Blatter the man of equality!

It is a little ironic that in the week that Sepp Blatter has surpassed himself sees the death of someone who led by his sport performance and manner through some of the changes in the sporting landscape we currently take for granted – Basil D'Oliveira. http://bbc.in/tAY7e1 .

“Dolly” as he was known was a man who was dropped by the England selectors for being non-white only fairly recently in 1968 under enormous pressure from the apartheid driven National Party of South Africa. http://bit.ly/Kfgqd . I remember this well in my childhood and couldn’t understand why the man who scored a massive century was not selected to tour. Dolly always behaved in a calm and selfless way and was a role model to many young people of the time. It was not until 1990 after Nelson Mandela’s release that test cricket returned to South Africa although the National Party did drive to have cricket in the country it was not recognised http://bit.ly/oMGq3x .

Back to Blatter – how can the world tolerate such man leading a world body? Let’s look at his history of equality in what are seen as key areas of equality – Race, Gender and homophobia.

On race his recent interview he completely forgot the struggles of people like D’Oliveira and others to further the equal opportunity of black players. http://bit.ly/u4rBGC . Although he is used to having abuse thrown at him and ignoring it, as we saw throughout England’s abortive 2018 World Cup bid http://tgr.ph/hWumO8 .

John Terry, not unknown to sail close to the wind http://bit.ly/rOwWB4 is currently facing Police Charge after allegedly calling Anton Ferdinand a Black C*** http://bit.ly/rZ0lzd although one of Sepp Blatters “friends” did come to his defence http://bit.ly/sMaW2z . Fair play to Ferdinand at his alleged come back of “a C*** is a person who sleeps with his best friends girl friend”.

FIFA should show leadership and not the total lack of understanding of the feelings and issues of black players and coaches. FiFA should be championing the “Rooney rule” http://bit.ly/5LHNnp
and in particular in England where over 25% of players are Black yet only two coaches/managers across the 92 league clubs are black. Yet we hear that as soon as the World Cup in South Africa was finished that was the end of FIFA's drive to address race http://bit.ly/sBPqDr .

Back to Blatter and women’s football – how can we take a man who was elected president of the World Society of Friends of Suspenders, an organization which tried to stop women replacing suspender belts with panyhose http://bit.ly/ucvaus which might lead to goodness knows what on the football field. Rather than putting pressure on television companies to increase the coverage of Women’s football, as the ECB have with Sky in their rights contract, he suggested women should wear shorter shorts http://bit.ly/h3WZRN .

He hasn’t just left his discrimination to women he bizarrely presided over the world cup in 2006 where any Dutch fans wearing shorts were told to remove them!http://bbc.in/liw7HT .

..and finally gay people – his simplistic answer to a question about Qatar’s laws over gay relationships being illegal was – "I'd say they [gay fans] should refrain from any sexual activities." rather than tackling the Qatar government who as we have seen with the Athletics world championships are desperate to have major events. http://bbc.in/hUZ2ps .

How can this man survive well – he does because he and FIFA are an irrelevance to the world and eventually they will change and this will only come when new blood come in and stand up for non-corruption. When I was CEO of England Basketball I saw how International Governing Bodies operated – voting was like the Eurovision song competition – very predictable where votes would go and people behaved in a stereotypical nationalist way. The way people were driven at all costs to seek and exert power was astonishing. England Basketball’s late President Keith Mitchell who was a great ambassador for the sport http://bit.ly/uYAHmN once said to me “when people a the FIBA conference shake by the hand look out for the other one with a knife going in your back”.

This thirst for power and lack of addressing the needs and aspirations of what are still minority groups in both participation, decision making and position, is to me immoral. However change as “Dolly” found was slow but in the end the world became a better place.

Why Martin Johnson will still be England Coach – he has a plan

Much has been said that the England Rugby Coach should be sacked following the World Cup in New Zealand by eminent writers http://bit.ly/vjjEz9 and ex-players http://tgr.ph/qxrjaE– however I think he should stay as he has a plan to win the next World Cup. http://bit.ly/sv3IPO

If you look back over the previous world cup winners the average age of the winning team is around 28/29. When Johnson took over he inherited an aging squad with a group of players in their mid to late 20’s lacking in quality, joint vision and commitment. Yet still a group of players
who won the world cup in 2003 committed and a group of talented 20-23 year olds.

So he clearly made a decision to exclude those not totally committed to the cause aged between 25 -30. Only four players in that age group were in the squad of 30. With far more over the age of thirty including Smith at 37. http://bit.ly/taS6vf

He has appeared to have taken the view in a similar vein to Alex Ferguson of Manchester United of always having experienced “old heads”, currently Giggs, Ferdinand etc, players in their prime, Rooney, Nani and young emerging players with speed of thought and action as well as the “right attitude” Young, Smalling etc http://bit.ly/oSfFc8

This mix is one that Sir Alex has adopted throughout his tenure – fairly successfully I think. However he has notably excluded players who cause difficulties – for example one word – Tevez! How right he was about resisting the pressure to re-sign him.

Ironically for Johnson he was let down by one of those senior players who should have provided the guidance and mentoring to the young group who will be 28/29 at the next world cup and how the New Zealanders loved it! http://bit.ly/rYmMkd

One saving grace for me was “Our Jonny” – who has apparently just found himself – but his guiding of the backs and in particular Toby Flood is how I see a “senior pro” passing on expertise, experience and what its like to have been there and done it! http://tgr.ph/uSHx0e

So back to Johnson – his short term plan clearly didn’t work and semi-finals is a must for England at all Rugby World Cups but I think he must be given the time to try to put in place his full plan although some players still don’t appear to have “got it” http://bit.ly/uMdgB1 as to what it means to be a role model at International level. I could start about John Terry but not enough cyber space for that one!

Johnson’s plan has already seen a significant improvement in age group performance and a clearer link between senior team style and approach to that of the age group teams. In addition how can you learn from experience if you remove someone who has now had the experience of winning and losing the World Cup! So like all plans they and Johnson who clearly demonstrates the enbodyment of committment, though and stature must be given time to mature and see it through to 2015.

Delivering an increase in sports participation

Two recent emails dropped in my inbox over the last week or so which provided a contrasting view on sport development. Firstly a link to Richard Caborn’s key note on the investment in Governing Bodies that is the cornerstone to the current Sport England Strategy, was failing after only two years http://bbc.in/nNTC12 and in contrast an email from the England Under 16’s Basketball coach, Simon Fisher.

They were contrasting because Simon’s email to Graham Jones (now with Sport England) http://linkd.in/oivUMw and Steve Nelson (Director – Wesport) http://linkd.in/nle5rd concerned Active Sports an investment programme. To give some background - when I was CEO of England Basketball (1998-2002) Graham and Steve led the implementation of Basketball’s element of the Sport England Active Sports Programme http://bit.ly/pgWUKd which has influenced a significant membership rise on the back of these actions. Simon thanked Graham and Steve for putting in place a sound system that developed better players that resulted in England’s best age group performance in European completion ever http://bit.ly/pFjWWc . To put this in perspective basketball is a true worldwide sport with over 50 countries taking part in age group competition in Europe in contrast to some British Commonwealth sports like Netball, Rugby (both codes) and Cricket who have less than 20 playing countries worldwide.

My reading of his email confirms what Steve and I said at the time – The Sport England Active Sports programme will take between five and ten years to mature and so it has. Here is the dilemma according to England Basketball they have seen a near doubling of membership, an increase in the number of national league teams and an increase in the results of age group teams as recorded in the latest annual report http://bit.ly/nRcRmF . However in contract Basketball’s Active People http://bit.ly/bg0d67 results have been dropping http://bit.ly/p9PIf6 ?

Is the question raised by the former Minister of Sport - have sports like Basketball built on this sound foundation from the Active Sports Programme through this funding round or are they unable to keep them in the sport. Clearly other factors influenced this downturn?

The key question for me is - Has the current investment, barely two years old, had time to mature? It is the largest ever in sport (five-fold larger than when I was CEO of Basketball) and was based on the Sport England strategy http://bit.ly/vgXue which was secured on the basis of the fundamental change to the sporting landscape and funding routes and have other influences come into play...

The investment routes are different - Local Authorities are no longer directly funded by Sport England for activity and NGBs have been given a clear role, responsibility and accountability to play in developing their sport not leaving it to others to decide how their sport should be structured and/or delivered. Local Authority sport development teams appear to be concentrating on physical activity and not sport for sport sake.

Many governing bodies are being measured on factors which are out of their control i.e. they have to buy facility time from local authorities and schools which are under financial pressure themselves and have either raised prices or closed facilities http://bit.ly/hkGmqU . Swimming, whom I am chair of the West Midlands, have been further affected by the withdrawal of Free Swimming http://bbc.in/b5Hfg and surprisingly participation figure are down!

Governing bodies both large and small have taken a year or so to appoint staff and start to implement their interventions and a number have re-structured since. So with all change in delivery methods it is maybe inevitable that a drop in outputs may happen in the short term but by keeping faith with the strategies and interventions is imperative.

Many of the interventions were based on making sure the sports infrastructure could respond to the potential increase in the short period after the Olympics and Paralympics. This has been the real challenge for the smaller sports such as Handball who we provide coach education services http://bit.ly/puLhqd as they need an infrastructure of coaches. We have through effective marketing doubled the number of level one courses in the last year giving the sport an opportunity to respond the expected upsurge in interest. However this could not be applied to the larger team sports who have control of facilities and actions.

So were the interventions right? The sports that are doing well are those that have implemented simple short term action and had the infrastructure to respond quickly and made sure newly appointed development staff were focused, with a small remit and clear about their roles. Netball have kept it simple working on the “Baked Beans theory” of saying what it is on the tin with “Back to Netball” http://bit.ly/pavoqB and Athletics who have been unequivocal with the support of club networks alongside associating with anyone who runs! http://bit.ly/dV8R76

In conclusion - easy to say but I do think Government, Sport England and Governing bodies need to keep the faith with the plans however if they are not working be brave to change to something simple that will engage people who have an interest but the current structure of sport does not allow them to take part.

I look forward to other views – please comment...

Coach Education as I thought it would be!

On May 21st 2002 I attended the first coaching framework meeting with the great and good of the time Dick Caborn MP, Sue Campbell John Stevens (SCUK CEO), whoever was head of Sport England at the time and all the major sport CEOs of the time were present. I remember the date as it was the day I resigned from CEO at England Basketball.

I remember the discussions well – Dick Caborn extolling the virtues of Coaching and how it should be a profession along with a recognition of the inconsistency of coach education, lack of value for coaches and also how we didn’t know how many coaches were out their coaching and in what environment.

What a long we have come – a national coaching survey identifying over 1 million coaches, the 4x4 matrix, Community coach programme (come and gone) more professional coaches in a range of environments and the UK Coaching Certificate. Undoubtedly the size of the workforce surprised many not least the County sports organisations who were proud of having 500 coaches on a database where it should be more like 15,000. I also think these stats played a part in convincing government that sport has a high value and many voters!

However I would like to reflect on what I thought was going to happen with the UK Coaching Certificate. What I thought was going to happen was the development of the core competences of coaching that would form the Coaching certificate with Sport specific or environment specific “bolt-ons” to give the coach their licence to coach. But no we had the good old British compromise and poor management of the people leading it at the time. Rightly or wrongly NGBs had an opportunity, and they took it, the control the coaching certificate leading to the non-recognition of prior learning, experience or qualification.

Sports Coach UK missed the opportunity at the time to strengthen their position as THE body responsible for licensing coaches and recording their coach competences. Yes NGBs do a great job in delivering coach education and the quality of coaching in the UK will develop consequently over time. However my understanding is that most coaches in the “profession” are coaches in more than one sport and we now have reached the crackers position where Lecturers are asking students to achieve 10+ level one qualifications before being accepted on a PGCE course! So they do the same core units over ten times and pay for it. I only like paying for something twice if it new and fresh – although I have just renewed my Villa season ticket! – so why are they paying for the same thing over again on top of in some cases a degree in coaching?

So what should be the answer? Well I think strongly that we should recognise prior learning and achievement – this not only means prior accreditation with qualification at level 2 and above but also playing experience. The technical knowledge gained through playing at the highest level should not be underestimated however the matching with coaching skills should still be assessed in the same way that anyone is assessed. In the same way an experienced coach needs the technical skills to apply the coaching skills to – again assessed to the same standards.

We have recently accredited to deliver the Principles of Coaching http://bit.ly/r8E0nh at three levels – this will mean that fourteen year olds will gain the knowledge and accreditation of the core unit for coaching and marry these with the technical skills and we have a bank of young people who have applied theory into practice before they can gain a UKCC qualification. What an opportunity for the development of coaching.

What does this mean for the structure of coach education – well it means flexibility of the structure of courses and maybe assessment days assessing a range of learners who have come through different paths to be assessed – this will be interesting to see how governing bodies react. Many I sense will plough along the must do the full course way however look at education now and the number of students undertaking GCSE exams at year 9 and 10 and you see a flexible approach that recognises different ways to maximise learning and accreditation.

It will also address one of the key complaints about UKCC – the cost. The rise is price was inevitable as an awarding body and all the quality control came in rather than a governing body giving a certificate away. However modified course with sound assessment against the same criteria will reduce time and therefore cost to the learner.

An exciting time ahead and one that the middle bank of sports if they embrace it will see a growth in the coaching workforce. Would welcome thoughts...

Governance

Much is said in the world of sport of the need for "sound governance" - well what does that mean? We are currently reviewing a County Sport Partnership http://bit.ly/pmfTDO and have recently assisted two governing bodies http://bit.ly/njDiVJ in developing elements of their "governance". So practical experience and being able to identify strengths and weaknesses is important however the experience of “flying” the governance plane is an undoubted benefit.

My time at England Basketball gave me a vast knowledge and very practical and at some time stressful experience of how board of directors all signed up to a direction can be changed by one or two people who want to see "change" or who are seduced by the power of being a board member. Many good “doers” do not make good board members.

This is still the case with elected members or those from a body of the sport or a particular organisation not seeing the importance of collective working and that they should take the decisions based on the best interests of the organisation rather than the body they represent.

The answer is easy to explain but difficult to implement! Identify the skills and competences needed and within that the “type” of person you need. Whether election or appointment make sure that the people leading the organisation can understand that boards are about policy setting and strategic overview not implementation. One of my first consultancy contracts was to develop the self assurance framework http://bit.ly/qaxDCn which is now online and a very useful tool to measure with a sound framework for governance.

Some warning signs are obvious to me when looking at organisations which give a feel for poor governance –
• No skills or competence matrix/assessment
• Only elected members appointed
• Board papers circulated late or on the day
• Hefty operationally based agendas looking back not forward
• Sub-committees not meeting
• A large range of action from previous meetings not completed
• No declaration of interest process and members gaining “benefit” from being on the board
• “Red-letter day” board meetings
• No financial reserves or investment policies
• Members feel they have to “bring things to the board” rather than resolve prior to the meeting
• Or conversely dint raise things as they feel they will not be adequately discussed
• To name but a few..

I have recently been appointed to two voluntary roles in two sports both of whom I believe have sound governance and make sure that the board deals with the policy matters and staff and volunteers in collaboration deliver of the ground. I have been very impressed with Baseball-Softball Board governance since being on their board and not least the quality of delivery of a small, dedicated and expert staff team. The same can be said for West Midlands Swimming which I am delighted to have been appointed as chair.

Numerous examples exist of board of directors that have become dysfunctional or have been unduly influenced by conflicts of interest. I’ve lived it!! However those governing bodies and county boards who have ensured that all directors have their “noses all pointing in the same direction”, as Clive Woodward describes it, and have concentrated on the growth of the sport. One great example is Scottish Swimming, supported by the excellent Sportscotland Modern Sport Programme and led by Paul Bush, now with event Scotland. Paul some ten years ago moved to a competence based board that focused on the development of the sport and as such less in-fighting and a concentration on results. The subsequent over-performance at Commonwealth games proved the clear direction given by the board to allow the staff to lead implementation.

When I reviewed the governance some three years ago http://bit.ly/qhkMmZ the board were still focused and my review concentrated more on the committee functions which needed change. The quality of the staff had led to the committees being informed of what had happened and not discussing how to do things. Therefore the sport reduced its committee structure making the sport more able to react to the changing times.

Governance and leadership is critical to the effective running and development of organisations and should not be under-valued or overlooked. I am sure many organisations in or out of sport still fall into the same traps but the tools and people are there to help!