IS A DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL NECESSARY

As a man with almost 40 years experience in local football at various levels, I have been thinking about the need for football clubs at grassroots level to have, within their organisation, a Director of Football, in its truest sense (which I will go on to explain in this “article”).

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I feel that this is particularly relevant, after Corona Virus has ravaged local football, as well as football at all levels, and of course, everyone’s lives.
 

I feel saddened that local football clubs have been “losing” their ex-players for many years now, and I feel that this is a backward step in the short and long term; I think this has happened as money has dictated the way that clubs at grassroots level, operate in many cases – not all of course.
 

A lot of the problem arisen because clubs have been focusing much more extensively on their “business” aspect, with the hope that football follows on; rather than focusing on football, with business being an extremely valuable “icing on the cake”.
 

Some clubs have benefitted in the short term from wealthy benefactors who have pumped money into the club, but most have, or will in the future, got disinterested and moved on to the next “hobby”, leaving the club often with high expenditure and no way of generating the appropriate funds to support this!

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My view is that if a club couldn’t run on “old school” funding (jumble sales, raffles and the likes) then it’s not financially sound!
 

So, from now on, clubs will have to look at how they recruit players and attract them to their club, rather than rely on providing the “best wages” or incentives.
 

There is a long term approach – developing the youth, locally mainly; or short term by persuading players to switch clubs.

The second of these will be harder now, as cash is not so readily available to attract new players.

And the former – developing long term players from the youth – MAY mean going backwards before moving forward, a luxury not allowed to many clubs nowadays!
 

I feel that the passion and “selling” of a club, to a potential new players, is often best done by someone who has “been there and done it”.
 

I know that the FA on keen, rightly, and getting keener, for coaches to have the “badges”, but I feel that a huge gap in a players development and knowledge is missing, as the focus of coaching is primarily around improvement of technical skills, with psychological skills and the “non coachable elements of the game” being ignored, especially something called GAME MANAGEMENT which can only be learned from experience – either your own, or that of others – of which many ex players have in “spades”!
 

Not only that, I feel that many grassroots Chairmen – BUT NOT ALL – are using their position as a “crutch” to support their ego; and many are great business people, but know little about football, despite their passion for their club!

I know several who are happy to tell their friends that they are “Chairman of Such and Such FC” but very seldom watch them, have not played for the club (so don’t understand the passion) or even never watch football on TV!
 

In my time as Manager, I have worked with some great Chairmen, and some rubbish ones – the common thread for those I regard as good, is that they are first and foremost “Football People”

Since I started in local football, a long time ago, I have seen far too many local clubs disappearing and I am writing this article out of concern, rather than with any agenda, so I will not be offended anyway if any of this is ignored local Chairman, or committees.
 

Accordingly, I feel that the way in which local football clubs need to operate has to change, to reflect football and life trends.
 

This means allowing people to do what they do best, for the benefit of the club concerned.
 

In simple terms this means Chairman managing and delegating through two distinct threads through a football club; firstly the football side, run by a Director of Football and secondly the business side “if applicable” run by suitably strong business people, who may not be “football people” but can bring much value to a football club.
 

The coronavirus “issues” have suddenly catapulted the need for change much higher up the agenda, but the issues were there before – namely that the hospitality trade was suffering dramatically, with pubs and clubs going out of business and therefore putting great pressure on those existing clubs.
 

The lack of trade, and therefore income, has hit many local football clubs far more greatly as a result of this dreadful virus.
 

I truly believe that the football clubs that think in a different way and are prepared to change, and adapt, will be the ones who come I thought this strongly and that is why I am writing this article.
 

As I stated earlier football clubs need to change their “modus operandi”, and hard as it is for an “oldie” like me to admit it, I believe that the days when players were happy/grateful just to play for the local club have sadly gone.
 

That said, there is still a hardcore of support for all of our local teams (which needs to be harnessed) but I believe that there is greater pressure on many clubs to focus on raising funds, in order to keep them afloat, both on and off of the pitch, and, as a result, often the limited number of keen volunteers in a football club results in a situation where you have “square pegs in round holes”.
 

In my opinion many clubs need to return to their roots, therefore focusing on being a football club first and foremost, not just a social club and or “cash cow”!

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To this end I feel that club committees should focus on what they do well, rather and try to satisfy the aforementioned egos of certain individuals and or put upon the unlimited number of volunteers within any club to do every role.
 

As such, I feel that clubs with Chairman and/or Presidents (particularly the Presidents) should treat these people as figureheads within the club, as they have often been key club members for many years and in my opinion should simply, on match day, represent the club at matches.
 

They should not merely be the “doers” and should be able to relax and be themselves, being the outward representation of the club and what people see.
 

In my experience most local, grassroots, clubs have a relatively similar structure and I feel that the roles of a grassroots club should be something similar to what follows
 

Chairman - This person should be responsible , in my opinion for preparing and managing a club’s business plan, whilst managing their direct reports, and therefore reporting back to the full club committee.

Their direct reports should be the Director of Football, as well as the Business Director (usually the Vice Chairman) of the club.

The role should be a “hands on” one, to the degree shown above, and they should spend time at their club , particularly being a visible figurehead and representative of the club.
 

Treasurer - This person should report directly to the chairman and is responsible for all bookkeeping, reporting back to the committee once a month at committee meeting on all matters relating to any club monies.

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Club Secretary - This person should handle all club official correspondence, referring it to the appropriate person in order to be dealt with, whilst keeping a note of who is supposed to be doing what.

A crucial part of the role is to take and issue, in a timely fashion, committee meeting minutes who stop

Vice Chairman - The Vice Chairman should be very much a person who supports the club both on and off of the pitch, being part of the committee; including acting as a delegated Chairman when they (the Chairman) are not available.

Ideally this person will be effectively the first line of delegation of all non-football matters for the Club Chairman and, in a perfect world, will be a strong business person.

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Director of Football - This person would be responsible for reporting to the main committee, via the Club Chairman, and the co-ordination of all of the football club’s teams.

Another key element of the role should be the compiling and delivering of a football business plan, as well as overseeing and recording football committee meetings on a bi-monthly basis to the full committee.

A crucial component of this job is to not only improve the playing structure at the club but also to involve and grow the football “love” for the club.

A major part of this will be to reintroduce ex-players to the club , as well as developing the number of teams, and types, who play for the club - examples of this could possibly include youth, ladies and walking football amongst other ideas.

 

Players reps, linked with functions co-ordinators from the committee - These people are there to take responsibility for overseeing all club functions, including “big matches”, and also reported to the main committee on behalf of the players and or members.

The non-playing player’s reps should be responsible for managing the gate and selling programmes at every home match.

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Representatives from junior (age related) clubs - Most clubs, even at grassroots level, a link with a junior club (which are far more structured and organised than in “my day”).

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I believe that for any club to be successful, it needs to have such a link and/or direct group and as a result should be that representatives of these junior clubs should attend the club committee meetings, and vice versa, in order to

• ensure compliance with

• help each other to develop, and

• make sure that there is a pathway for players from junior to senior level, with the added benefit of being able to give something back at the end of ones “career”.
 

All of the above ideas result in the case that the football part of any club HAS to be part of the main committee , albeit self-managed; and it (the football) should cost the club nothing (i.e. staying cost neutral) but must remain accountable to the club as a whole, via the main committee
 

As stated, in my opinion, the football part of any club should be self-funded, and not be reliant on club funds to cover their costs, as already explained clubs will be struggling as a result of the Corona Virus anyway, and in many cases unable to fund football costs from revenue and income streams.
 

However, whilst a football club should be self-managed and self-funded, it must remain part of a main committee, as in my experience separate football committees are a “no go”, and merely create a divide within a club.
 

This approach, namely, using a football structure to self-manage, will allow the rest of the committee members, including those volunteers whose love is for a club, rather than just football, to concentrate its main efforts on fundraising and a clubs day-to-day finances, or to the benefit of the club itself.
 

In my opinion, there are, and will be, many opportunities to raise funds to keep a “football side” of a club afloat, and possibly even developing, without drawing on a generic funding line.
 

There are additional benefits to getting a formal structure in place such as getting an FA chartered status of one of the varieties available, and I believe that this should be part of the Director of Football's role.
 

Greater funding to run football clubs is available, increasingly so, as organisations realise that football clubs at grassroots are struggling with their finances, as the FA is really keen to assist in a clubs progress wherever it can, this should be “tapped into”!
 

Additionally, a Director of Football should be increasing a club’s profile locally leading to two major benefits

• one being the recruitment of new players

• the second being something that the business side of a football club can utilise in order to obtain funding, especially through things like sponsorship.
 

I truly believe that all local clubs, of various sizes and of many league positions, needs the role of Director of Football in its truest sense, not just as a flash title which satisfies somebody else’s ego (as already highlighted with SOME Chairmen)

I believe that there are many local ex-footballers who are keen to, and want to, get involved in their local clubs again and my genuine belief is that these people would make fantastic Directors of Football (the role as shown previously) for the benefit of the club.

These people often do not want to manage anymore, but want to be closely involved in the development of the club that often they have loved, and committed many, many hours to.
 

My belief is that this role is not just another pompous title made up to suit someone’s ego, but is very much a crucial role in order to bring a club together at all levels, nor is it a made up role in order to create a “manager in sheep's clothing”.
 

So, to summarise - In my opinion, a Director of Football needs to be tasked with bringing a club and it's history back together, linking all aspects of the playing game for the benefit of the club as a whole, not just one team.
 

They should look to, and be measured by, how do they increase support for the club, not just it's teams, they need to be football representative within the club, and cater for all press/PR inquiries, directing them to the appropriate person where applicable, and creating a support for the management team – Managers, Coaches, Assistants etc - within the club group.
 

In my opinion a Director of Football should handle all “football issues”, in order to enable the rest of the committee , especially in this very hard time, to work on cash issues and making a club a success off the pitch, I also believe that the role should not be kept on in perpetuity, but should be elected on an annual basis, as should the whole Committee.

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This is truly how I'd run a football club if I was having to do it myself , therefore I am passionate and firmly believer in it.
 

And I say this as I would love to see all local clubs, at grassroots level, not only survive but actually thrive within the future.

I think this can happen, but I await the opportunity to be corrected!

 

 

ABOUT THE ARTICLE WRITER

Tim Richens has been on a “sabbatical” for a few years now, having spent nearly 40 years in

football as a Player, Manager, Coach (he has done his UEFA B licence) and also referee.
 

He has won many trophies over many years and also Managed his local club, Cheddar FC, into the Western League for the first time in their long history.
 

He is Cheddar FC’s longest ever serving Manager and has managed at all levels, as well as all genders, and now actively plays Walking Football (when allowed!)
 

And ........... what could he offer/bring any club, if they needed it?

- A track record of successful management (CV available upon request!)

- A tried and tested 20 week development plan to improve a team, the units and the individuals in a co-

ordinated, and understandable, way (it is based on creating a team/club DNA) that integrates player

improvement alongside team development

- Massive passion and commitment

- Great coaching knowledge

- A guarantee to improve the players and therefore the team that exists

- Qualifications and experience working with youngsters, older players, both genders and all levels of ability
 

BUT, MOST OF ALL – EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE, AS A “CONSULTANT”!

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