The Logistics of Running a Soccer Club
By Rory Grant
Soccer is the most popular sport in the entire world. Just about everyone knows the names Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. But what about the faces working hard behind the scenes of teams?
September 21, 2023. English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspurs chairman Daniel Levy sits down with Bloomberg News for an exclusive interview on his management of the club and the upcoming season. Interviews grow fleetingly rare because most club executives are not as open to the public as they used to be. Back in the day there were executives who reveled in the spotlight and became almost as famous as the club they controlled.
(Daniel Levy watches a Tottenham Hotspur match with the crowd. Photo courtesy of Sky Sports)
But what exactly does Levy do? How do they manage costs in a job that almost always fails to produce revenue growth? This is a fact that’s incredibly important to talk about as The Athletic reported that “From the 2012-13 season to the 2021-22 season, only 3 Premier League clubs made a cumulative profit.” The English Premier League is the most valuable league in the world, with the best TV broadcasting deal and a near equal distribution of those funds, so to see clubs struggle to make a profit when they are being given the biggest sums of money is quite scary. The astronomical amount of money that has to be spent on players to keep a club competitive is the main reason, but the costs of coaches, scouts, stadium management, and other expenses all add up quite quickly, meaning that almost every club is operated at a loss. This means that clubs have to set budgets with tight requirements for their managers. If the team doesn’t reach the success targeted by the club and budgeting department, then the club fails to earn as much money as they had expected they would. The volatile nature of sports teams' success or failure nature makes it an incredibly risky business to invest in and manage. Besides the lost money, it’s also quite often the manager’s job on the line if they fail to reach their goals.
It’s these incredibly strict guidelines that lead to the constant changing of managers at clubs, making stability in coaching departments a thing of the past. Gone are the days of Arsene Wenger’s trophy filled 22 year run as manager of Premier League giants Arsenal, or Sean Dyche’s defensive, hard-working Burnley (another Premier League club) side he cultivated over his decade as manager. EFL Championship (England’s second tier) club Watford is one of the most notorious and cutthroat teams when it comes to giving the sack, they have had 5 managers in a span of just 2 years. Instability like this can be quite detrimental to teams, as a consistent changing of tactics can leave players unhappy and not performing at their best, but it shows the requirements a club has to enforce in order to maintain stability overall.
(A compilation list of Watford’s last 10 managers over the last 6 years. Photo courtesy of the Daily Mail)
Besides just choosing the coaches who manage their teams (most clubs have both men's and women’s teams, as well as academy teams for their youth players), a CEO like Levy has to make sure that just about every aspect of the club is running as best as it can. This is done by making sure that the club can hire the best and most capable staff to maintain their buildings and offices, manage hospitality and stadium maintenance, run the club’s website and PR departments, and manage the club’s legal departments as well. The list goes on and on, with very few days of rest for those who choose this path.
Hulu’s Welcome to Wrexham documentary, a show about Welsh side Wrexham being bought by Hollywood superstars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny. One of the episodes in season 3 titled Shaun’s Vacation, discusses the life of their executive director Shaun Harvey as he tries to go on his first vacation in years, only for chaos to happen ranging from unannounced birthday hijinks that breaks aviation laws to players brandishing cleats with strong political messages. Within the first 24 hours of his departure Shaun is called 4 times on holiday while his subordinates try to put out the flames. While the episode ends on a fairly lighthearted note, the number of problems the club had to solve in just the few days Shaun was on holiday shows how hard a job he has.
(Shaun Harvey(middle) watches a Wrexham match with Ryan Reynolds(right) and Rob McElhenny(left). Photo courtesy of The Athletic)
Few jobs in the world could be called as entertaining as being a football director. Few jobs in the world make you care about each and every single person your workplace. Few jobs in the world can provide as much emotion, provide such a mental rollercoaster every single week. It’s an incredibly difficult job to run a soccer club, but it’s clear that those who dare to undertake the task clearly care about what they do. They invest time, emotion, and energy in a value that’s infinitely more than the salary they receive.