad coaches. Which means that there are bad academies or coaching clinics, where parents who do not know better are being ripped off. Whereas a bad coach will usually be found out in terms of the results their team achieves, a bad coaching clinic can run a lot longer before they are found out. With so many parents wanting their child to be the next ‘big thing,’ there are always parents who will be willing to pay and keep their dream alive.
The development of players has become an area in sport where there are massive amounts of money being spent, and there are some people who taking advantage and milking the system for their personal benefit. Their motives have nothing to do with promoting the game or making children better players, it is all to do with making money.
Which is why there needs to be some Independent body to review these businesses in order to advise unsuspecting parents which businesses to avoid. Almost along the lines of Consumer watch.
We have seen in football in Australia the FFA handing out coaching licences willy nilly. You pay your fee, you attend the course, you go home with a licence to coach. Yet no one follows up to make sure that a set standard is maintained. Yet Australia is far from alone in this area, this is a common trend across the globe as sports and associations look to simply drive revenue through making coaches become accredited.
Yet can they stop a non-accredited coach from coaching? Franz Beckenbauer coached Germany to the World Cup in 1990 without having his coaching badges, he simply was given another title.
The problem lies with the various Government’s who are handing out money to these bodies to enhance junior development and participation, but never monitor the expenditure or the outcomes. With the Government investment should the outcomes be better? Should there be a required standard maintained in order to receive funding?
Another area that is becoming a concern across a number of sports is seeing employees of sporting bodies who work in game development, and therefore the coaching of young players, having private companies where they offer a similar service. This cannot be right, and one wonders how their employers accept such a situation.
Maybe the answer is a very simple one. As we have seen with FIFA’s Executive Committee, who were supposed the govern the game, members were paying themselves extra for “consultative services.” In other sports we have seen them apply for Government funding for various needs only to then see a Board member’s company be given the contract to carry out the work.
So if conflicts of interest are not snuffed out at board level, it becomes understandable as to how employees are allowed to use their positions to further their own businesses.
They are in an incredible position. They have access to information and people that their rivals do not. Their travel is often paid for by their employers and then they can offer their company’s services. Some of those accepting that recommendation are in fact totally unaware that they are engaging a company owned by the person who recommended them, and who should be totally independent.
So should employees be allowed to maintain businesses such as this if they are in such a role where there is a clear conflict of interest?
More and more sports are now looking to “work with” outside companies in terms of coaching and game development. The reason being that few have ever had a real game development strategy. This is also a cheaper option. However it will only work effectively if they monitor and grade the companies that they are working with, otherwise once again it is open to being rorted. With money being such a key driver there will be some companies that would happily pay to have a four star rating simply to keep their business going, and so the wheel of corruption keeps turning, and the parents continue to get ripped off, and the children suffer poor coaching.
There will be some who will claim that the comment re game development was unfair, but ask what your sport’s game development strategy is? Go to their website and read it if it is there. Nine times out of ten you will read the same thing across a range of sports, as they copy and paste what others have already put together. They are made up of generic phrases rather than clear actions by which they can be held accountable and judged.
Every sport claims they want more participants. This is because globally Government funding is often linked to the numbers playing a sport, and then ridiculously whether or not it is an Olympic sport or not.
How do they go about this? They hold clinics and try to encourage people to play the game. Yet surely a better option would be to assist interested parties in setting up new clubs. Help them put in place the infrastructure to create a new club, help them find a playing area. Once a club is in place it will be far easier to attract players. In some overseas markets not only do they need help setting up clubs, but also setting up competitions. Do they have to play for trophies? No. At a young age its about enjoyment. Yet having a competition in which there is a winner builds that competitive spirit, that will to win. It also lets players experience that thrill of winning, that sense of collective achievement.
People laughed when Shaquille O’Neal uttered that quote, but there was a strong underlying truth to it. Many, and not just athletes are involved in sport now purely to make money, and many of those people are in fact holding their sport back.
To right the ship is simple, protocols have to be put in place whereby employees must declare businesses owned by them outside of their employment, and if there is a conflict of interest they must choose between their job or their business. Of course the same needs to happen at Board level and Board members need to be strong enough to question if those with conflicts of interest do not excuse themselves from decisions, or are seen to benefit away from the Board table via their business.
Will this happen? Probably not, but those who love sport for the drama, the heartache and the joy it can bring need to start protecting their games and their future before all of the money has been squeezed out of it.
Why else are we seeing rising fees for junior participation? The answer is simple the money allocated by Governments is not reaching those it is intended for and some are feathering their own nest rather than ensuring the future of their sport.
