Development of Sports Administration and Management Expertise

Mdm Speaker, good sports administration and management are, indeed, important to the development of sports in Singapore. So, the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) works closely with the National Sports Associations (NSAs) to help them upgrade their administrative and management capabilities. SSC does so in a few ways.

First, SSC provides the NSAs with grants which allow them to pay their key management staff competitive salaries and send them for relevant training.

Secondly, SSC has an NSA Organisational Excellence (OE) framework which helps NSAs assess how well their organisation is performing and identify areas where they need to improve their administrative capabilities.

SSC also continues to work with local and foreign educational institutions to offer diploma and degree courses in sports administration and management. Examples include the Sports Science and Management Degree offered by the Nanyang Technological University, and opportunities for local students to gain sports-related education and industry experience under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of Oregon.

In the coming year, my Ministry and the SSC will be undertaking a study to address the longer term manpower needs of the sports sector. As part of this study, we will look at further measures to ensure a stable supply of expertise in sports administration and management.

Thank you, Mdm Speaker, and thank you to the Acting Minister for the reply. It is heartening to hear that SSC does focus on administrative excellence when it comes to the NSAs' management. I declare my interest as President of two NSAs. I would like to point out, though, that through my own experience helming two associations, and also from feedback from other similar federations, that the financial support given to the associations to hire staff is not significant. In a lot of cases, they are not matched to market and, in some cases, they do not even keep pace with inflation on a year-to-year basis. So, it is very hard for a lot of us to attract good talent.

As we move forward to professionalise sports in Singapore, and as we expect more from our athletes in terms of dedication and sacrifice, it only

Page: 35

benefits to have good administrative support to make sure that organisations are well-run, and athletes can benefit from that. In terms of a broader basis to develop administrative excellence, would the Ministry consider implementing more dedicated educational options for sports administrators, specifically, maybe a university course or even to having a dedicated university for sports administration as we move forward, with the development of the Sports Hub and other similar initiatives?

Madam, I thank the Member for the supplementary questions. Indeed, as I have mentioned, we would like to do a more comprehensive study on the manpower needs of the sports sector, looking at the competencies and skills that we would require for sports administration and management. We would have to engage stakeholders, the NSAs in particular, and the sports industry, to find out what competencies and skills we are lacking, what sort of salary benchmarks we are aiming for, and then what implications this will mean in terms of our financial support and resources.

On the supply side, in order to provide sufficient manpower with these sorts of competencies and skills, we would also then have to engage our Universities and our institutions of higher learning to look at what new programmes we will need to put in place, whether at the diploma or the degree level. These are plans that we have as part of this broader manpower study.

Mdm Speaker, I would like to speak as a sportsman. I had the privilege of representing Singapore for over 16 years in hockey. When the Singapore Hockey Federation was well-staffed by administrative assistants and manpower assistants, the Singapore Team performed better. It has a direct impact on how we performed on the pitch for our country. And therefore, I would like to ask whether more can be done to give grants – whether full grants or partial grants – especially for administrative assistants or manpower assistants to manage fixtures, overseas trainings, friendly matches, personal development of players, and so on. A good and well-staffed federation, from personal experience, translates into more goals on the scoreboard for Singapore and more podium finishes for our country.

I thank the hon Member for the follow-up question. As I mentioned, it is something that we are looking at. We are aware of the importance of administration within the NSAs and the impact that good administration can have on the quality of performance of our athletes and teams. Grants or support from the SSC is one aspect of it, but we think it has to be looked at in a more comprehensive manner, looking at the organisational

Page: 36

excellence within the NSAs, looking at the competencies and skill-sets that are required in sports administration and management. So, we hope to do this in a more holistic fashion, and if indeed more support and resources are required, we would be prepared to do so.

Thank you, Mdm Speaker. One last supplementary question. As we move forward in terms of fund-raising efforts by the different sports and sports associations, would the Ministry consider highlighting sports administration excellence as one of the key factors that supporters of sports corporations would want to consider when they look at giving financial support, and not just dedicating only to having their logos on athletes' jackets and uniforms and things like that. It is in helping everybody understand, as Mr Christopher de Souza also mentioned, that good administration would contribute to the results as a whole; it is not purely just the training or the equipment anymore.

I thank the Member for the suggestion. It is something we will take up and consider with SSC, and we will see how best to do so.