Football Club Management Software: Why do you need one, Now!

Software de gestion de clubes de futbol

1. Football as mass sport

1.1. The origin

In ancient China, Japan, Greece, and even in the Inca and Mayan empires, there are references to sports similar to what we know today as football. But under all official considerations, football as such was created in the year 1848, when the “14 Cambridge Rules” were written. Subsequently, on October 26, 1863, in the Free Masons Tavern in London, the Football Association was founded, which made the sport official.

1.2. The boom

Di Estéfano, Pelé, Johan Cruyff, Maradona,… From the middle of the 20th century, and especially during the 70’s and 80’s, the first idols began to appear. Football players known worldwide, and that turn football into a sport of masses. Thanks to all of them, without a doubt, and to the simplicity of playing with a ball and two goals, football became the most practiced sport in the world. It does not matter sex, age, race, religion or social class. Everyone can and wants to play football. Football arouses passions in every corner of the world. That is why we refer to football as the king of sports.

1.3. Professionalization

But even so, when we get nostalgic and watch matches from other eras, we can realize that football has evolved, and that that football had nothing to do with the current one. Nowadays, professional football clubs are true multinational companies. And they employ the best professionals. With huge salaries and generating an immense volume of business. Their management, at all levels, is becoming more and more complex.

 

2. The management of a football club

The management of a football club, nowadays, is a complex task that requires specific knowledge and experience.

To a greater or lesser extent, and depending on the structure, category and professionalization, these are some of the most important areas to manage when running a football club:

  • Follow-up of younger players.
  • Talent acquisition (scouting)
  • Coordination of groups, training sessions and matches,
  • The medical area (traumatology, psychology, physiotherapy, nutrition, etc.),
  • Maintenance of facilities (fields, offices, common areas, residences, etc.).
  • Marketing and communication, sales, sponsorship and income.
  • The area of human resources,
  • The economic, accounting, tax, etc. areas.
  • The development of technical teams

2.1. Management of an amateur football club

However, despite the fact that all the tasks mentioned above are relevant for all clubs, in amateur football there are tasks that take on special relevance. For the management of an amateur football club, the most important tasks on a day-to-day basis are all those that encompass the progress of its players. It is important that amateur football clubs succeed in developing their players so that they will one day go far in professional football. There is no greater reward for an amateur football club than to see its players succeed in the Spanish, Italian, German or English leagues. Not to mention that this will bring more and more players and more and more sponsors.

Some of these tasks are:

  • Sports management and coordination of the teams in the different categories.
  • An efficient, well-defined flow of statistics, in which no information is lost between the different departments or people involved.
  • Define work methodologies that are increasingly better developed and professionalized.
  • That these methodologies are in line with the philosophy or culture of each club.
  • External talent acquisition (scouting).

For all these reasons, it is vital to have a football club management software that is capable of bringing together and efficiently solving all these tasks and many more.

2.2. Management of a professional football club

When we talk about the management of professional football clubs, the fundamental difference is the volume of business they move. They are truly multinational companies, in which each and every department needs the best professionals to manage them efficiently.

Their structure is much more complex and the need for coordination is much greater. It is vital for an elite football club that information flows efficiently.

The budgets they manage are extremely high and the qualification, training and aptitude of their managers must be at the same level. And just as in amateur clubs, having a good football club management software capable of ensuring this efficient flow of information is essential.

 

3. Football and technology

Technology is advancing by leaps and bounds in all sectors and in the daily lives of all citizens of the world. Football cannot be left behind. The introduction of VAR may be the tip of the iceberg. But technology is present in many more areas of performance within the world of football. Today’s football teams, professional and amateur, are undergoing a real digital transformation.

It could be said that there is an oversupply of possibilities: big data, sensors, mobile devices, sports bibs, wearables, etc.

For this reason, football clubs must devote not only economic efforts, but also training, to promote everything that has to do with technology applied to football.

Thanks to technology applied to sports management, football clubs can optimize their squads, improve their training and have a history of data from all sections and each of the categories. It could be said that the way forward for clubs is through optimal sports management based on technology.

In the digital era there are great opportunities for growth for all football clubs. In this sense, the key to digital success will be the ability to innovate, to be flexible, and to try and test new actions, making as few mistakes as possible and learning from each and every experience.

4. Specialized football club management software

We know that football raises passions on its own. Companies like Apple, Nike or Coca-Cola have made an immense effort throughout their history, both in terms of talent and economic investment. Thanks to this, they have managed to become world leaders in their field and have real fans of the brand. In the world of football, on the other hand, these fans come with the name of the club itself.

4.1. Why use football club management software?

Football club management software helps football clubs to continue to write their own history. People come and go, but the culture or philosophy is maintained over the years. And that is the real reason why a fan identifies with his or her team.

Today’s football clubs, regardless of their category, are very complex organizations, with a lot of key information for decision making. There are many departments and many people involved. And sometimes it happens that this information, which is vital for the development of the clubs, gets lost along the way.

Let’s take an example. If a new sports director arrives at a new football club without previous support, he will have to start all his work of player analysis, work methodologies, coordination, sports management, and even medical and facilities management from scratch. As this new sporting director has a wide experience in the world of football, his management will be very professional and very efficient. But if all this is not, again, reflected anywhere and at the end of the season, for whatever reason, this sporting director leaves the club, the next person to take over the position will have to start again from scratch. This means an enormous effort and a loss of important information, at all levels.

In short, a football club management software acts, in the first place, as a support, where to reflect all that information. A mechanism to share it and a tool to transmit it in an agile way and without losses. All this allows a better continuity of its philosophy, its history and its successes.

Secondly, football club management software is also a tool that facilitates agile decision making. Decisions based on data accessible from any level of the organization.

But this data is not just statistics and cold numbers. Nowadays we have countless data on player performance: goals, assists, shots on goal, successful and unsuccessful passes, saves, tackles, cards… All of them relatively easy to obtain.

To these we must add other subjective data, such as the behavior of a given player, his ability to improve, involvement, team spirit, etc., which are more difficult to obtain and more important to keep or store.

It is the mixture of both data that allows the true development of the players. Otherwise, without these tools, the evolution of future players would be really complicated. This is the key to success.

Therefore, a tool such as football club management software becomes a fundamental database, which allows to give continuity to what is being done. Without it, the development not only of the players, but also of the club, is also complicated.

Moreover, as they are SaaS (software as a service), or “All in one” tools, they can be accessed from anywhere in the world, at any time and from any device.

4.2. How to choose the best football club management software?

Once a club has seen the need and the convenience of having the help of a good management software and has made the decision to acquire one, it must consider which of all the football club management software available on the market is the one to choose.

There are many factors to take into account, but here we can mention what we believe to be the most important ones:

Ability to adapt to the culture of the club. Not all clubs have the same needs, nor the same vision. To give some examples: some depend to a greater extent on the quarry, others on the extraordinary income, others on the influx of public, and others on the work methodologies. Therefore, the software chosen must be capable of adapting to your philosophy, whatever it may be, and not the other way around.

Ability to evolve: These needs are likely to evolve over time, and it is therefore mandatory to have a long-term approach and to know that the software will not become obsolete.

Human team (experience and support capacity): The world of football, despite being like a company in other sectors, has its own intrinsic characteristics. And the experience in the football world of the people behind the software is essential to achieve success.

Implementation plans and ability to take advantage of it: Related to the previous point, in addition to the experience, it is necessary that the team is able to successfully implement the software within the club and train their managers, so that in the medium term they are able to get the most out of a tool that has many functions.

Ability to change the work process and methodology: It is necessary to have a powerful yet intuitive software, capable of adapting to different environments and cultures, but which in turn allows the development of new aspects as football itself evolves.

Consulting: Many clubs have more “manual” tools and need support from outside for the development of all their departments. The only way to help achieve success is from experience.

 

5. Benefits derived from the use of football club management software.

Once we have reached this point, we have already seen the need to have a management software that adapts to the needs of each club. That is why we want to make a summary of the benefits that this software brings to football clubs.

There are many more benefits, but from our point of view and our experience, we can highlight the following ones:

  • Agility in the management of information for decision making (player reports, statistics, reports, etc,). Objective and subjective data as we have already said. Thanks to this type of software we will gain a lot of time, effort and money when obtaining the information and making the best decisions based on that information.
  • Avoid loss of information. People change and information must remain.
  • Smooth flow of information between departments.
  • Up-to-date control of the situation.
  • Accessibility from any time and device.

Now let’s imagine.

Imagine that the board of directors of your club is able to make strategic decisions with an infinitely lower risk of error and independently of the people responsible for the day-to-day work.

Imagine that your club’s technical staff is able to evolve its football thanks to technology.

Imagine that the economic areas are able to attract more and better players season after season and thus get more and better sponsorships.

And finally, imagine the boys and girls who are part of your club today succeeding as stars of tomorrow. All this thanks to a highly efficient football club management software.

 

6. Differences between director11 and competitors

This is where director11 comes into play, with a team designed to accompany any football club in the digitalization process and get the most out of its structure. Some of the most important clubs in the world have been using director11 for years and take advantage of all its functionalities, as well as the development possibilities in any area they deem necessary.

You may be wondering why? What makes director11 different from the rest of the football club management software on the market?

First of all, experience. At director11 we have been working with top level clubs for many years. We understand their needs and we know how to translate them into a useful solution.

Secondly, despite the fact that we have been in the market for a long time, our philosophy is still that of a startup. That is, an agile company that provides solutions in a fast, effective and innovative way, always looking to offer the best price. Our team is able to adapt and evolve over time, creating new features and new developments to offer to customers.

Finally, we work (by culture) as a partner rather than as a supplier. We accompany and train each and every one of our customers. We offer our know-how and our experience and we pass it on to the clubs on a daily basis. We go hand in hand until the use of the tool is precise and efficient.

Now it’s your turn. Get going and start today to implement a football club management software that will help you in the efficient management of your day to day. Contact us and we will help you grow your football club.