Clubs must be given back their voice

By: Brian Lewis, June 08, 2013: The key to achieving international sporting success is a well organised and resourced club. However, scant attention is being paid to the issues facing the foundation—sports clubs. Do sports clubs have a voice? Elite and community sport, and long term athlete development can only take place if there are well organised and administered sports clubs and their passionate and dedicated volunteers.

Why is the construct of local sport overly focused on the elite and high performance level at the expense of the base and nursery of sport? When did sports clubs lose their voice, relevance and legitimacy? Inherent in the principles of transparent, accountable and ethical governance is genuine engagement with primary stakeholders and certainly sports clubs must rank as key and primary stakeholders. They are fundamental and foundational to the sport ecosystem and sustainable sport development pathway.

However, this engagement ought not to be for the sole purpose of winning votes or wresting control and authority over resources. But based on the understanding and recognition that without sports clubs there is no organised sporting activities, elite level athlete development, national teams or world and Olympic champions. Grandiose plans that have as their objective political self-image have little meaningful bearing on the lifeblood and engine room of sport—sports clubs.

Sport is in trouble because clubs are in trouble with many well-known names either extinct, on the verge of extinction or facing a daily struggle. Once these clubs are in dire straits, the army of passionate volunteers will dwindle and participation levels will stagnate or fall.

There is cause for concern as no one seems to be taking the problem seriously. I have heard all manner of strategic reviews, action plans and opinions but very little about the plight of sports clubs and what can be done to arrest the decline.

Urgent attention must be given to the support and development of sports clubs and those volunteers who are the lifeblood of clubs. Without a strong foundation, structural collapse is certain. How can the emphasis on building from the top up and not from the ground up be explained or justified?

It is clubs that drives sport at grassroots level; the programmes that eventually lead to the elite performers that represent us all on the world stage. Clubs at all levels are finding sources of funding hard to come by. It is a struggle to attract sponsorship, while the subscriptions normally paid by club members are becoming increasingly difficult to collect.

In talking to volunteers laboring in the vineyard of sport, their strong view is that many elected officials take their stakeholders for fools and a focus on internal and external politics is seen as a huge part of the problem.

There is the perception that those at the top are happy to enjoy the glory of success without actually concentrating on what made it happen.

A clear sign that good governance principles are being short changed or violated in an organisation is when there is a false sense of participation when in fact the real decisions have already been taken. Sports clubs are the rank and file membership of national sport organisations (NSOs) and as such should not feel marginalised, ignored and only be a focus at election time.

It’s time that sports clubs be given back their voice and be respected for the vital role they play in sport development ,their history and contribution to the history of sporting, social and national life. I cannot overstress just how important clubs are to the well-being of sport in T&T.