Across Europe, sports organisations are increasingly taking steps to improve gender balance in leadership and decision-making. According to a recent report produced in a joint project by the European Union and Council of Europe, nearly 60% of sports organisations have implemented measures aimed at increasing women’s representation.
France, the United Kingdom and Norway provide three examples of how legislation, governance standards and systematic data collection can influence leadership structures in sport.
1. France: legislating for parity
In 2022, France adopted a law introducing wide-ranging reforms aimed at modernising the governance of sports federations and increasing transparency and participation. Gender balance was a central componentof these changes.
Under the law, national sports federations are required to amend their statutes so that the difference between the number of men and women on governing bodies does not exceed one. The measure was designed to address the long-standing under-representation of women in leadership roles and to bring decision-making bodies closer to parity.
By 2024, women accounted for 49 percent of members of governing bodies in French sports federations, up from 39 percent in 2020. Of those elected, 54 were graduates of the “Clubs des 300” programme, a leadership initiative for women run by the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF).
While the number of women serving as federation presidents increased only marginally – from 19 in 2021 to 20 in 2024 – there was a notable rise in the share of women holding senior executive roles. Women now represent 41.1 percent of Secretaries General and 35.2 percent of Treasurers General, an increase of nine percentage points.
The current parity requirements apply at national level and are expected to be extended to regional federations in the 2028 election cycle. A CNOSF study conducted in 2021 estimated that this expansion could result in an additional 2,500 women joining governing bodies.
2. United Kingdom: governance standards as a lever for change
The United Kingdom introduced its Code for Sports Governance in 2016. The Code sets mandatory requirements for organisations seeking public funding from Sport England and UK Sport, and has since been applied to more than 4,000 organisations.
The framework has attracted international attention and has been adopted or adapted by several other countries. A review conducted during the 2020 revision of the Code found that 87 percent of funded organisations considered it helpful, while 88 percent said it had strengthened their governance practices.
One of the areas where organisations reported the most impact was board diversity, particularly in increasing the number of women serving as board members. Limits on board term lengths were also identified as an important factor in promoting renewal and diversity in leadership.
3. Norway: data-driven accountability
Norway has complemented other equality measures with a systematic approach to data collection and reporting. Each year, the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports conducts a national “Gender Survey”, requiring sports clubs to report on gender representation in leadership positions.
The results are published annually (2023 report), allowing federations and clubs to track progress, identify persistent imbalances and plan targeted interventions. The regular publication of comparable data has been used as a tool to increase transparency and accountability across the sports sector.
The experiences of France, the United Kingdom and Norway suggest that progress toward more balanced sports governance is achievable through different policy approaches. Whether through legal requirements, funding-linked governance standards or regular data collection, each model demonstrates how targeted measures can reshape leadership structures over time.