Majority of sports compliant with governance code, says sports minister

Fifty national governing bodies – including the Football Association (FA), England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Rugby Football Union (RFU) – have agreed action plans with the government about changes to their governance structures.

The changes will be made in response to the Code of Sports Governance, which requires governing bodies that receive public money to be more transparent, increase diversity of boards and agree constitutional arrangements to make board the “ultimate decision-makers”.

Despite being threatened about its public funding status repeatedly by the government, the FA has signed off an action plan deemed sufficient.

Its board size will reduce from 12 to 10 members, while term limits will be implemented for board members and members of the influential FA Council.

The FA has also agreed to improve its diversity credentials – criticised by MPs during a vote of no confidence earlier this year – by electing more women and ethnic minorities to its board and Council.

Also committing to reduce the size of its board was the ECB, which was commended by sports minister Tracey Crouch for launching its own governance review.

British Gymnastics (with 50 per cent gender diversity on its board), the Royal Yachting Association and Boccia UK (already adhering to the majority of the code) were singled out for praise.

Table Tennis England and the British Mountaineering Council were the only two governing bodies not to have agreed action plans in place.

Crouch said she was “pleased” by the response to the code.

“I appreciate for many sports this is not an easy task, due to the complexities of current governance structures, but virtually all of them have stepped up, understand the importance of this work and have changes in the pipeline that will collectively strengthen sport in this country,” she added.