Ganesport Institute, Indonesia’s first think-tank in sport policy and management, presented its 3-year studies observing the country’s sport governance at Play the Game 2022.
Play the Game, an international sport conference with interest in sport politics, governance and social issues, celebrated its 25th anniversary gathering top sports stakeholders ranging from journalists, academics, politicians, sport federation officials, athletes, activists, CEOs, public servants to coaches in Odense, Denmark, in June.
Ganesport director Amal Ganesha presented studies, experience and observations about the current state of mind inside Indonesia’s sports stakeholders.
“Symptopms of bad governance in Indonesia’s sport sector have been very obvious with recurring events of violence, corruption and imbalance sport policy objectives,” Amal said during his presentation on Thursday (30/06/2022).
“There’ve been a clear imbalance between elite sport and grassroots sport, in which the latter is significantly neglected, while the elite sport policies have been unsuccessful for years,” he said referring to the institute finding that Indonesia’s cost per medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics reached Rp 1.1 trillion or US$ 84.6 million, far more expensive than that of the UK’s Team GB with around US$ 9.3 million costs per medal after the accumulation of four-year cycle of funding into the elite sports.
One of the reasons why the governance of sports in the country is very weak, Amal explained, is because top sport actors only know about medal achievement, while other important areas such as governance, policy and development are not given significant attention.
This was Ganesport’s second participation at Play the Game as it firstly participated at the conference’s 2019 edition in Colorado Springs. At the 2022 edition, Ganesport delegates comprising Amal himself and sport journalist Dex Glenniza received a substantial grant from Play the Game to be able attending the conference in Odense.
Ganesport also partnered with Play the Game in 2021 to accomplish National Sports Governance Observer 2 studying Indonesia sport governance context. Play the Game was founded in 1997 by Danish journalist Jens Sejer Andersen and it is now part of the Danish Institute for Sports Studies (Idan), an agency under the Danish Ministry of Culture.
Featured image is courtesy of Play the Game/ Thomas Søndergaard
