‘’SPRINT’’ is the only magazine in Bulgaria which specializes in sports. It was first published November 2016 and since then, every three months, it comes out with a very impressive volume of 140-160 pages. The magnificent collector's edition regularly has a circulation of between 6,000 and 8,000 pieces. Often times, together with ‘’SPRINT’’, other applications are released - World Cup 2018, Champions League, Formula 1. From the beginning of 2020, together with each issue, readers receive a separate book - ‘’FUTURE’’, which is focused on youth sports in Bulgaria. In the editorial policy, a special emphasis is put on the serious attention paid to the benefits of sports for adolescents. ‘’SPRINT’’ contains only original materials, richly illustrated with its own photos. The magazine satisfies the real sports fan that is hungry for intelligent and curious sports readings, comments, interviews, statistics, portraits, analyzes, photo sessions. Thus far, all the biggest stars of Bulgarian sports have appeared on its pages and on the cover - Hristo Stoichkov, Dimitar Berbatov, Ivet Lalova, Grigor Dimitrov, Kubrat Pulev, the golden girls in rhythmic gymnastics, Yordan Yovchev, Dimitar Penev, Boyan Petrov, Alexandra Zhekova and others. ‘’SPRINT’’ is a free territory for exchange of opinions on pressing issues, its pages are open for the best pens in Bulgarian, and world, sports journalism.
In the latest edition of ‘’SPRINT’’ - issue 24, which is on the market since December 9th, you will find interesting materials by 22 authors – astonishing accomplishment considering the 4-year history of the magazine. In addition to the 132 pages of "SPRINT", readers also receive a free application for "FUTURE" (40 pages) on the topic "Pazardzhik - the city of sports.
Content of "SPRINT", issue 24:
• Editorial: Shall we forget this year?
• World fame in one book
• Dimitar Iliev: Good memories are more important than victories
• Slavisa Stojanovic is the most victorious coach of "Levski" from 7 years
• Stamen Belchev: It was an honor for me to be the coach of CSKA
• The young talents - transferred or in the second team?
• "Real" (Madrid) and "Barcelona" - twins at sunset
• Crazy fans at the stadium
• Girls can't kick?
• In the transfers - grief, grief, only England lives
• Dario Pas's Elegies: Life between two penalties in the crossbar
• Funny transfers: The strange case of an Argentine in "Levski"
• Archives: One hundred meter banner at a match in Razgrad in 1968.
• From the autobiography of Dimitar Penev: Heart plays, legs do not move
• Georgi Yordanov - The Dragon: An unread telegram stopped my way to Real Madrid
• How Bulgaria fell from the barrels
• Comment: Death? No - life! Smile, Diego!
• Theme: The Silver Olympic Network
• In Memoriam: The Black Days of Sport
• Ivaylo Marinov: Mohamed Ali told me that I am like him
• The battle of the sexes
• Gabriela Petrova: I was not myself for three days after the Olympic Games were postponed
• The multifaceted sport of the ‘’Sofia Foundation - European Capital of Sport’’
• Exchange of books in Bulgarian NOC
• How Georgi Markov neutralized a terrorist
• Krassimir Dunev: In America I was going to be rich but not happy
• There is no unpunished good: Oh, unreasonable ...
• Good governance in sport
• To measure 50 indicators of a football player during a game
• Toma Tomov: We were competitive against the best in the world
• The new torpedoes Kaloyan Levterov and Yosif Miladinov
• Tennis in the pandemic of Sofia Open 2020
• NBA, "systemic racism" and the crooked mirror
• How the Dream Team conquered the world in 1992 in Barcelona
• Crossword puzzle
• Fill in your archive
Content of the application "Pazardzhik - the city of sports’’:
• Editorial: The place where the sport is at home
• Mayor Todor Popov: By 2023 we will have the most complete sports base in the country
• Photo stories
• Volleyball: The pride of Pazardzhik
• Football: ‘’Heber’’ follows a Dutch example
• First the base, and then the success
• Child sports = 37% few taxes
• Rhythmic gymnastics: The heirs of the golden Dilyana and Reneta
• Judo: ‘’Kodokan’’ is an academy for aces
• Basketball: Already in ‘’A’’ League
• Badminton: The Stoevi sisters motivate the kids
• Swimming, pentathlon, triathlon: The connection with the water is strong
• Reneta Kamberova: Innovative and affordable sport for all
• Photo stories
Attached you will find one of the topics in the edition – ‘’Good governance in sports’’, presented by Joanna Dochevska, Chairwoman of the Bulgarian Sports Development Association. For other interesting materials find out ‘’SPRINT’’ magazine in the retail network.
Good Governance in Sport
Good governance in sport is becoming an increasingly interesting topic as:
• The European Union still has a relatively low number of people involved in sports and physical activity;
• The interest of citizens practicing sports is declining due to scandals, corruption, match-fixing, doping, lack of transparency and public funding invested mainly in professional sports;
• The public attention increases due to the cost of public finances (rejection of Olympic host cities) and reflects the problems of governance in sports, taking into account the growing rate of loss of trust in the potential of sports organizations and the declining faith in the return on investment, the realization of holding major sporting events;
European, national and local sports clubs, organizations and federations, as well as sports governance at all levels, are likely to implement the necessary reforms, declared to be seriously needed by many European sports organizations, by signing the Declaration of Good Governance initiated by the European Commission (Brussels, 2016). Sports authorities were invited to commit themselves to promoting or implementing the basic principles of good governance in sport: integrity, transparency, accountability, democracy and inclusion.
So far in Europe, efforts have been made to raise the standards of governance in the sports sector - the principles of democracy, transparency, accountability in decision-making and the involvement of all stakeholders. Given the wide variety of sports structures, the EU aims to strengthen the application of the principles of good governance in the sports sector as a key priority. The European institutions recommend the introduction of a new approach to provide additional added value in the work at national level by collecting and sharing good practices and providing practical recommendations.
Thus far, the following important steps have been taken in the field of good governance in sport at European level: affect sport if the principles of good governance are applied
• The White Paper on Sport, 2007, notes that the self-regulation is able to cope with many of the changes that affect sport if the principles of good governance are applied;
• In 2011 (Development of the European Sport Dimension), the European Commission showed a more complex position - good governance in sport is a condition for the autonomy and proper functioning of sports organizations;
• In 2011, the theme of good governance and strengthening the influence of sports organizations in Europe was included in the Preparatory Actions in the field of sport. Eight projects were selected, implemented and completed by the end of 2013;
• An Expert Group on Good Governance to the EU was established which adopted recommendations and presented them to the Council of the EU;
• A key event for good governance in sport came in 2016 and a procedure for public support and adoption of the principles of good governance in sport was launched, signed by 32 sports organizations in Europe;
• An integrated approach to sports policy is already in place: a report on good governance, accessibility and integrity was adopted by the European Parliament and this was the main topic of the Sports Forum 2017. The forum declaration was signed by the Bulgarian Sports Development Association which is actively working on the topic.
In Bulgaria, too, these processes have their origins and one of them is the project "Good governance in sport", co-funded by the Erasmus + program of the European Union, which aims to find a way to analyze, collect and disseminate the necessary practices for visibility, decisions, governing bodies, transparency of public funding. The initiative conducted an extensive survey of the websites of 56 national sports organizations in seven EU countries and sports organizations to determine the extent to which transparency of decisions and financial transactions is ensured.
Highlights of the research report:
• 44.6% of analyzed sport structures have published their strategic documents such as vision, strategy, goals and milestones on their webpages.
• 62.5% of analyzed sport organizations haven’t published the values of their organization on their webpage. On national level only 25% of the organizations ensured that such data is avail-able online.
• 76.8% of the analyzed websites include list of members of the organization for public review.
• Only 48.2% of the analyzed organization had traces of safety and security, inclusion and anti-discrimination policies and initiatives on their webpages and more than half of the analyzed websites do not contain any information about such policies.
• 71.4% of all analyzed organizations have published in their webpages their Statute or other basic document that regulates how the organization works as a indicator for transparency and open government.
• Separate news section for publishing decisions and news about the management of the organ-ization is available in 50% of the analyzed organizations and is missing from the webpages of another 50% of sport structures that has been analyzed.
• 57.1% of the organizations haven’t published any board decisions on their public portals in any way and this information is hardly reachable from both project researchers and wide public that might be interested to see how the concrete organization operates. 42.9% of all analyzed organizations have published relevant information and it is available with possibility to be traced over the time.
• The information is updated at least every six months only by 37.5% of all analyzed organiza-tions, while 62.5% of analyzed sport structures update their websites less regularly or even do not update their website at all.
• Almost 70% of the analyzed sport organizations haven’t published any documents from their management meetings – minutes or conclusions.
• 83.9% of the overall analyzed sport organizations had published list of their manage-ment/management boards.
• Data for the biographical background of board members is available in 33.9% of analyzed websites and is missing on 66.1% of the portals.
• Educational and profesional path of board members until their present position in the ana-lyzed sport organization is available only to 13 of them that are forming 23.2% and it is missing in 43 organizations, 76.8% of all analyzed sport federations.
• Only 9 organizations (16.1%) have considered publishing the scope of responsibilities of their management and 83.9% doesn’t included such division on their webpages.
• Only 8 organizations have published information about the participation/functions, held by each board member in other institutions, forming 14.3% of all analyzed organizations and in 48 of the analyzed structures such information is unavailable that forms 85.7% of sport organi-zations that result with missing data on this indicator.
• Almost 70% of the analyzed sport organizations have developed supporting/controlling bodies and information about those structures and their activities is available on the public portals.
• 64.3% of analyzed organizations haven’t published information regarding the board manage-ment change process and mandate.
• Publication of financial reports has been found in the public portals of 12 of the analyzed or-ganizations, forming 21.4%. Almost 80% of the organizations (78.6%) haven’t published such data.
• 75% of analyzed public platforms of national and European sport organizations do not include their annual report. The annual report for each year of the existence of the organization is available for only 4 sport organizations, representing 7.1% of all 56 analyzed federations.
• 21.4% of all analyzed organizations ensured the availability of information regarding the dif-ferent funding sources that form their budget, while 78.6% of the organizations haven’t pub-lished documents that ensure tracing this data.
The full report, including details of the study and various information on good governance in sport, as well as free online training for sports professionals "Good Governance in Sport" are available at #GoodGovernanceSport platform. The initiative planned an international conference "Good Governance in Sport" in May 2020 with the participation of Commissioner Maria Gabriel and prominent global experts in the field of good governance in sport. Unfortunately, the event was postponed for May 2021.
