Geoff Walters

Corporate citizenship in football: delivering strategic benefits through stakeholder engagement

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain that corporate citizenship refers to the specific activities that an organisation engages in to meet social obligations, and which has become an issue of growing importance within the business community. A key area in academic literature concentrates on justifying corporate citizenship initiatives to the corporate sector by illustrating a range of strategic benefits that a firm can achieve. This study is located within this body of work and aims to illustrate the strategic benefits that a football club can gain from the implementation of corporate citizenship activities through the community trust model of governance.Design/methodology/approach – The study draws from qualitative primary and secondary data gathered from Charlton Athletic and Brentford football clubs.Findings – Analysis of the data resulted in the identification of six strategic benefits that a football club can realise through the creation of a community trust model of governance. These are...

Corporate social responsibility in sport: Stakeholder management in the UK football industry

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly significant for a wide range of organisations and for the managers that work within them. This is particularly true in the sport industry, where CSR is now an important area of focus for sport organisations, sport events and individual athletes. This article demonstrates how CSR can inform both theoretical debates and management practice within sport organisations. It does so by focusing on stakeholder theory, which overlaps considerably with CSR. In this article, stakeholder theory is used to examine three major CSR issues: stakeholder definition and salience, firm actions and responses, and stakeholder actions and responses. These three issues are considered in the context of the UK football industry. The article draws on 15 semi-structured qualitative interviews with senior representatives from a number of different organisations. These include the director of a large professional football club; a chief executive of a medium-sized professional football club in addition to the supporter-elected director; and the vice-chairman of a small professional football club. Additional interviews were undertaken with five representatives from national supporter organisations, two board members at two large supporter associations, two representatives from the Football League, one representative from the Independent Football Commission, and a prominent sports journalist. The analysis of the interview data illustrates ways in which CSR can be implemented by sport organisations through stakeholder management strategies. The article concludes that stakeholder theory has both conceptual and empirical value and can be used to illuminate key issues in sport management.

Financial performance in English professional football: ‘an inconvenient truth’

This article presents an analysis of the financial performance of English football since the creation of the Premier League in 1992. It demonstrates that despite large increases in revenue, in particular from broadcasting, football clubs in the Premier League and Football League have year‐on‐year collectively failed to post a pre‐tax profit; there have been many examples of clubs in the Football League having to enter into administration; and debt levels have risen. The article argues that, in their denial that the financial crisis in the wider economy will seriously impact the economic health of English Football, many of the industry’s leading figures share many of the same hugely optimistic assumptions of those who seek to play down the significance of climate change. In doing so they overlook the ‘inconvenient truth’ coined by former US Vice‐President Al Gore in the context of the climate change debate, that English football is not immune from the impact of wider financial instability. The article questions whether, given the current economic climate, a failure to implement pro‐active regulatory action to address the problem of chronic unprofitability and unsustainable debt will lead to a major financial crisis in English football.

The model of governance at FC Barcelona: balancing member democracy, commercial strategy, corporate social responsibility and sporting performance

This article presents an in‐depth case study of the governance of FC Barcelona up to the end of 2008. An historical account of how the membership‐ownership model at FC Barcelona was threatened during the presidency of Josep Núñez between 1978 and 2000 is first presented. An analysis of the conditions over 2000–2003 which led to the election in 2003 of Joan Laporta as club president, on a radical platform for reform of the governance of the club, is then presented. A detailed analysis of the governance and management of FC Barcelona over the 2003–2008 period is then outlined, with the analysis focusing on four key strategic areas: the prioritisation of sporting success; the re‐assertion of member democracy and improvements in transparency of club governance; the implementation of a commercial strategy designed to generate increased revenues; and the development of an innovative series of corporate social responsibility initiatives. The analysis concludes with a critical consideration of the reasons why the mutual ownership and governance structure of FC Barcelona does not appear to have hampered its ability to compete in financial and sporting terms and whether this model could be replicated in the English Premier League.

The implementation of a stakeholder management strategy during stadium development: a case study of Arsenal Football Club and the Emirates Stadium

The relocation to new stadium developments has been a key trend within the football industry since 1990. For a stadium development to contribute positively to the area in which it is built and maximize the benefits for a range of stakeholder groups, it is important that a stakeholder management strategy is implemented consisting of two key components: stakeholder engagement and stakeholder participation. This article presents a case study of the stakeholder management strategy implemented by Arsenal Football Club during the development of the Emirates Stadium. Based primarily on the analysis of documentary secondary data supported by a small number of semi-structured interviews, the case study uses the theoretical literature on stakeholder management as a framework. It evaluates the extent to which the football club considered the needs and interests of different stakeholder groups during the development of the Emirates Stadium. Case study analysis shows that the stakeholder management strategy consisted of resident consultations, a communications strategy, a Stadium Liaison Committee, a Stadium Management Plan, and supporter consultations. The case study concludes by emphasizing that the stakeholder management strategy implemented by the football club, while clearly demonstrating evidence of stakeholder engagement, did not extend further with little opportunity for stakeholder participation and a lack of opportunities for involvement in decision-making processes.

Implementing corporate social responsibility through social partnerships

This paper examines how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is implemented through social partnerships. Drawing on previous literature and case study research, it presents a conceptual model of the process of implementation. An exploratory case study of the social responsibility partnership programme at the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has been conducted. The case study draws on interview data and documentary sources of evidence gathered from UEFA and the six partner organisations that comprise its CSR portfolio. The conceptual model identifies three stages of the implementation process (selection, design, management), with partnership evaluation being an ongoing process during all three. The latter consists of two elements, namely project and process evaluation. A key finding is the lack of process evaluation due to a high degree of inter-personal trust. The conceptual model adds to the growing body of research on the implementation of social partnerships and CSR. This paper is also the first to empirically explore the process of CSR implementation through social partnerships in the football sector.

The contests for power and influence over the regulatory space within the English professional football industry, 1980–2012

This study draws on the concept of ‘regulatory space’ to analyse the evolution of financial regulation of professional football clubs in England over the past 30 years. It begins by setting out the institutional context and, in particular, the internal governance structure of the Football Association. It then discusses three periods that demonstrate how the regulatory environment is characterised and shaped by different organisations, particularly the football authorities. It concludes by arguing that appropriate financial regulation is unlikely to occur under the following four circumstances: where internal governance structures of regulatory bodies are constituted in such a way as to inhibit the process of decision-making; where powerful actors maintain control of significant financial resources and have a desire to limit financial regulation; where minor actors do not have sufficient power and leverage; and where the government is unwilling to intervene and use legislation.

Modernisation and governance in UK national governing bodies of sport: how modernisation influences the way board members perceive and enact their roles

ABSTRACT Modernisation has been a key objective of many national governments for at least the last two decades. A significant element of the modernisation agenda has been the focus on improving the governance of public sector and, more recently, voluntary sector organisations. In the UK voluntary sport sector, this has involved policy statements, governance monitoring systems linked to public funding and a number of ‘good governance’ guides, aimed primarily at the boards of national governing bodies of sport (NGBs). Previous research has critically analysed modernisation and explored its effects, most often at a macro level. Very little research, to date, however, has looked at the influence of modernisation on the boards of NGBs. This article seeks to do just that, drawing on the first national survey of board-level governance in the UK and an in-depth, longitudinal case study of one UK-based NGB. It empirically examines which board roles NGBs consider most important and statistically compares large and small NGBs. It then draws on direct observation of board and committee meetings, in-depth interviews and analysis of key organisational documents to examine how modernisation influences the way board members perceive and enact their roles. In doing so, this article draws together the political science research on modernisation and the sport governance research on board roles and seeks to promote closer integration between these complementary streams of research.

Bidding for international sport events: how government supports and undermines national governing bodies of sport

Over the last 20 years bidding for the rights to host sport events has become increasingly competitive. While a range of factors underpin successful bids, political support, particularly in the context of bidding for mega sport events such as the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup, is essential. This has resulted in an increasingly politicized bidding process. The role of government policy and the impact on sport-event bidding therefore plays a key role in determining whether a national governing body of sport (NGB) is competitive during the bid process. Two central issues are considered within this article. First, it considers the ways in which the UK government is supportive of NGBs during the bidding process. Second, it focuses specifically on government taxation policy and discusses how the tax environment in the UK has the potential to undermine the competitiveness of UK NGBs when bidding to host sport events. Drawing on semi-structured interview data from 10 individuals representing nine national governing bodies of sport and six other stakeholders involved in the bidding process, the article illustrates that NGBs receive bid support from central government through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, from local government, in addition to non-departmental public bodies including regional development agencies and UK Sport. The interview analysis also illustrates that this support is offset by the adverse impact of income tax and VAT policy of HM Treasury. The article concludes with the identification of four key issues which require further research. First, should HM Treasury introduce legislation to relinquish the right to tax a percentage of worldwide endorsement income from overseas sports people? Second, when bidding for one-off sport events, should HM Treasury provide exemptions from player tax and HMRC guarantee that they will not pursue the tax liability? Third, is there a need for HM Treasury to create a specialist sports events unit, and fourth, should a reduced VAT rate of 5% on spectator entry fees be introduced.

CHAPTER 2 – Ownership and Governance

Book synopsis: Managing Football is the first book to directly respond to the rapid managerial, commercial and global development of the sport and offers a thorough analysis of how the football industry can meet the challenges that flow from these developments. Expertly edited by two well known specialists in football business management, it draws together the work of a world-class contributor team to form a comprehensive analysis of the most important issues facing the managers of football businesses across the world. The cutting edge analysis examines all the important business challenges in the football industry and the management of football businesses and covers all of the key football markets including England, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, North America, China, South Africa, South Korea, the Netherlands & Belgium, and Mexico. Managing Football is simply a must-read for anyone studying or working in football business management and is set to be an important landmark in this rapidly moving and globally expansive field.