Corporate Social Responsibility and Reporting in Sports Organizations

The second chapter deals with the concept of CSR, pointing out its contents and reference models. Initially the principle of sustainable development is examined, outlining an evolutionary picture of the initiatives undertaken in this regard, in particular by the United Nations. This principle has important implications, not only at the macroeconomic level, but also at the microeconomic level, i.e. the management of the single organization. Starting from the consideration of these last implications the concept of CSR is introduced. In this regard, we will see how the interpretation of this concept has changed over time in parallel with the evolution of studies, theoretical models and companies’ behaviors. Arriving at the present day, fundamental points of reference consist of several standards published by authoritative public institutions and private organizations whose contents are illustrated in the next part of the chapter. In particular, the following standards are examined: UN Global Compact, OECD Guidelines for multinational companies, ILO Tripartite declaration of principles concerning multinational enterprises and social policy and ISO 26000 Guidance on Social Responsibility. To complete the discussion, the evolution of the EU Strategy on CSR is shown: from the publication of the “Green Paper” in July 2001 to our present day.

The third chapter examines the reporting tools of the CSR. They provide information on the CSR strategy, on the initiatives implemented in this regard and on the results achieved by the single organization in order to gain the legitimacy and consensus of the stakeholders, in compliance with a principle of “accountability”. During the last twenty years there has been a noticeable increase in the diffusion of the different CSR reports by any type of organization. This diffusion, which took place on a voluntary basis, has brought about the need to provide companies and their stakeholders with standards of reference ruling the structure and content of these documents. The standards related to the main types of reports currently published by companies are illustrated in the chapter. In particular, they are: the GBS model for the social report, the reference standards for environmental communication documents, the GRI Guidelines and Standards for the sustainability report and the IIRC Framework for the integrated report.

Over the last twenty years, the UN has been paying close attention to sport in the form of both competitive sport and simple physical activity, so as to be recognized as a fundamental human right. In addition, sport has been acknowledged as an effective and economic means for peace and human development in several key UN documents and declarations. The contents of these documents are therefore examined in the first part of this chapter in order to point out the social function of sport and, in particular, the contribution of sport in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals. To this end, some initiatives taken by the European Union in the field of sports are equally significant. The reference point for these dates back to the mid-seventies and, in particular, to the launch in 1975 of the “European Sport for All Charter”, a document whose principles inspired the subsequent initiatives promoted within the European Community. They are summarized in the following documents, discussed in the last part of the chapter: the “European Sport Charter” and the “Code of Sport Ethics”, the “Helsinki Report on sport” and the most recent “White Paper on sport”. These documents make it possible to outline not only the commitments that the European Community and national governments have undertaken in promoting the social function of sport, but also the specific features of CSR in the sports world, which is the subject analyzed in the Chap. 5.

This chapter examines the social responsibility policies implemented by the most significant international and Italian sports organizations. The IOC is initially considered. The highest sports organization in the world has intervened on sustainability since 1992 with the signing of the “Earth Pledge”, which explicitly took into account the indications that had emerged from the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, to continue in the next 25 years with the promotion of important initiatives (first of all, the evaluation of the impact of the Olympic Games) and with the publication of fundamental documents (from the Olympic Movement’s Agenda 21 in 1999 to the recent Olympic Agenda 2020 and the IOC’s Sustainability Strategy 2016). Similarly FIFA, the most important of the international federations, has committed itself to the issue of sustainability. The initiatives in this area of both organizations mentioned are examined in the first part of the chapter, pointing out also the many critical issues that emerged in their work. After, with the same approach, the cases of Italian sports federations and, in particular, of CONI and FIPAV are analyzed. Finally, the last part deals with CSR policies in the professional sports world. In particular, two top football clubs (Manchester United and Juventus FC) are examined. Although they adopt different approaches in the social responsibility strategy, they constitute two best practices in the sector.

The challenges and the threats to the respect of the ethical principles of sport deriving from the growing economic interests linked to the realization of major events and professional sports practice have made clear the need to undertake a path of social “accountability” by sports organizations. To be “accountable” means not only to respect principles of CSR, but also to adopt external communication tools that give ample qualitative and quantitative information on environmental and social impacts and on governance (ESG). These are documents that, according to circumstances, can take the form of social, environmental, sustainability or integrated reports. In this regard, the sixth chapter shows various types of reports published by sports organizations with different characteristics: from the sustainability report prepared by the organizing committee of the Olympic Games (“PyeongChang 2018 Pre-Games Sustainability Report”) to reports written by the Italian sports federations (the model of the “Social Report of the National Sports Federations” and the Integrated Report of the FIGC) to conclude with the illustration of the sustainability report prepared by a professional football club (“Juventus Football Club Sustainability Report”).