Local sports associations must plan well in advance for the new year

Sports associations must be more organised on how they run their events in the new year.

Every year, the Government requests sports associations to submit their financial budgets at the beginning of the year, but only a handful usually comply with this requirement. Instead, what most associations do is wait for the last minute before making frantic efforts as they put out financial appeals to organisations and the Government to sponsor events that they were well aware of months before.

While some sports officials operate like this out of laziness, a good number prefer this modus operandi because it gives them an opportunity to make a killing from trips abroad and through tournaments. Because failing to plan means planning to fail, this trend must be arrested once and for all.

The Government, which has been one of the biggest sponsors in the past year, ought to be strict with associations which do not present their budgets in advance and starve them of cash, if only as a lesson for them to put their house in order. Local sports associations must draw their budgets well in advance to avoid management by crisis which creates loopholes for embezzlement of funds.

More importantly, the Government must speed up the implementation of the Sports Bill, which provides for the establishment of a lottery to support sports activities. The existence of a lottery will relieve the Government of the burden of having to support sports activities and will also ensure associations have enough resources to adequately prepare for and take part in even more international events. There has been a lot of talk about the establishment of the Sports Policy, and it is time for action.