National Governing Bodies of Sport

National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs), also known as National Sport Organisations or National Sport Federations, are responsible for governing, overseeing and developing their respective sports within a national context. They are primarily responsible for setting the rules and regulations of a sport, distributing funding and providing support to its constituent membership base, organising competitions, preparing national team programmes, and for the general growth and development of their sport. This entry provides an overview of the key characteristics of NGBs and discusses their roles and responsibilities within the sporting eco-system. The entry also identifies some of the contemporary challenges of managing an NGB, including often operating with limited resource capacity, having to respond to an increasingly complex and continually changing organisational environment, and the need to manage stakeholder expectations and prioritise their competing and often contradictory objectives.