Football and Management PDF

This book is about management in the world of sports, and especially football. There is a strong need for effective management and marketing of football clubs in an international and commercialized world.

In 2002 I published Business Development with Examples from H&M, IKEA, ABB and Volvo (Affärsutveckling med exempel från H&M, IKEA, ABB och Volvo). This book was based on lessons learnt – on what con- stitutes good and bad management – from fifteen years of working as a consultant at SIAR (Scandinavian Institutes of Administrative Research) and Indevo as well as a few years with Cap Gemini.

After many years of research and consulting in international enterprises, ten years ago I switched my focus to sport as a true example of global business.

In addition to my experience as a promising young footballer, followed by my discovery of the strong driving forces to commercialize football, I saw the need for effective management and marketing of football clubs.

I realized that the professionalization of football was closely interrelated with internationalization.

This was obvious as Sweden’s best football clubs were still local whereas the British clubs had become well known throughout the world.

This book provides a conceptual guide to how the business of foot- ball works. Typical football books focus on the private lives of football players and rumors about teams and transfers. I reflect on my practical, football-related, experiences spanning many years through theoretical models and frameworks.

The aim of this book is not only to describe and explain how football clubs actually operate but also to highlight the best practices within profit-driven corporations that can be adopted by football clubs in order to operate in a better way. In certain situations, football is used as a role model while in other situations a conventional business model is used.

First and foremost, what are the dynamics of different football leagues and other contexts through which football can learn from business?

Second, what can business learn from football? And how can business implement these practises?

By articulating a basic framework using the differences between football in Scandinavia and in England, this book aims to present answers easily applicable in the workplace.