Indian sport has spent the last decade upgrading its visible infrastructure: stadiums, high-performance centers, athlete support systems, and international exposure.
Yet, behind these tangible gains lies a quieter but far more consequential reform now taking shape: the professionalization of sports administration. The proposed National Multi-Level Competency and Curriculum Framework for Sports Administrators aims to address a long-standing truth: elite performance cannot be sustained on ad hoc governance and generalist bureaucracy.
Driven by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) and the Sports Authority of India (SAI), the framework represents a shift from personality-driven administration to a specialist-led professional service. It acknowledges that while India’s athletes are increasingly world-class, the systems supporting them have often lagged due to fragmented expertise, frequent transfers, and limited institutional memory.
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Multiple task force evaluations have highlighted systemic weaknesses across India’s sports bodies: a dependence on generalist civil servants in domain-specific roles, a lack of standardized training, weak coordination between the center, states, and federations, and minimal athlete representation in decision-making. While schemes like TOPS and Khelo India have strengthened athlete pipelines, administrative capability has not evolved at the same pace.
The proposed framework is designed as the “software upgrade” to match India’s rapidly expanding “hardware.” Anchored within the Khelo Bharat NITI 2025 vision, it seeks to create a nationally benchmarked cadre of administrators who are digitally fluent, governance-literate, athlete-centric, and globally competitive.
A Five-Level Professional Pathway
At the core of the reform is a five-tier competency structure, offering a clear progression from grassroots administration to international sports leadership. The Foundation Operator level focuses on district and block-level administration facility management, athlete logistics, and scheme implementation. This ensures that the first administrative touchpoint for young athletes is competent and ethically grounded.
The Advanced Practitioner tier introduces functional specialization. Administrators at this level manage domains such as sports science coordination, regional high-performance logistics, or competition operations, acting as a bridge between grassroots data and national strategy.
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At the Strategic Leader level, professionals head divisions within SAI or National Sports Federations (NSFs). Their responsibilities expand to budget oversight, long-term development planning, and multi-stakeholder coordination, requiring a deeper understanding of governance and performance monitoring.
The Institutional Director tier focuses on national-level leadership. These administrators shape policy, mobilize resources, and ensure alignment with international best practices, often interacting with global federations and sponsors.
Finally, the visionary architect represents the apex of sports governance leaders capable of shaping India’s global sporting identity, negotiating mega-event bids, and operating within international sports law and diplomacy frameworks.
Ten Competency Clusters for Modern Sport
To support this progression, the framework identifies ten core competency clusters, ensuring administrators are more than procedural managers. These include athlete welfare and safe sport, grassroots and inclusive development, high-performance systems, governance and regulatory knowledge, leadership, operations, resource mobilization, communication, digital and analytical literacy, and ethics with continuous learning.
This holistic design recognizes that modern sport is not siloed. An administrator managing a National Centre of Excellence must understand sports science, procurement rules, athlete mental health, and performance analytics, often simultaneously.
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One of the most transformative elements of the framework is the institutionalisation of a Dual Athlete Career Pathway. The National Sports Governance Act 2025 mandates Sportsperson of Merit (SOM) representation in federation bodies. The competency framework ensures these roles are not symbolic but functional. Athletes are incentivised to complete governance modules aligned with their post-retirement trajectories. Completion is recognised as additional merit for SOM positions, creating a pipeline of leaders who combine lived sporting experience with administrative competence.
This directly addresses the historical disconnect between decision-makers and athletes.
Recognising the realities of sporting careers, the framework adopts a modular, credit-based structure aligned with NEP 2020 and the Academic Bank of Credits. Athletes and professionals can accumulate credits over time, pause for Olympic cycles, and re-enter education without penalty. Hybrid delivery and digital platforms ensure accessibility without compromising training schedules.
Oversight Through NCSECB and a National Registry
The success of this reform hinges on governance. The proposed National Council for Sports Education & Capacity Building (NCSECB) will act as the apex statutory regulator—accrediting institutions, developing curricula, benchmarking globally, and maintaining a National Registry of certified administrators linked through a Unique Administrator ID (UAID).
This registry introduces transparency, supports evidence-based hiring, and protects institutional memory an area where Indian sport has traditionally struggled.
Crucially, professionalisation is tied to incentives. Adoption of the framework is linked to eligibility for central assistance and grants under the revised Scheme of Assistance to NSFs. Federations are now permitted to allocate funds specifically for administrative manpower, legal services, and professional executives, signaling a recognition that governance itself requires investment.
A Structural Turning Point
This framework is not merely an education reform; it is a structural reset. By replacing ad hoc administration with a nationally certified professional cadre, India is addressing a foundational weakness that has limited long-term sporting success.
As the country looks toward 2036 and beyond, medals will depend not just on talent and infrastructure, but on the quality of leadership behind the scenes.
The National Multi-Level Competency and Curriculum Framework offers a blueprint to ensure Indian sport is no longer run on goodwill and improvisation but on expertise, accountability, and strategic vision .
