Abstract

The hierarchical structure of development and pyramidal promotion is often used to demonstrate the various stages an amateur athlete has to go through in order to develop himself or herself into an elite-status player or become a part of a star team in the sport. The top-down approach has never been the best practice in sport; rather, it is considered to be a problematic and destructive change in most cases as reported in the literature. The study adopted an integrated theoretical framework that combined three theories in an interactive model approach with interrelated constructs, definitions, and propositions to present a systematic view of the phenomenon under investigation. The variables under study are policy issues, valued analysis, and implementation based on the stakeholders’ roles in implementation processes and perceptions on transformation. The outcomes are variables of the policy implemented. Stakeholders’ opinions in this case reflect policy outcomes based on monitoring, which is necessary to determine the effectiveness and relevance of interventions or programs These relationships among variables underpinned the purpose of assessing current policies and administration of sports events organized to influence sports development either upward or downward. The present study explores existing sports structures in football and rugby federations in South Africa. The study found gaps in the developmental structures to be significantly narrow at the grassroots level, and a fragile demographic relationship was found at the level of elite sport for many reasons, from political interference, racial exclusion, to small social corporate interventions, to name a few. The study recommends a theoretical and conceptual framework for implementing development from bottom-up—an alternative to the traditional top-down approach.