Consultation of experts and professionals brought to light the following pitfalls:

• Capacity building by sport organisations is generally based on Western models. People are fairly unaware of the systems used in the target country.
• Although in recent years training has increasingly been adjusted to local requirements and the local situation, often the starting point is still what the Netherlands can supply.
• The relationship between donor and recipient is often not one between equals. Western sport associations frequently have greater knowledge and more possibilities, so that local partners are sometimes taken aback, and cooperation on an equal basis becomes problematic. Guard against the "Calimero effect" ("poor little me, it's so unfair").
• Development organisations devote little attention to capacity building within sport. They see sport as an activity. No investments are made in strengthening a particular sport or the organisations behind it.
• Capacity building by sport organisations chiefly takes the form of investing in people. They primarily offer programmes to train trainers, referees and recreational sport leaders, and less often invest in organisations and infrastructure. There is frequently a demand for trainers and training systems, but not enough attention is paid to whether the local partner organisation that will carry out these programmes is capable and suitable and, for example, whether the organisation will be in a position to train people itself after the project is completed.