SPORT GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT Dylan Jones

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON SPORT GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

COVID-19 has presented much complexity and uncertainty for industries across the globe, including sport and leisure organisations. This disease has had significant negative consequences for society, the economy and for the practice of sport and recreation. For example, the cancellation of large sport events, such as UEFA EURO 2020, the Olympic/Paralympic Games and many small community recreation sports, has had both economic and social implications .

In fact, the impacts on sport in general and on how sport and recreation are managed, need consideration in light of this pandemic. Matches and competitions are being cancelled or postponed, disrupting governing bodies, organisers, teams and athletes as well as the non-stop live sports content we have come to expect. Owners, broadcasters, and sponsors are trying to navigate the impacts and implications of event cancellations and modifications. The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the sport sector includes lost revenues, athletes in difficulties, organisation cash flow issues and unemployment suggests this is the time to come together. Many small scale sporting organisations rely heavily on revenue to keep alive and during this pandemic there is a real risk those organisations could go bankrupt.

Organising events, meeting with agents, securing sponsorship deals and commercial activity has been the main driving force in sport of recent decades. During the pandemic, some sport governance practitioners and athletes, managers and officials have been redirecting their efforts to support each other, stay safe, help others stay safe, and donate money where needed, there has also been consideration of change to the organisation of sport and its governance. Suggested mergers of men’s and women’s tennis organisations to market and promote equality between genders may mean coronavirus has a real benefit to athletes, sponsors and more importantly, the values that sport encourages in young people, society and future generations of sport administrators. In a sport such as Rugby global governance has played a huge role in the way in which the sport has slowly and safely made its way back to normal.

Governing bodies such as England Rugby have created a scheme called Return To Rugby which aims to abide and communicate with the governments suggestions and rules to gradually start up rugby again. This scheme is aimed at grass root rugby in local communities however, the positive effects of it have led to professional rugby teams being able to compete against each other. This is great for the commercial world as it creates revenue from sales of tickets which is needed for gaining those funds lost over the last year. World Rugby has reduced costs over a fouryear period by 10 percent to £540million and has benefited from staging the 2019 World Cup in Japan shortly before Covid-19 struck, while France 2023 is still three years away. This has led to them being able to survive during the lockdown period due to good governance and management. In conclusion the path that the governing bodies took to manage the virus whilst still continuing with sport in as many ways as possible played a crucial role in keeping the sports industry alive. It allowed consistent revenue in most sports where social distancing is possible, however overall, there was a detrimental dent in the sporting economy.