Football clubs make money that many businesses would die to make. Premier League clubs boast billions in revenue each season yet somehow a staggering number of them find themselves in financial difficulty. It’s not just the smaller clubs, though, but major powerhouses with sold-out crowds and international recognition.
The cycle becomes predictable time and time again. A club receives a cash infusion, overspends on signings, overpays for wages and then begs for help when the situation comes crashing down. The problem is that football continually attracts individuals who love the game but know little to nothing about running a business worth hundreds of millions.
The Transfer Market Never Learns
The transfer window brings out the worst financial ingenuity in the football industry. Clubs pay far more than they should to attain players due to panic, ego or desperation rather than merit. What’s worse is that everyone sees what everyone else is doing, yet the same mistakes happen every single window.
A player has one good season and all of a sudden his value skyrockets. Clubs become convinced they need to snap up a player before someone else does and pay whatever the selling club desires. Then they need to factor in wage structures. By pulling in one expensive signing, everyone else on the roster wants a bump, too. Soon enough, wage bills outpace club affordability based on cash influx.
What happens next is even more maddening. Clubs fail to learn from their history. Clubs that almost went bankrupt five years ago end up falling into the exact spending pitfalls once they become established again. It’s not that information isn’t out there, financial fair play exists for this reason, but clubs bend the rules or accept penalties as the cost of doing business.
When Passion Overrides Planning
The thing is that clubs are not run by accountants and CFOs like most other mammoth businesses. They’re run by former players, passionate life-long supporters or incredibly wealthy individuals who made their money elsewhere and think their success will automatically translate into football. That emotional investment clouds judgment in ways other industries wouldn’t fly.
Here’s where professional training comes into play. Programs exist that offer FBA world-class sports education which produces graduates who understand the game and the passion combined with professionalism and operational realism. The gap between a passion for football and knowing how to manage a professional football club is far too large and too many clubs operate without individuals who have proper sports business training.
A fan-turned-owner may approve of a signing because it gets the fans excited but not because it’s financially savvy. A former player in charge may prioritize squad depth over commercial partnerships as more important. These come from the heart yet create compounded issues over time.
The Commercial Side Gets Ignored
Many clubs assume matchday revenue is their primary financial source as opposed to one of many revenue streams. Clubs that have been successful year in and year out understand that commercial partnerships, broadcasting rights and merchandise sells just as much importance, and money, as ticket sales, yet far too many clubs act as if filling up stadiums is the only way to survive.
Even small to mid-level clubs approach merchandising sub-optimally through sponsorships. They’ll take any first deal thrown their way without devising a comprehensive strategy to determine what brand partnerships work best for them. They’ll slap logos on uniforms for quick cash without establishing a relationship that could benefit both parties in the long run. Conversely, large-scale clubs have entire departments for each commercial opportunity to ensure they’re maxing out revenue.
Merchandising becomes even worse, as clubs lose millions of euros because they fail to comprehend their global audience and the ways to capitalize upon them. Supporters might exist in Asia, Africa and the Americas yet clubs are only set up in their cities of origin, outdated online stores, expensive shipping, basic jerseys, they leave money on the table with little effort to seek it out.
Hiring the Wrong People for the Wrong Reasons
Football operates on tradition with hiring decisions based on playing career instead of possessing any qualifications necessary for the job. A star striker becomes the director of football without any negotiating experience with any contracts or transfers. A beloved former captain becomes CEO because fans will love him, not because he can manage 100 employees and a budget of 50 million pounds.
Business sectors would never allow this in other fields. A hospital administrator wouldn’t be designated as such because they were once a great surgeon. Banks do not elevate their best traders into CEO positions without due diligence and considerable additional training. Yet football does this time and time again then wonders why things go awry.
Staffing generally has their credentials sorted out, those are mandated for coaching badges, but for those responsible for financial decisions worth millions or euros, often all they’re given are good intentions matched with their playing careers.
That’s not enough.
Short-Term Thinking Everywhere
Football thrives on such short timelines that long-term planning rarely exists. Managers are sacked after a bad month. Directors are replaced when an unpopular transfer window occurs. This means that unless clubs are independent thinkers willing to take risks on patience, nobody wants to make decisions that pay off three years down the line because they might not even be around in three years.
So instead, clubs chase immediate results regardless of future cost. They’ll take out loans against future revenue to spend now. They’ll sell promising young players for quick cash instead of developing them. They’ll agree to terrible contract terms just to get a signing done before the window closes. Every decision prioritizes this season over the next five seasons.
The clubs that avoid this trap are the ones that treat football as a business requiring patience and strategy. They hire qualified people, give them time to implement plans, and measure success over multiple years rather than match to match. It sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly rare in football.
Why the Cycle Continues
The biggest reason clubs keep making the same mistakes is that there’s always new money coming in. A team gets relegated but then gets parachute payments. An owner runs the club into the ground but sells to someone new who thinks they can do better. Television deals keep getting bigger, so even poorly managed clubs stay afloat longer than they should.
This creates a false sense of security. Clubs think they can afford their mistakes because revenue will bail them out. Sometimes it does, which only encourages more reckless behavior. The clubs that finally collapse often do so dramatically, owing money to dozens of creditors and leaving behind a mess that takes years to clean up.
What’s needed is a fundamental shift in how football views business expertise. The sport needs to accept that running a modern football club requires actual training in finance, marketing, operations, and strategic planning. Passion for the game matters, but it can’t be the only qualification for making decisions worth millions.
Until clubs prioritize hiring people with proper business knowledge alongside their football knowledge, these mistakes will keep happening. The money is there, the opportunities are there, but without the right people making the right decisions, too many clubs will continue stumbling through the same problems their predecessors faced years ago.
