Accounting’s past in sport - an introduction

The contributions in this special issue explore the interplay of accounting and sport. In many (most) countries, sporting organizations are economically, socially and even culturally important. Sports such as basketball, baseball, cricket, football (in its various forms), rugby and golf, among others, contribute significantly to shaping cultures, communities and societies and the experiences of individuals across the globe. Sporting organizations can make use of a myriad of formal or informal structures to undertake a diversity of activities. One factor common to most, if not all such organizations, both now and in the past, is the need to be accountable to a diverse body of stakeholders. Good information is widely considered to be critical for accountability, to enable a sound basis for decision making and this has provided accounting practices with a greater prominence than ever before (Power, 1994, 1997). One implication of the wider application of accounting approaches and techniques is that new and different dimensions of “performance” become visible (Hines, 1988, 1991; Hopwood, 1987, 1992) which can shape the ways in which the organizations and the sports operate and are managed over time. This can, in turn, also shape future applications of accounting practices and approaches to other organizational and social settings. These themes provide useful background for the five articles included in this special issue. Among the articles, accounting’s enabling characteristics are clearly on show as authors afford accounting with a crucial role in shaping the setup, operation and evolution of the sports involved, namely Australian rules football, rugby union, rugby league and cricket. More specifically, the role of accounting in the evolution of particular sporting codes from amateur to professional status is a theme that is common to all articles in the issue. Siddiqui and Humphrey explore the development of accounting techniques and approaches in the accountability and management of cricket. According to the authors, over time the sport of cricket has evolved significantly, embracing games in the shorter form, more complex commercial arrangements and the need for enhanced corporate governance. The authors examine how accounting mechanisms have been developed and applied to facilitate and accommodate these changes; thereby assisting the game’s governing bodies to meet challenges to cricket’s ethical standing and long-term financial sustainability. Australian rules football is the setting for the article by Halabi, Lightbody, Frost and Carter. These authors examine the financial reports of 10 football clubs, over the period 1909–1912, a time when the sport held amateur status. The authors focus specifically on the disclosures by clubs regarding payments to players. While general football histories acknowledge rumours that the 623958 ACH0010.1177/1032373215623958Accounting HistoryEditorial research-article2015