Recognition of new governing bodies or sport disciplines

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Recognition of new governing bodies or sport disciplines

For sports and national governing bodies to be officially recognised in the UK, they must be approved through a formal application process.

Recognition is a joint policy, operated by the four Home Country Sports Councils (Sport Wales, Sport England, Sport Northern Ireland and Sport Scotland) and UK Sport. Applications for recognition of a sport and a national governing body for that sport are dealt with by these organisations in partnership, as a UK Recognition panel.

The Sport and National Governing Body (NGB) Recognition Process is currently closed to all new applications whilst the UK Sports Councils (Sport England, Sport Northern Ireland, sportscotland, Sport Wales and UK Sport) undertake a review of the recognition policy and process.

Our aim is to re-open the process in summer 2025 when the revised policy and application criteria will be published, together with new application forms and applicant guidance.

Please check back here for details.

In the meantime, we would encourage you to continue developing your sport and your NGB’s governance. You may wish to refer to the previous Recognition Policy (2017) and its associated Applicant Guidance Document to gain an understanding of the criteria we previously required NGBs to meet in order to become recognised. There is also some really helpful information on the Sports Governance Academy website and you can read Sport Wales’s Capability Framework and Governance and Leadership Framework for Wales that offers guidance on good practice.

Colegau Cymru

What is a sport?

The Sports Councils do not decide what is and what is not a sport.

There are many different opinions as to what constitutes a sporting activity and the sports councils do not have their own definition of sport. However, we operate a recognition process to establish which sports we may consider working with.

When deciding whether to recognise a sport, the sports councils look to see if it meets the Council of Europe's European Sports Charter 1993 definition of sport and if the sport is well established and organised within our jurisdiction.

What is a National Governing Body?

It is not the role of the Sports Councils to establish or appoint national governing bodies. National governing bodies are typically independent, self-appointed organisations that govern their sports through the common consent of their sport.

The aim of the recognition process is to identify a single lead national governing body structure which governs a sport at UK, GB or home country level. Our recognition criteria focus on establishing if a national governing body has achieved a position of pre-eminence within its sport and if it has a reasonable level of organisation and governance.

Sports council recognition of a national governing body is not a guarantee of funding and neither does it mean we have approved or accredited the quality of its programmes.

Recognition does not bestow any official powers on a national governing body to govern its sport nor does it guarantee direct financing of the established governing body.

Which sports and governing bodies do we currently recognise?

The sports and governing bodies currently recognised by the Sports Council’s in the UK can be found here.

Also, in interest of safety, groups taking part in the following sports high risk sports must be affiliated to their sport’s governing body in order to be considered for grant support.

Governance

Here is some useful information to help our partner organisations strive towards good governance.