South African Rugby Union: A Winning Model for Annual Reporting? – Michael Pedersen
May 30, 2014
Athletic governance measures accounted for include performance results and referees of minority background
In the annual report of South Africa Rugby Union, noteworthy accounts for athletic governance include performance results (which indicate that the national South African Rugby Union team, the Springboks, had a winning percentage of 83%). Other noteworthy accounts include structures and programs in support of woman rugby and in support of increasing the number of referees with minority backgrounds.
Event governance measures accounted for include new commercial ventures and revenues from national matches
Noteworthy accounts for event governance measures include information about a new commercial venture that has moved South African Rugby Union into the business of selling match tickets and travel packages to fans. Other noteworthy accounts include total revenues from matches of the national rugby union team.
‘Sport in society’ governance measures accounted for include community outreach, social media platforms and charity
As for ‘sport in society’ governance measures, noteworthy accounts include an outline of activities to increase participation in rugby (i.e. through implementation of a national development model in 45 communities nationwide and at school level). Noteworthy accounts also include numbers for fan engagement on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (the number of ‘likes’ of the Facebook page of South African Rugby Union grew by 23% to a total of 617,000. The number of followers on Twitter grew by 47% to 147,000).
Other noteworthy accounts include an outline of an initiative called ‘Boks for Books’, which aims at supplying fully stocked libraries to disadvantaged schools. (The initiative is carried out in support of the South African government’s focus on education and literacy. It seeks to address the facts that only 8% of public schools have functional libraries and that the World Economic Forum ranks national educational assessments 140 out of 144 countries).
Future annual reports will bring South African Rugby Union even closer to fully integrated reporting
Building on and further developing a very solid foundation for annual reporting, the ambition is to bring future annual reports of South African Rugby Union even closer to fully integrated annual reporting, as seen in the private sector. In doing so, aspects such as risks, sustainability and future strategies are to become more comprehensively and adequately accounted for, among other things.
Critical questions for sport leaders to consider
The leadership of South African Rugby Union offers a lot of insights and inspiration regarding annual reporting of sport governing bodies. Critical questions for sport leaders to consider, as they start modernizing governance standards for the future, include:
> Who among your key stakeholders would appreciate or perhaps even expect you to publish an annual report, which transparently and adequately accounts for your results and the way you run your sport governing body?
> Which information, and with what level of detail, would you put into the annual report, if your main objective by publishing it was to build the highest levels of trust and credibility vis-à-vis your key internal and external stakeholders?
> In your annual report, what is the most credible way of accounting for the way that you handle potential conflicts of interest in the boardroom? – In terms of prevention, detection as well as sanctioning?
> If your sport governing body distributes funding to members who also have voting rights at its annual meeting, what is the most credible way in your annual report of accounting for criteria for distributing funding and for who received how much? – Be it loans, funding of development projects, revenue sharing from media broadcasting and sponsorships etc.
> In an organization with a lot of volunteers, how do you best through your annual reporting create general acceptance of the level of compensation for board members and members of the executive management team (and so preempt potential suspicion and distrust)? – Be it direct remuneration, pension schemes, travel reimbursement and other forms of compensation
> Assuming that building trust with your key stakeholders is the main objective for publishing an annual report, what would really speak against giving your biggest critics a voice in your annual report and ask them to share their perspectives on what is missing and why?
> A relatively new form of annual reporting in the private sector is the so-called integrated or triple bottom line reporting. Such annual reporting accounts for financial, social as well as environmental results of the reporting entity. What would a fully integrated annual report look like for your sport governing body? – And what would your key performance indicators for social and environmental performance be?
A special appreciation
I would like to appreciate the kind support of Oregan Hoskins, President of South African Rugby Union, in providing perspectives and information for this contribution.
Links to my previous contributions for iSportconnect’s expert column on sport governance:
13) ‘The 2014 South American Games: A Winning Model for Ticketing at International Sport Events?’
12) ‘US Open: A Winning Model for Environmental Stewardship in Sport?’
11) ‘The International Paralympic Committee: A Winning Model for Addressing Gender Equity in Sport?’
7) ‘Football in Germany: A Model Case for Addressing Match-Fixing?’
5) ‘England and Wales Cricket Board: A Winning Model for Transparency and Accountability in Sport?’
4) ‘Badminton World Federation: A Winning Model for Democratizing Sport in the 21st Century?’
2) ‘The Business Case for Good Governance in Sport’
1) ‘Sport Governance – What Are We Actually Talking About?’
Michael also publishes a leadership series on good governance in sport that is available for free download at: http://minc.ch/sport-
