The International Shooting Sport Federation has published audited annual financial accounts for the first time ©ISSF
The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) has published audited annual financial accounts for the first time, in a move that makes plain the full extent of the body’s dependence on the Olympic Games for its financial stability.
Figures for 2015 reveal expenditures of €3.67 million (£3 million/$4 million) and income of less than €830,000 (£694,000/$916,000).
The inclusion of the sport’s current International Olympic Committee (IOC) subsidy of just under €3 million (£2.5 million/$3.3 million) per annum enabled a small surplus to be recorded.
Since this subsidy is calculated over the four-year Olympic cycle, it is divided for budgeting reasons into four equal parts.
The ISSF’s share of revenues from Rio 2016 is expected to rise to somewhere in the region of $17.7 million (£13.4 million/€16 million) from close to $15.6 million (£11.8 million/€14.1 million) over the previous cycle.
Personnel costs for the Munich-based body in 2015 came to almost €686,000 (£574,000/$757,000), which included a sum for “church tax”; expenses for ISSF TV were just under €447,000 (£374,000/$493,000).
Announcing the posting on the federation’s website of annual financial reports from 2012 onwards, secretary general Franz Schreiber said: “We have no secrets.”
He explained: “Transparency is key in good governance.
Shooting relies on the Olympic Games for its financial stability ©Getty Images
Shooting relies on the Olympic Games for its financial stability ©Getty Images
“The ISSF has always been working to develop best practices in the area of governance, and we are constantly improving in this direction.
“This is why we decided to publish our audited financial reports, the minutes of the ISSF Administrative Council meetings and of the ISSF General Assemblies on a public area of our website.
“Everybody will have the opportunity to download the documents.”
The IOC has been pushing for better standards of corporate governance throughout the Movement since Thomas Bach’s arrival as President in 2013, although this has recently been overshadowed by more pressing concerns over doping and Rio’s readiness next month to showcase the IOC’s most glittering sporting property.
Exclusive Insidethegames analysis last December indicated that around half of Summer Olympic International Sports Federations (IFs) already published financial accounts every year.
Based on 2013 income, the ISSF is among the smaller Summer Olympic IFs which publish their financial information.
A back-of-envelope calculation ranks it just above weightlifting, sailing and archery, but well below rowing and hockey.

Posted by Thom Erik Syrdahl
Source - http://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1039678/issf-accounts-underline-shootings-dependence-on-olympics-subsidy