Rodan: Run Sports like Business

The weak business sense of most sports administrators in Fiji remains the prime reason for the financial struggles of national federations, a top offi­cial says.

Fiji Association of Sports and Na­tional Olympic Committee (FASA­NOC) president Joe Rodan Senior says national federations needed executives who can transform them into profitable organisations.

He was speaking as a panellist at the 2019 Annual National Sports Organisation conference, themed ‘The business of sports’, at Suva’s Grand Pacific Hotel yesterday.

Conference delegates discussed ways to maximise funding, secure sponsorship deals, athlete welfare and development, good governance within sporting federations and the importance of procedure and regu­lations.

Given that funding is usually a challenge for national sporting bodies, harnessing the economic potential of sports, including host­ing international events, was a big part of the discussions.

“Every sport must be treated like a business,” Rodan Senior said

“That means accountability, disci­pline, appointing the right people, good governance, being goal-ori­ented and focussed on high perfor­mance, and transparency.”

Fiji Chess Federation president Nouzab Fareed said sporting fed­erations could be run profitably if administrators followed the proper rules and regulations.

“Gender diversity is also very im­portant,” the Fijian Holdings Lim­ited group chief executive officer said.

“At least 40 percent of my Fiji Chess board are female and we have big plans for the sport, includ­ing producing Fiji’s first grandmas­ter by 2030.”

Fiji’s 5-year national devel­opment plan recognises ‘the huge potential to harness our sporting prowess and transform sports into a major income-generating sector.’

As such, Government plans to upgrade sporting infrastructure around the country within the next five years and bring it up to inter­national standards.

Fiji also plans to bid to host the 2023 Pacific Games and the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

But funding continues to pose an immediate challenge for national federations, who, with support from the Fiji National Sports Com­mission, have to prepare athletes for upcoming competitions - like this year’s Pacific Games and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, to name a few.

Oceania National Olympic Com­mittee president Dr Robin Mitchell said sporting bodies should remem­ber to contact their international federations while searching for funds.

Dr Mitchell also stressed the im­portance of financial accountabil­ity.

“We have to make sure that money is spent on what it was supposed to,” he said.

Delegates were also presented with a draft copy of the new Na­tional Anti-Doping Policy that is due to be presented to Parliament this year.

The policy includes Government’s plan to eradicate drugs from sports, which Fiji committed to doing in 2010 by ratifying the Copenhagen Declaration on anti-doping.

Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

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