Abstract

This chapter presents an analysis of social responsibility and sustainability in the management of Spanish sports organizations, focusing especially on the perceptions, practices, ethical conflicts, and future perspectives reported by organizations in relation to these issues. Analysis of the main initiatives currently in place reveals that the public sector has an important influence on the adoption of responsible management criteria by sports organizations. Corporate governance issues were also revealed to be highly prominent, with such issues emerging to a greater extent in professional soccer clubs and large sports organizations. From an empirical point of view, the chapter presents analysis of five semi-structured interviews conducted with representatives of one sports organization from the public sector, one from the for-profit sector, and three from the voluntary sector. Findings reveal that organizations’ personal objectives and legal status condition their perceptions of issues regarding social responsibility and sustainability, in addition to the way in which they operate on a daily basis and their future prospects.