Sports federations are run for years by the same persons, who at the same time developed business activities with the federations they control or with members of their federations. In some cases the annual turnover of these businesses amounts to hundreds of thousands of euros. These are obvious cases of entanglement and conflict of interest that have been observed in major sports federations for years, with the business establishment in sport enjoying a timeless and peculiar immunity. A typical example is the session of the Parliamentary Finance Committee the day before yesterday. During the discussion of the CMO budget for the year 2022, reference was made to sports federations operating as a state within a state, where entanglement and interests reign, but they remained until then. The chairman of the board of the COM Mr. Andreas Michailidis did not dispute the complaints. He limited himself, however, to a general statement that “there are problems” and “we are trying to solve them”. The most surprising, of course, is the fact that in May 2018, the CMO published the Code of Good Governance that governs sports federations with the aim of tackling entanglement and corruption, and almost four years later, they are still struggling to implement it. As Mr. Michailidis stated in Parliament yesterday, this year the Code will be implemented in its entirety!
It would be implemented in 2019!
In the preface of the Code of Good Governance that was published in May 2018 and is posted on the website of the COM, the following are pointed out: “Scheduled with its publication, the Code is implemented. The period until the end of 2018 remains at the disposal of the federations to begin to implement its provisions. During this period, any statutory changes need to be made. In 2019, it is expected that all the federations will operate within the framework of the Code and from 2019, the administrative and other controls of the CMO will be extended and will include an evaluation of the implementation of the Code “.
For cases of conflict of interest and kinship, living and reigning in sports federations, the Code of Good Governance provides the following:
- The board of directors of the federation maintains a register of interests which ensures that potential or real conflicts of interest are reported. The register is included in the annual report of the federation.
- Conflict of interest policy does not encourage the federation board to enter into employment, independent service, project, supply or any other financial contracts with board members, officials and technical advisers of the federation and the federation. , their children, parents and siblings or with legal entities in which the aforementioned persons participate.
- The federation sets up an internal audit committee.
DIPA – Cooperation: The wrong way of distributing the sponsorship to the sports federations
A statement on the matter was issued by DIPA – Cooperation in which it states verbatim: the concerns that we have been expressing for years as DIPA-Cooperation for the wrong course in matters of financial management in Cypriot sports. On the one hand, the COM has provided the Federations with a valuable guiding tool, that of the Code of Good Governance, with the clear aim of supporting the internal functions of each sports federation. Unfortunately, some Federations have not yet complied with the Code; for financial and administrative practices that are certainly not in line with the present order of things. On the other hand – and here lies the biggest problem in the financial management of Cypriot sports and the financial resources of a semi-governmental organization – a specific plan for the return / distribution of the annual state sponsorship has not yet been established, in a transparent, impenetrable and fair way, but also in a way to provide incentives to athletes and Federations.
The continued return of sponsorship in the same way as every previous year, does not serve the real needs of athletes and federations, does injustice to those who have made progress and rewards, unwittingly, wrong administrative and sporting practices. In addition, it does not provide any incentives, nor does it work in a way that pushes the sports federations to take measures to correct and improve the practices that are constantly exploited and proven to harm the sports of our country.
We expect the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth to approach these findings with urgent attention and to cooperate with the CMO in the restructuring of practices that damage our country and our sport economically and sportingly.
