In the 1960's, the staffing at most football clubs were limited in their scope - manager, coach and physiotherapist were a standard. Today, clubs from Milan to Bolton have extensive staff hierarchies including sports psychologists, dieticians, sports scientists and medical staff with expertise in Performance Enhancing Substances (PESs) in addition to the agents of capitalism who are required to spectacularise the game (marketing, merchandise, press and publicity, club tv, sponsors, hospitality, bookmakers, newsletters, fanzones etc).
A most unfortunate sign of the times is that all major clubs throughout Europe now require market analysts - even though most of them are not yet aware of this fact. The degree of manipulation is on the rise and the complexities of the market solutions are opaque to all but a few operators. Clubs merely have two options. They may either ignore the corruption endemic in the game and take their chance against the manipulated markets or they can play the system and significantly enhance their options. If a club chooses to take the latter route, they are still able to confront the corruption on a moral level by standing up to it in public.
Our organisation is very particular about the Consultancy Projects that we undertake. We are currently in negotiation with one Premiership club regarding the provision of exclusive proprietary market analysis and this club is one of only two in England that we would consider working alongside.
As European football develops parallel strategies with other market sectors, niche consultancies will become the norm. The successful teams will be the ones who proactively manage the sectoral changes in real time.
