Football, soccer for some, is the true global sport. Millions play it around the world, and billions follow local and international leagues. Managing the largest sports organizations in the world and the highest paid athletes in history requires great management practices. The following are examples of quality deployment in some of the best and most admired football teams in the world.
ISO 9001 TEAMS
Many football teams have achieved ISO 9001 certification. Chelsea, one of England’s most popular squads, was the first to pursue and complete the old ISO 9002 (back when companies could choose 9001, 9002 or 9003 models depending on the span of the quality systems). At that time, back in the 1990’s, Keith Tozzi, then executive director of BSI commented: “Chelsea FC has confirmed its world-class status by being the first football club globally to gain independent certification of its management systems… Chelsea has distinguished itself through its commitment to ISO 9002, and I am delighted with its success”.
Ken Bates, former owner, came with the idea that the club should be excellent on and off the field. In July 2003 the team was sold to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. According to ESPN, Chelsea is currently the 4th best paying team in the world with an average annual salary per player of $6,795,899 (Highest -paying teams in the world report 2012), and it is the 40th most valuable sports organization in the world at $901 million (Forbes report 2013).
Monarcas Morelia, from Mexico, is another example of ISO 9001 certification. The Mexican team has earned registration for its youth teams, administration and stadium. On April 18th, 2004 they achieved ISO 9001:2000 registration. Owner Ricardo Salinas, requested team president Alvaro Dávila to pursue registration as “all of his companies must create value”, and Monarcas was no exception. Alejandro Tolumes, Lead Auditor says about the process “It took a lot of thinking and definitions weren’t easy. We had to establish who the client was, and we found so many: the fans, the other teams visiting the stadium, the media, the referee, the sponsors, and more.”
Monarcas Morelia has established itself as one of the best teams in the Liga MX and CONCACAF.
Even better than a team ISO 9001 certification, how about a whole league registered? The whole French Football League did just that in 2010. The Ligue de Football Professionnel certification “covers approval processes for all legal documentation, from player’s and trainer’s contracts and letters of intent, to training agreements and the financial verification of contracts. The certification is an assurance for all the clubs in the league that the 6,000 contracts processed every season, which are complex in nature are treated in a fair, transparent, rapid and secure manner”, according to Bureau Veritas.
A BUSINESS MODEL TO FOLLOW
One sports organization stands as an example of management and leadership practices. FC Barcelona has won everything there is out there, national, European and World titles. But above its sports accolades, FC Barcelona is a common subject in business books and college papers. It is the GE of sports teams.
It’s been less than 24 hours since the last “Clásico” and FC Barcelona defeats Real Madrid (another outstanding institution in the world of sports) 2 – 1. Maybe Ferran Soriano is right in his book Goal: The Ball Doesn’t Go In By Chance: Management Ideas from the World of Football. The MBA graduate was Vice President of FC Barcelona from 2003 to 2008 and he is currently the CEO of Manchester City (which is one of the main Premier League teams). His point is very simple, only well-managed teams will succeed on the field. Barcelona’s outstanding administration includes four key strategic areas: the prioritization 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. A detailed account of these four key points can be found in this paper by Sean Hamil, Geoff Walters and Lee Watson from the Department of Management of the University of London. The paper present what is called FC Barcelona’s Virtuous Cycle, which looks as follows:
One last thing, let’s take a quick look at how FC Barcelona hires its coach. Hiring the head coach of Barcelona looks tougher than hiring your average corporate CEO, the list of requirements, as presented by Soriano, includes:
- Respect for the sports management model.
- Game style.
- Encourage the following values in the first team.
- Work, work, work.
- Promote players from Barcelona’s own youth teams.
- Teamwork.
- Always keep focus.
- Attention to detail.
- Keep the same high level in practices as in the field.
- Active “dressing room” management.
- Good marketing, social and PR skills. Always be prudent with the club image.
- Football experience.
- Support of the club governance.
- Other aspects such as: knowledge of the Spanish League, knowledge of the club and its surroundings, international experience.
Out of this process came former coaches Josep “Pep” Guardiola and Francesc “Tito” Vilanova, and also current coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino. The duo Pep & Tito won almost every possible title from 2008 to 2012. Guardiola resigned due to overtiredness and took, a now famous, sabbatical before accepting the head coach position at Bayern Munich from Germany. Vilanova was Pep’s assistant and became head coach in 2012 to win the national title; he stepped down in July 2013 due to parotic cancer. Current coach Martino started this season with a record breaking 9 wins and one draw to date.
FC Barcelona is the highest paying team in the world (for any professional team sport) with and average annual pay per player of $8,680,569, and it is the 3th most valuable team in the world at $2.6 billion.
Quality organizations and quality minded people are everywhere. Whether they follow formal quality practices or not, their results precede them. Start with a quality and excellence vision and the rest will follow, “the ball doesn’t go in by chance”.
