This code is long overdue. The sports sector has needed something like a code to push it in the right direction – in terms of diversity on boards – for quite a while.
With the current economic climate, the sector could do with diversifying its talent recruitment by using new, untapped resources – especially BAME communities. The sector has been drilling in the same areas that it always has and those fields are now running dry. It needs to go drilling somewhere else. I think the code will support it in this.
As for the lack of a quota for representation, the sports sector hasn’t exhausted all the other options available yet and going directly for a target setting approach wouldn’t, in my view, be the right way to do it. What we want are individuals coming into the sport sector on merit. We need more people to come into the system organically, rather than plant people in, who may or may not be right for the positions.
It is important, however, to give NGBs and other sports organisations the help they need in making sure the incoming talent is nurtured. There’s no point having a talent pipeline and board-ready individuals from BAME backgrounds coming into leadership positions if the NGBs aren’t ready.
The problem for me isn’t recruiting BAME talent – I know it’s out there – it will be about keeping them in sport. There’s a lot of competition for leadership talent out there from other sectors, such as health.