The new business of football: A study of current and aspirant football club managers

Professional football (soccer) in Europe has changed dramatically in the past two decades, largely due to the escalation of media rights deals. Many professional football clubs are now complex businesses, intrinsically concerned with financial matters. Within the rapidly changing business context of football, the aim of this research is to further understand the main issues that are related to a career as a manager. This paper has five sections: (1) we offer an appraisal of the general literature as it applies to professional football management; (2) we introduce the theoretical focus of the article with specific reference to the "career" and describe the context and background to the research; (3) we describe the research methodology and present and discuss the research results, which center on the career development of the manager; the position of a manager in organizational structures, and how the changing organization affects the role of manager; (4) we set out the conclusions and implications of our research; and (5) we offer our plans to progress this research, enabling a new body of knowledge to be developed on this specialized role.