Abstract
The contributions in this special issue explore the interplay of accounting and sport. In many (most) countries, sporting organizations are economically, socially and even culturally important. Sports such as basketball, baseball, cricket, football (in its various forms), rugby and golf, among others, contribute significantly to shaping cultures, communities and societies and the experiences of individuals across the globe. Sporting organizations can make use of a myriad of formal or informal structures to undertake a diversity of activities. One factor common to most, if not all such organizations, both now and in the past, is the need to be accountable to a diverse body of stakeholders. Good information is widely considered to be critical for accountability, to enable a sound basis for decision making and this has provided accounting practices with a greater prominence than ever before (Power, 1994, 1997). One implication of the wider application of accounting approaches and techniques is that new and different dimensions of “performance” become visible (Hines, 1988, 1991; Hopwood, 1987, 1992) which can shape the ways in which the organizations and the sports operate and are managed over time. This can, in turn, also shape future applications of accounting practices and approaches to other organizational and social settings.
These themes provide useful background for the five articles included in this special issue. Among the articles, accounting’s enabling characteristics are clearly on show as authors afford accounting with a crucial role in shaping the setup, operation and evolution of the sports involved, namely Australian rules football, rugby union, rugby league and cricket. More specifically, the role of accounting in the evolution of particular sporting codes from amateur to professional status is a theme that is common to all articles in the issue.
Siddiqui and Humphrey explore the development of accounting techniques and approaches in the accountability and management of cricket. According to the authors, over time the sport of cricket has evolved significantly, embracing games in the shorter form, more complex commercial arrangements and the need for enhanced corporate governance. The authors examine how accounting mechanisms have been developed and applied to facilitate and accommodate these changes; thereby assisting the game’s governing bodies to meet challenges to cricket’s ethical standing and long-term financial sustainability.
Australian rules football is the setting for the article by Halabi, Lightbody, Frost and Carter. These authors examine the financial reports of 10 football clubs, over the period 1909–1912, a time when the sport held amateur status. The authors focus specifically on the disclosures by clubs regarding payments to players. While general football histories acknowledge rumours that the practice of paying players was widespread, the study by Halabi et al. is the first known investigation, at the time of writing, which uses historical financial reports to support (or refute) such claims. According to the authors, prior to 1911, clubs were clearly paying players out of club funds and inappropriately disclosing these payments as legitimate expenses, fraudulently using financial reports in an attempt to justify the legitimacy of the expenditures. The authors utilize institutional theory (isomorphism) to explain the widespread nature of the practice among clubs.
The next article focuses on rugby league. Also using legitimacy theory, Irvine and Fortune examine the annual reports produced by the then governing body of rugby league in Queensland, namely the Queensland Rugby Football League (QRFL). Drawing on evidence from multiple sources, including 12 annual reports from its first 25 years operation, the authors attribute accounting with a crucial role in enabling the new governing body to support “pragmatic, moral and cognitive” claims to legitimacy, enabling the QRFL to overcome challenges created by its newness to establish itself at the head of this highly competitive sports environment.
The final two articles in this issue focus on different issues relating to the sport of rugby union. Rika, Finau, Samuwai and Kuma explore accounting’s role in the context of the evolution of the Fijian Rugby Union (FRU) from amateurism to professionalism. In a country setting in which rugby is an integral part of national identity and culture, the authors analyse internal documents of the FRU from the 1960s to 1970s to explore the use of accounting techniques as tools of control. The study uncovers how the FRU initially practised rudimentary accounting during the amateur period, characterized by a large reliance on internally generated funds, as well as some philanthropy. The authors show how this evolved with the game’s move to professional status, as funding sources broadened, attracting donors such as the International Rugby Board and the Fijian Government, which sought more sophisticated financial reporting and control mechanisms. This created the need for audited financial statements which enabled greater control over financial decision making, changing the way in which the game was managed nationally.
Cordery and Davies examine the implications of the professionalism and professionalization of elite rugby on the game at the local or grassroots amateur level. Using a case study approach applied to amateur clubs in Wellington, New Zealand, the authors find professionalization to be both a top-down and bottom-up phenomenon and that with greater professionalism has come the demand for enhanced transparency and corporate governance, creating costs and benefits for the cubs involved.
It is a pleasure to bring to you these articles in this special issue. Hopefully, this brief introduction provides a flavour of the contents – just enough to pique your interest. We encourage you to explore the contributions contained herein and trust that you will enjoy doing so – as much as we enjoyed helping to bring them to you.