The Business Of Sport Conference A Big Sucess

The 2019 annual conference programme of Fiji’s Nation­al Sporting Organisations was held at the Grand Pacific Ho­tel past Saturday, March 9.

It was attended by most of the hierarchy of the nation’s sport­ing bodies, heavily supported by groups of current sponsors, solid group from most of the mainline media.

Also a number of overseas sport­ing writers who were covering it for the world’s sporting audiences and a series of doctors and others interested in the top level of sport­ing performance in the country.

This was scheduled as a really ground breaking event for Fiji and was indeed at the leading edge of sporting administration, gov­ernance and management in the world.

The aim of the conference was to take the administration of sport forward and to introduce a num­ber of new rules, laws and pro­grammes that will be required by the international bodies and gov­ernments in the future.

Sporting business

The sporting business is now a $700 billion industry annually and for most countries it is contribut­ing a significant amount to their economies.

Fiji has a commitment to offer­ing the international communi­ty’s world class sporting facilities backed by an executive support standard that will equal the best in the world.

There is also a commitment to giving Youth Communities a greater role in the planning and running of actual international events.

This role of Youth in Sporting Bodies around the world was a constant issue with all speakers and there is a focus on finding academically qualified high sport­ing achievers who are capable, over the next few years, of replac­ing the current aging leadership worldwide.

This was seen as important by the conference as the demands of most disciplines have changed significantly in the last few years, not only in training, but also in the sort of the facilities that are now required by the world’s competi­tors.

Some sports in Fiji are already implementing the changes and most are working towards the changeover.

Para-Olympics

One of the new sports that is making a big impact around the world is Para-Olympics and Fiji has already enjoyed success in the sport.

The former assistant Minister for Youth and Sports, Iliesa Delana won a Gold Medal several years ago, and the trail of gold has con­tinuer ever since.

Para-Olympics are committing to a team for Tokyo and will only take competitors who have a cred­itable chance.

Paraplegic competitors in Fiji now have a clear vision of the fu­ture of their sport.

There are several sports that are also undergoing a competitor re­vival; one of these is the sport of bodybuilding.

Not all members are competitors but are involved in the sport be­cause of the personal health ben­efits they see in the training.

The competitors compete and the others support them and there is a very healthy relationship.

Another sport, just making a re­cent impact in Fiji is competitive Chess.

The sudden emergence of the sport and the impact it is having can be directly related to a change of Leadership, with Norzad Fa­reed, the Fijian Holdings Limited Group chief executive officer.

He gathered a team of highly qualified professionals to join him on the Board, nine in total.

In doing so he ensured that he had a gender balance, something that all international sporting body’s are now seeking and that all necessary specialist areas were covered.

The sport is a money making powerhouse and the international bodies are funding Fiji.

The sport is aiming to have the first Fijian Grand Master believe they can produce this by 2030.

At the moment the youngest Fi­jian with an international rating is aged nine.

Mr Fareed says that the most im­portant thing in to get three fac­tors correct nd all else will follow and he believes this applies to all sports.

Governance, Transparency and rules

These are Governance, Transpar­ency and rules and if these are right all else will follow.

Another sport that has advanced rapidly in the last couple of years, but has stumbled and it makes quite interesting reading.

The team was consistently pick­ing up the top awards, being par­ticularly successful at the last Commonwealth Games with young lifters gaining Gold Med­als, but all that came apart when a section of the squad disagreed with the choice of new trainer and there was a split in the asso­ciation, with a signficant number going to Levuka to train.

Some have even gone so far as to change their nationality.

Comment was rather constrained on any reason for the split but the most definitive statement was that the issues were all created by the actions of a single official and that an announcement in November would clear the air.

In the meantime, some competi­tors have left for other countries but those who remain are deter­mined that weight has now be­come a cohesive whole again and set their sights on keeping moving forward. The meeting was assured that flaws in the governance of the sport allowed this split to happen but action has now been taken to that it will not happen again.

Other major sports are also busy addressing some issues that still exist in their structure.

One of the most advanced is ath­letics.

Digital methodology

They use a unique digital methodology that allows them to track every athlete’s current performance and predict if they have reached the point they need to be for a certain event

Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee and Athletics Fiji pres­ident Joe Rodan (senior) says he is very sure that all their governance issues are well controlled and that all the people in differ­ent areas meet the highest criteria.

He says that they are working on the issues of Youth involved in their structure and agrees that this is an important change all administrative bodies will have to address in the short future.

Fiji Swimming Association is another ad­ministration that has moved forward rap­idly over the last couple of years and they expect to see good results.

They currently have seven swimmers qual­ified on merit for the Pacific Games and ex­pect more before the cut out date.

They have also done work on the structure of their administration and are happy with that.

They point out that in a sport with a lot of young people in a sport where training does involve touching they require particularly strong physical abuse rules and are confi­dent these are in place.

For a single day conference, the informa­tion handover was immense.

This is the first half of the day and we will pick up the rest in a separate article.

The one thing that is very clear is that Fiji Sport Administration is in sound hands.

Feedback: maraia.vula@fijisun.com.fj