Autonomy, Trust and Power: Understanding Sports’ Transnational Regulatory Regime

Sport is a system of rules; a regulatory system. Without rules there is no sport – just play! The makers of those rules are sport governing bodies (SGBs), of which the IOC and FIFA are exemplars. SGBs have developed a transnational hybrid regulatory regime of great sophistication, combining contractual, criminal and administrative tools with public and private enforcement mechanisms. Through this transnational regulatory regime, they control every important aspect of their competitions. They determine which countries and athletes compete in their competitions, when and where, as well as the manner with which they must conduct themselves. They also have proven themselves adept at co-opting nation states to assist them to administer and enforce their rules, and in disciplining nation states that purport to act contrary to their interests. Central to their ability to do this is the concept of "autonomy" – that SGBs have the right to (self) regulate their sports free from political and government interference. And central to the concept of autonomy is the perception that SGBs – and not governments – can be trusted to protect and advance sports’ universal values of fair play, tolerance and friendship. This trust is a powerful source of discursive power. Challenges to sports’ autonomy are emerging, however. Recent failures in sport governance arguably reflect too much autonomy, and undermine the trust upon which SGBs rely for their legitimacy. This is leading to calls for sport governance to be reformed, and SGBs stripped of their autonomy and self-regulatory status. These calls range from governments playing a more assertive role, to the adoption of collaborative governance approaches, through to the democratisation of sport. This paper will employ concepts of autonomy, trust and power to understands sports’ transnational regulatory regimes, the challenges they face, and how they might evolve in response to these challenges.