Governance of international sports federations

Abstract

Inteïnational Sports Federations (IFs) govern global spott. There are more than 100 IFs (members of the Cloba1 Association of lnternational Sports Feclei'ations [CAISF])' of which approximately 60 have their heaciquarters in Switzerland, IFs range from the powerful FIFA 1Ëe.1er"tion Internationale de Football Association) which has been based in Zurich since 1932, to the International'Wusiru Federation (IWU$, which recently estabiished its headquarters in Lausanne to govern the Chinese martial art also known as Kung Fu. IFs act as umbrella organisations for the natiolal feclerations oftheir sport; in turn, national federations ancl state feclerations oversee c1ubs. IFs establish ancl conffol global rules, award championships to cities and countries, negotiate with sponsors ancl broaclcasters and ûght the excesses ofsport such as cloping and corrr:f,tion.They are usuah associations of associations and, frorn this point of view their govern,n.. d.r..u., to be studiecl separately frorn that of sports associatiotls that comprise individuals, such as the Ioc (Inrernational olympic comrnittee) or ciubs (chappelet, 201'6a). IFs work with private arrd public actors that have einbraced organisational (or corporate) governance and political (or democratic) governance since the 1990s ancf increasingly, require that their sport pâïtl1ers be governed appropriately within the scope of a systemic governarlce that involves a1i actors (private, public ancl nonprofit tlird partie$ in the sport (Henry & Lee,