Good Governance in Football Organisations from an Ethical Perspective and a Proposal for the Greek Football’s Reformation

Abstract

The social, cultural and moral significance of sport renders sports organisations accountable for their operation and impact, both in the world of sport and the wider society. Therefore, ethics appear to be a key concept and little research into the governance of football organisations has taken place until now, in particular regarding the value of ethics in the good governance of these organisations. This thesis has examined and evaluated governance from an ethical perspective. For the scope of this study a case study approach has been adopted; investigating three football organisations: FIFA, UEFA and the Hellenic Football Federation (HFF), together with the wider Greek football system. For the analysis of the cases, Institutional Theory has been used to identify the institutional context of the organisations. Additionally, MacIntyre’s virtue-goods-practice-institutions conceptual framework has been used to identify and assess the ethical dimension of the organisations. By reviewing the recent history of the three organisations, we have identified the role of institutional context, agents and ethics. Our analysis shows that while FIFA and UEFA have both developed significantly, UEFA has been operating within a stricter institutional context and its major agents appear to be less corrupted. In contrast, FIFA despite its great power and influence, has allowed a culture of corruption to become a dominant tenet. Similarly, the HFF and the Greek football system can be characterised as deeply corrupted, since the big clubs dominate Greek football in order to serve their own interests. The study concludes by arguing that Institutional Theory and an ethical conceptual framework like that of MacIntyre, can assess the governance of football organisations from an ethical perspective. Finally, a proposal for the Greek football includes some major shifts in the institutional level and the implementation of a nationwide plan to infuse good governance and principles of virtue ethics into all the regional football associations, which are the grassroots of the Greek football system.