How to run a football club?

Comparative study on the management of professional football clubs at home and abroad

[ Abstract] Based on the management status of professional football clubs in China, this paper compares them with European professional football clubs from three aspects: the development of football industrialization, the operation mode of football clubs, intermediaries and brokers. In Europe, the professional football club is an independent economic entity with all kinds of commercial activities as the center. It takes the audience as the core, earning box office income, TV broadcast income, advertising business sponsorship income and club industry development income as the survival basis. We should learn from and absorb the experience of successful clubs in developed European professional football countries, especially the advanced management methods and methods of developed European football countries, and improve the management system of professional football clubs in China.

[ Keywords] Comparative study on the industrialized operation mode of professional football clubs

About the author: Shen Yuheng, (1979-), a graduate student of sports humanities and sociology in Shenyang Institute of Physical Education, whose research direction is school sports.

I. Introduction

Nowadays, the development of professional football in China has entered the 14th year, and the football club system characterized by professionalism and socialization has basically taken shape. With the help and guidance of local governments and the Sports Commission, the club has established a corresponding organizational framework. If you want to have a good league, you must have a club with perfect operating mechanism. If you want to have a good club, you must have a successful management mode. This paper refers to the successful management experience of foreign professional football clubs, expounds some problems existing in Chinese professional football clubs, and provides reference for the development of Chinese professional football clubs.

II. Comparison of industrialized operation and development of football

Professional football clubs should pay attention to the competition results while maximizing the benefits. By comparison, there are great differences in industrial operation and development between clubs in China and Europe. In some countries with developed professional leagues in Europe, clubs always try their best to develop the market around football. Their main sources of income are:

1. Ticket income, including domestic leagues, cups and international leagues. 2. TV broadcasting income: There is a developed pay TV system in Europe, which makes the TV broadcasting income rise continuously. If a team can achieve good results in its own league and reach the European Champions Cup and UEFA Cup, its TV broadcasting income will rise. Some famous clubs, such as Manchester United, have established their own pay TV channels to increase the club's income. 3. Income from advertising and commercial sponsorship. TV broadcasting has promoted the rapid development of professional football, and at the same time, it has also allowed businesses to see the huge advertising effect and corresponding commercial value of teams and stars. Of course, the greater the reputation of the club, the higher the amount of sponsorship. 4. Market development income: clubs in European countries generally own their own stadiums. Even if they don't have their own stadiums, they can rent government-owned stadiums at low prices for a long time, so that clubs can use the stadiums to carry out diversified operations such as restaurants, bars and rentals. In addition, almost every club in Europe has its own store to increase its income by selling clothes and souvenirs.

III. Comparison of operation modes of football clubs

(I) Club management system

Under the market economy system, football clubs must maximize profits, and cost, income and profit become the main lines of business investment. The management of football clubs in China is not very standardized in this respect, which is mainly related to the formation mode of clubs. At present, there are two main modes of establishing professional football clubs in China: first, enterprises buy out the naming rights of clubs, and the sports bureau or the Football Association invest in the original football team's sports technology and team name ownership to form a joint venture between government and enterprises; Second, enterprises invest in shares, and the Sports Bureau or Football Association forms a joint-stock company with intangible assets such as the sports technology and team name of the original football team as shares. Both of these clubs have some defects, the main problems are: < P > 1. Unstable foundation; 2. Unclear property rights; 3. Unreasonable organization; 4. The operating mechanism is not perfect. The mode of construction of developed professional football clubs in Europe is that a number of enterprises jointly buy out the naming rights, and operate independently and be responsible for their own profits and losses by earning tickets, TV broadcasting, commercial sponsorship and market development income. In addition, in the developed countries of European football, such as Germany, France and Britain, there are club leagues, which are responsible for managing the construction and operation of professional leagues and clubs, and the Football Association has no right to interfere. The mutual independence between the league and the Football Association reflects the real separation of politics.

(II) The permanent title of the club

Due to the limited management ability of domestic football clubs, only by advertising on their chests can they get the capital investment from enterprises, so they have to re-register the club name after finding a sponsor every time, which will not bring any impact to the club in the short term, but from the long-term social effect, the loss is huge. Always changing the name is bound to affect their own industrial development, brand-name products can not be formed. Compared with China, European professional football clubs are much more mature.

(3) Free transfer of club players

According to the Regulations of China Football Association on Athletes' Identity and Transfer, the current transfer system of domestic athletes in China adopts the "delisting system", which can be divided into "straight pick" and "reverse pick". The main operation method of "Shun Picking" is: the athletes who want to transfer apply for transfer, and report to the China Football Association after the club agrees. At the end of each year, the Football Association calls all clubs to hold a delisting meeting for athletes' transfer, and the delisting procedure is carried out from strong to weak according to the results of last season. The "reverse extraction" program is the opposite. Practice has proved that this kind of transfer is unreasonable, and the result is that the club loses the opportunity of autonomy and fair competition. In addition, it is also against the market law for the Football Association to limit the transfer amount in order to reduce the club's unreasonable price. The value of players is determined by the market, not by anyone. The method adopted by foreign clubs on the issue of athletes' transfer is the mechanism of athletes' free transfer, and the market economy lever is fully used to solve the contradiction between supply and demand among athletes, coaches and clubs.