Recent high-profile criticism from former players, notably Mark Viduka and other members of the football’s golden generation, has seen the establishment of the so-called Starting XI technical advisory panel by the FFA.
Some have welcomed this as a well overdue opportunity to bring experienced football nous to the table, replacing the faceless bureaucrats of the sports business world with football smarts that are down to earth and grounded in the outer suburbs.
Others question whether this is merely window-dressing – a PR exercise to bring the naysayers inside the tent, with the outcomes of this new wave of consultation secondary to the populist optics of being seen to embrace the wisdom of these retired experts.
All this gives rise to the question: is it necessary to be ingrained in a particular sport in order to effectively lead an organisation in that field?
Let’s begin by looking at some Australian examples that have been highlighted recently.
Raelene Castle recently left Rugby Australia after a tumultuous three-year period. Prior to joining RA, she had a proven track record as a respected and capable sport administrator, holding CEO roles at Netball New Zealand and the Canterbury Bulldogs in the NRL.
Radio broadcaster and former Wallabies coach, Alan Jones, was scathing in his comments about Castle as she left, opining that she knew nothing about the game.
(Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images)
Mark Viduka called the FFA “clueless” as he heavily criticized their decision making over the last 15 years – a period when CEOs included former rugby union supremo John O’Neill, ex-AFL and Nike bigwig Ben Buckley and experienced former NRL CEO David Gallop.
The leaders of both rugby union and football have been heavily criticised for their backgrounds, which were apparently not specific enough to the sports they oversaw.
In contrast, cricket is a sport known for rarely looking beyond its own ranks, and yet James Sutherland (ex-first-class cricketer) and Kevin Robert (ex-first-class cricketer, and previous number two to Sutherland) have been the subject of brickbat after brickbat – think wooden media performances, bungled MOU discussions, the sandpaper scandal and recent COVID-19 about-turns.
Todd Greenberg was seemingly pressured to leave the NRL after being accused of burning bridges with several key stakeholders. This is a man who was brought up in the sport and a well regarded CEO of an NRL club for several years before being promoted to the top job.
It would seem that sport-specific knowledge may not be the panacea for all problems after all?
(Matt King/Getty Images)
Perhaps we should adjust our sights, lose the parochial lens and cast a glance overseas to look at best practice examples of global sports leaders to learn where their top-end leadership talent comes from.
In the world of football, we have giants such as Real Madrid and Manchester United to consider. Madrid are led by Jose Angel Sanchez, who worked as the CEO of Sega – the gaming giants of the time – from 1995 until 2000. In the view of the board, he was the perfect man to make Real Madrid a worldwide brand, based on his understanding of worldwide marketing and brand development gained during his time at Sega. Judging by the fabled Galacticos period that followed, he was a success.
Manchester United are led at corporate level by Ed Woodward, an accountant and investment banker by trade. He is responsible for the governance involved in managing an organisation listed on the New York stock exchange. He more than doubled the club’s commercial revenue between 2005 and 2012, and United’s bulging trophy cabinet was expanded even further.
Switching sports and geography, in the USA, examine the practices of the most successful NFL team in recent times: the New England Patriots. They are led by Robert Kraft, a businessman so successful since the 1970s that he appears in the Forbes Rich List.
Moving to basketball and the iconic Los Angeles Lakers, there is Jeanie Buss, an executive with some administrative background in tennis and roller hockey, but not basketball.
Sanchez, Woodward, Kraft and Buss have many things in common, such as intellect, drive and connections. Importantly, though, they are all also not ex-professional athletes in the sport that they govern so well, with no obvious grounding in their games.
Still convinced that a background in the sport is essential to success?
Richard Scudamore was CEO of the English Premier League for many years, presiding over unprecedented success and unrivalled coverage of the league, which established it as the most exciting football competition in the world. He was a law graduate with no football prowess behind him and his early career was in newspaper operations where he oversaw the sales and marketing activity for a company. He has never been paid to kick a football ball in his life.
The obvious point here is that sport is big business and the effective (or otherwise) administration of large sporting entities has absolutely no correlation to whether the person in ultimate charge of the organisation has a background in the sport, or not.
What perhaps has been lost in the argument is a more subtle point about the input that former elite athletes can have into the technical development of a sport.
In the same way that Mark Viduka would be likely be a clueless CEO, Richard Scudamore would probably be equally inept in a technical advisory role.
(Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
The last 15 years in Australian football have seen the likes of local coaches Ange Postecoglou, Graham Arnold, Aurelio Vidmar, Ernie Merrick, Tony Popovic and Lawrie McKinna all preside over successful on-field stints, including multiple A-League titles, continental AFC Champions League success and the AFC title.
Not successful? To say so is clearly incorrect and disrespectful. Maybe the golden generation should be re-named the rose-tinted generation.
When seeking to make changes to the type of sports organisations I have looked at here, it is important to distinguish between the front-office operations and on-field developments.
Expert input is required for specific areas, whether that be strategic planning, financial forecasting, list management or coaching.
Another level of governance often overlooked by critics who seek to make accusations at executives for not having a feel for the game is at board level.
CEOs are rarely in a position where they make unilateral decisions so detrimental to the business that they alone should be held responsible for a negative outcome. Boards are appointed to ensure that strategic objectives are pursued and that prudent financial steps are taken. To borrow cricketing terms, they are there to eradicate the howler, rather than dictate field settings.
Many sports boards have experienced former stars on them.
(AAP Image/Darren England)
Mark Taylor sat on the CA Board for years, recently replaced by fellow Test player, Michael Kasprowicz. Moya Dodd (ex-Matilda) was an influential member of the FFA board. Phil Waugh, ex-Wallaby, sits on the Rugby Australia board. Wayne Pearce, State of Origin legend, sits on the NRL board.
There is rarely a single decision or reason why a sports organisation is going through a poor period in its history. Success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan and the CEO often pays the price for issues, which are either out of their control or the result of collective decision-making.
There are many reasons why a sport may experience tough times: individual stupidity (player indiscretions), unforeseeable global economic issues (GFC and COVID-19) and sheer bad luck (Castle playing hardball with Fox just before COVID-19 hit).
Bringing the discussion back to the integration of former fan favourites into the fold, a level of self-awareness is required among this cohort to acknowledge that their past ability to kick a ball, jump high or run fast does not provide them with a right to direct the operations of their particular sport.
In some cases, perhaps these legends would be better advised to let go of the bitterness created by that coaching job they were snubbed for that they thought should’ve been theirs, or that cushy media gig they missed out on.
Instead, maybe they should start their coaching badges from scratch at grassroots level rather than look for exemptions and leg-ups.
Better yet, get a degree – a post-graduate qualification would be even better – and gain some wider industry knowledge outside the sport before coming back into sport at a management level to effect some informed meaningful change.
Surely this would be a more constructive and noble approach than desperately attempting to stay relevant with grumpy and sometimes uninformed sniping from the back benches?
Davico
Roar Pro
What are you actually talking about? What would you know about his work ethic? Yep, I am sure he got near the top of the biggest global sport by being lazy! Plenty of talented kids running around over the last 100 years who never made it close to becoming professionals!! He has lived in rural Croatia for the last 15 years running his own cafe with his wife. I guess you think that small business owners are lazy!! He has made millions in his career so I doubt he needs to be working 12 hour days in a cafe! He has also never said he wants to run the sport! He did one interview (first in how long?) about what he sees as the short comings in the way the game is run. The powers that be have now asked him and other ex players to help out by setting up an ADVISORY panel on FOOTBALL matters! They have not been asked to run the sport in OZ. I don't get what people don't understand about this and why they seem to think this is a bad idea. Seems some still hold grudges for their own reasons.
Big Daddy
Guest
Wayne Pearce is on the board as the token ex footballer. He hasn't raised a sweat apart from this recent Coronavirus board.
aussierad
Roar Rookie
Agree with the author regarding Mark Viduka. Arguably one of the most talented footballers this generation in Australia but possibly a disaster in sports administration if his reputed work ethic is anything to go by. You lost me at Canterbury Bulldogs and Castle though - from most accounts, they weren't too happy with her as CEO.
DL2191
Guest
The biggest impediment to 'football people' getting things done is other football people. see Rob Sherman's recent comments about the greed and obstinacy of the multiple state federations. See also that the NSL, apparently run by football people, died.
Jordanv
Roar Rookie
I'd like to point out that the 2013 transition of Ed Woodward from Executive Vice-Chairman to CEO at Man Utd has been widely regarded as the prime reason the club has failed to achieve relative to expectations since that date. Woodward has been personally responsible for all transfer negotiations from the 2013 summer transfer window and has negotiated a great number of expensive, failed signings and has shown no great business acumen in over-paying for players. Look at the amount of money Man Utd have spent in the last 7 years - then tell me the Chartered Accountant has managed that spending well. Dare we even broach his hiring record - or the payouts received by former Managers? Other football club executives constantly refer to Woodward's naïveté in transfer dealings because he doesn't have the "football background". Sunderland Till We Die also demonstrates the issues that arise for "business" people when they try and run a football club - again, the new owners completely mismanaged their transfer window dealings and seemed completely stunned at their inability to get deals done. Finally, the biggest issue with the FFA is that the corporate sheen brought to it by (Sir) Frank Lowy was undone when he turned the board into another family-run business. I mean, the man owned a club in the new league his board oversaw and guaranteed himself franchise exclusivity... Not to mention our "honest" bid for a World Cup that was a non-starter in the AFC (who hate us) and with FIFA (who needed guaranteed money and good viewing times for Europe). Are we really going to pretend our administrators to date have run the game? I'm not sure great business acumen and big brands on CV count for much in our experience to date. New football, old soccer, same difference. P.S. I love accountants, and I am re-training to become one, but I'd like to draw your attention to every corporate collapse ever and the glowing audits that preceded them...
Woody
Roar Rookie
OK players, you choose. 1) Play footy and get paid. 2) Dig ditches.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
It's an age old argument, do you have to be a doctor to run a hospital? a pilot to run an airline? an infantryman to run a war? Of course not, but you have to listen to the right advice, and be smart enough to recognise the right advice. Not sure that our recent executives have understood that.
Onside
Guest
Pity about the key word in the headline BITTER .
Davico
Roar Pro
Yes, Jerry Krause was not a basketballer. He was also gifted the best player of all time to build a team around and almost blew that! After he got rid of Phil Jackson, and therefore Jordan, the Bulls have been a basket case and are languishing. Not sure he is the kind of example you want to be using!
Stevo
Roar Rookie
I welcome the ex-Socceroos finding their voice and expressing strong opinions. They're showing passion and love for the game not a desire to run the show. Their opinions can be mixed in with others and hopefully there can be a good outcome. It's an entirely different situation to rugby.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Rugby Union is going through similar administrative contortions to that experienced by football. A tug of war where the larger states, NSW and Q, can control what the agenda and HQ can only look on. The current push is for rugby to adopt an independent directors model. Farr-Jones is advocating for change including reducing bloated staff numbers at Rugby Australia. I've heard all this somewhere else.
Willem
Guest
Football has had non football people in charge of key admin and technical roles at the FFA in the last 15 years and look how it’s gone especially a sport that has ignored youth development. Han Berger from Holland who was brought in as the technical director at the time was the only one who can make football decisions at FFA level but always had roadblocks at the organisation in making key technical decisions that would benefit the sport in the future. In any sport you must focus on the core business of want sport it is and all decisions underneath must reflect that, if it’s football how to make the development of football better, If it’s rugby it’s the same for rugby development! Whatever sport it is. The ones that do it well tend to have positive sporting outcomes down the line especially at international level as we seen in football. AFL and NRL have little to no presence in that aspect and maybe the decisions made by other sports on what works for AFL or NRL clearly can’t be demonstrative as they don’t have the international presence and forces which other sports have. Sporting models need to go back to the fundamentals and ask what is it’s own purpose and how does it reflects its outputs on leagues and national teams. Put egos and self interest aside and do what is best for the whole sport an everyone could benefit!
ScottieTomSport
Roar Rookie
They may be playing the same sport as those in the English Premier League but the difference in the style of leadership needed could not be further apart. The sport and more specifically the teams are ingrained in the history of families, this means they have to do next to no marketing to get people invested in the clubs. In Australia we have obviously had to try and build this in an already saturated sports market. Australia needs an individual, or team of people that can win over the public in the same way the MLS has been able to, they are the league we should be trying to emulate. Yes, we would love to have the popularity and funds of the English Premier League but that's currently just not attainable.
Admiral Ackbar
Guest
Come on Ritchie. It helps to have people with football backgrounds (eg James Johnson and Mark Viduka) making decisions about football. Consider this, out of all the administrators with 'non-football' backgrounds we've had the only one that was arguably any good was John O'Neill.
Baggio
Guest
Great article. I was thinking about American sports in particular and how good their administrators are, after watching the 'Last Dance'. I'm sure Jerry Kraus wasn't a basketballer. The problem with some of the old Socceroo players, is they have been out of the game so long. The landscape has changed so much, not only the clubs they played for but even more so in the administration sense and the media lansdcape. Its good to get their feedback, but for them to be involved in the running of the game is another thing, this may sound terrible but most ex-players went overseas young and didn't finish schooling and we want these people playing major roles in getting $100m tv deals etc. SBS is really pushing getting old players involved or bagging the current game through their social media sites. Getting these players to explain the nuances such as crowd behavior at football games I am for though. Football is cyclical in this country, I remember years ago we were crying out for a good administrator not someone who has been compromised by their football background. Everyone lauded John O'Neill, a non football person when when the a-league launched, now everything is going pear shape we are changing things for the sake of changing things again, when all that is needed is some minor tinkering Claudio Ranieri style.
Goody
Roar Rookie
Nice article Ritchie I think we have been seeing the old guard more recently than ever take a stand against floundering administrations but you have to wonder whether it reads of self interest. When the initial interview of Mark Viduka was done he was sitting in his cafe in Croatia, Im not sure he was doing it to get his name in the paper, but rather he saw a genuine issue in the game that needed addressing and when a respected former player such as dukes says something people usually listen. And to be honest its a refreshing change from listening to Robbie Slater, Craig Foster and Booze carry on every A-League weekend. Im not sure about Deano and Cricket Victoria, but it was an entertaining back and forth. We love seeing out codes do well, but we need to remember that for these codes to do well they need to be a business which is exactly, as you've penned, why ex-players with 'passion' aren't going to cut it in the world of high business. Finally, the ex Wallaby Captains (now 10 and not including the captains on fox sports books) have made wild demands wanting change in the game. But have offered no solutions to improve the game or move forward. Maybe that wasn't their intention? Maybe it was just to stir the pot and see what happened?
Harry Selassie
Roar Rookie
Thank you Davico for providing context to the examples the author of this piece makes. Frankly this is one of the poorest thought out pieces I have ever read on The Roar. The point of including Vidika and other former players on an advisory panel, is just that- to offer advice to the FFA. It isn't appointing them to run the FFA. So the examples the author of this piece makes are irrelevant to appointing these ex players to an advisory panel. Any organisation which doesn't want to hear what persons with knowledge on the subject (these ex players) is like an ostrich burying its head in the sand (or Donald Trump trying to give medical advice!)
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Excellent article. Liverpool's recent success is based on the work of people like Ian Graham applying science to football. He is just a football fan who happens to have academic qualifications that are really useful for analysing football. If Graham's work had failed he would have been dismissed as a typical academic with no feel for the game i.e. not a footballing person. As it is, I think a lot of people are still sceptical, but certainly not Jurgen Klopp.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Most of us, ex-footballers included, form our opinions by extrapolating from a sample of one - ourselves. So, mostly, any individual's particular opinions are pretty suspect - it's the personal history behind the opinion that is really useful. Some personal experiences have more value and weight than others. So, just using Viduka as an example, his opinions about sporting things like the AIS, skill development etc are far more valuable and weighty than someone without Viduka's history and achievements in the game. But even then, Viduka is only a useful guide if others with similar experiences achieved similar results to him. So, just using the AIS as an example, if there were 100 AIS failures for every Viduka the AIS produced, the value of the 100 failures' experiences (assuming they had talent to get in) would probably outweigh the value of Viduka's experience. As an outlier, Viduka's case is very interesting, but the 100 failures probably tell administrators more about what things they need to improve to get better results. That is, where are we going wrong with all of those failed could-have-beens? On commercial matters affecting football, Viduka's personal experience - given he runs a cafe - is probably of very little value at all. As far as I know he has never ran a club, or an association, or a sport, or even a business of any size. Has he even coached a team? So, for some things, like sporting success, Viduka's experiences are of interest, but that's all. And, as for his opinions - well, as far as I can tell, Viduka doesn't have any educational qualifications that would give us confidence that his opinions are well-formulated. I'm not sure why his opinions are of much interest at all, except as a by-product of his experiences. The people who run a sport have to pay attention to the aggregate of experiences - both sporting and commercial. It's a good look for them to pay respect to famous ex-players like Viduka, but when they make decisions affecting the whole sport they need to pay attention to a whole range of experiences, not just the success stories, and certainly not just the success stories' opinions.
Chopper
Guest
I actually think it is a well written article and poses a few interesting questions. As an older representative of the human race that has been involved with football for many years I can draw on my experiences throughout life. 1) Never get an Accountant to run a business. You get him to count the money you have made and limit your tax liabilities. 2) Whether it be a sports club or a business your focus must always be on looking forward and growth. To look back provides you with history and all the mistakes you have made. 3) In sport, if given the right conditions the cream rises to the top. 4) The right conditions are as changeable as the weather. 5) Making decisions is the best way to run a successful business (sport) and you will generally find that good business can turn a bad decision into a good one because of their attitude. Finally there is no one rule to find a good leader in business or in sport. They appear from the midst of the flock, they make courageous decisions but they do listen and they care. I think we have found one in James Johnson, only time will tell.