Understanding Ethical Leadership, Accountability and Good Governance (2024)

The concepts of ethical leadership, accountability and good governance are important to understand if one seeks to run a reputable and successful organisation. Unfortunately, people in positions of authority frequently either misunderstand or purposefully/negligently overlook these concepts. A call for ethical leadership is viewed as a witch-hunt, calls for accountability are swatted away as a nuisance and good governance is misconstrued as bureaucracy. It is my argument that due to the interest that football garners from the public, the running of football member associations should be subject to the same scrutiny and governance regulation as publicly traded entities. As the ultimate shareholders of the game, the fans need to understand the rules of governance within the football space to know where the blame squarely lies if something goes wrong. Just like in a football match, there is no need to blame a referee for a coach failing to tactically present a competent team or to blame a coach when a player commits a foul that blatantly disregards the football rules. When we understand the rules of governance like in football, we know whom to blame when things are not right.

In my last article in what now has become the #SaveOurFootballZW series, I put squarely the failures of the football administration and the state we find Zimbabwean football in the hands of football administrators in the country. The problems of Zimbabwean football are not new. For decades the association has been marred by scandals of corruption, maladministration and poor governance. The defence of every ousted administrator has been I have not been convicted of any crime by a court of law so I am innocent. A failure to uphold ethics, abuse of office or poor governance does not automatically translate to a criminal case in a court of law. One can be found guilty of abuse of office, corruption, or misappropriation of funds within the scope of an ethics code but not in a criminal court, this is because the standard of proof within a criminal case is to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt but FIFAs ethics code standard of proof according to precedent is based on the "comfortable satisfaction" standard which is a much lower standard compared to that of criminal cases. From this point, this is why I will start by addressing ethical leadership.

Ethical leadership

Why ethical leadership and not just leadership? In my opinion, the meaning of leadership within the football space has been eroded of competent meaning because so many leaders who have come before have led the industry astray. Ethical leadership is when the leadership of an organisation demonstrates appropriate conduct, in accordance with the recognized principles and values of the industry. Football ethics are governed by the FIFA Code of Ethics. The Code of Ethics applies to all officials and any person obliged to comply with FIFA Statutes.

An ethical leader must ensure that ethical values are aligned across the organisation, promote open communication, avoid bias and lead by example. There are two glaring failures of ethical leadership of the SRC suspended ZIFA board and within the whole Zimbabwean football administration structures. Firstly, there isn’t any ZIFA Code of Ethics that could be found by the SRC-appointed ZIFA restructuring committee nor is there an Ethics Committee that could at least apply the FIFA Code of Ethics. Secondly, the SRC suspended board has been found through the BDO audit that they have praised that they failed to have measures to guard against conflict of interest, so it becomes puzzling when the defence is always we have not been found guilty of anything in a court of law therefore I am not guilty when it is established that ethics are not the law.

Ethical leadership is required to turn around a dysfunctional organisation and a leadership that has been affected by scandal and corruption cannot fail to realise that its actions are contrary to a Code of Conduct that it should subscribe to. Ethical leadership takes cognizance of the fact that a leader in their organisation has been found guilty of abuse of office by FIFA and there weren’t internal checks that could have stopped this having to go all the way to FIFA. Ethical leadership and standards are however not enough, more is needed.

Good governance

Ethical leadership can only build an ethical organisation if there is clarity of purpose that will guide the organisation. Good governance is about ensuring that your organisation is appropriately structured and has the right people, policies and procedures in place. Good governance is needed to preserve sports ethics and for the organisation to live up to its organisational responsibilities. A football association’s Constitution is the foundation and benchmark upon which football administrators should refer to about their rights and responsibilities. The board then builds its ethical vision from their founding document and sets the tone of an ethical culture for the whole organisation.

A failure of good governance found by the ZIFA restructuring committee is that several councillors who are members of the ZIFA Congress and the biggest decision-making body of the organisation had not seen or did not know what the contents of the Constitution are. This means that they did not or do not know what their roles and responsibilities are and Congress becomes a rubber stamping exercise of the decisions of the Executive Committee. Furthermore, without the existence of an Ethics Committee, a Governance and an Audit Committee, the Executive Committee becomes a law unto itself. Again I mention that a failure of governance does not automatically make one guilty of a criminal offence in a criminal case. A failure of good governance results in bad actors being able to abuse their office for financial gain or to remain in power. A board that maintains appropriate and robust policies on issues like safeguarding and conflicts of interest wouldn’t be found in violation of good governance like what the SRC suspended board is.

Accountability

An organisation that has become a law unto itself sees requests for accountability as a witch hunt. Central to the performance of the leadership of an organisation is accountability to the people and itself for the term for which the leadership is responsible. A truly accountable organisation is transparent. Don’t tell us what you did only. Show us how you did it. The philosophy of applying and explaining from the King IV report on corporate governance moves away from viewing governance and compliance from a “tick-box” mindset to describing how implemented practices advance progress towards giving effect to each principle. A board that ensures all relevant information that can be of public interest like audited accounts and board policies are made publicly available allows all actors within it to act appropriately. Allowing yourself to be open to public scrutiny as an organisation builds a good reputation and is valued by stakeholders.

Conclusion

It cannot be argued that there isn’t a need for a cultural overhaul within the governance and administrative space of football. Whoever decides to rise and take up a leadership role needs to understand their role as a member of the Executive Committee or any other leadership role. The Executive Committee should serve as the focal point and custodian of governance in the organisation. It should ensure that its composition includes a balance of the skills, experience, diversity, independence and knowledge needed to discharge its role and responsibilities. To avoid being the law unto itself, it should consider creating additional governing structures to assist with the balancing of power and the effective discharge of responsibilities, but without abdicating accountability. To not look at good governance as bureaucracy, ensuring that appointing, and delegating to, competent executive management contributes to an effective arrangement by which authority and responsibilities are exercised.

It is an unfortunate fact that we cannot stop unethical and criminal conduct within our football structures if one is determined to act in such a manner. Both laws and codes can quite easily be circumvented by people who wish to do so or are only concerned with “not being caught”. This is the reason why developing an ethical culture and mindset is so important. When this mindset is prevalent, people and committees will try to act morally even when no one is watching because they know that doing so minimises risk and is prudent from a commercial standpoint. Those who are determined to act unethically and or unlawfully can be sanctioned by having strong institutional oversight through an independent Ethics Committee and a Governance and Audit Committee.