Public anger over governance and financial management within the Central Remedial Clinic and other institutions could have a major knock on impact for sport.
Sport for Business understands that there will be further revelations this week about major healthcare bodies, and questions raised over the levels of governance and expenditure of public and publicly raised money.
This will shine a spotlight on any organisation in receipt of grants from central government or that are in the business of fundraising. This means sport will be under scrutiny.
Over €40 million of current spending will be allocated to national governing bodies of sport early in 2014 at the same time as applications open for another €30 million round of sports capital grants.
At the same time many of Ireland’s 12,000 clubs will be going to members looking for renewal of annual subscriptions, often against a background of financial difficulty caused by the rising costs of running a club and less availability of disposable income among supporters at business and personal level.
Much of Irish sport, and almost all of it at club level, is run on the energy and enthusiasm of volunteers, both on the sidelines and in the committee rooms.
The demands in terms of time and responsibility are already a major challenge but if greater levels of governance and management reporting are introduced, as is likely the outcome of events at the CRC and other institutions, then the bar will be raised higher again.
Irish sport has made significant improvements in governance at national level in recent years but it would also have been felt that the same was the case in major bodies such as those now being investigated in healthcare.
Standards will be scrutinised afresh, and questions asked of those who have been managing financial and other affairs. Public confidence will need to be managed carefully in what is likely to be a difficult time for those who have taken on a well meaning custodial role in terms of finance, but who may now be wondering if the time and trouble is worth it.
People become involved because of a love of the sport or a close association to a club. Good intentions are essential in getting things moving but are rarely enough once an organisation steps up to a higher level and that is the difficulty which sport and clubs will face as we head into the new year.
