A Guide for Understanding Clubs - Part 1 - Product

In Brisbane, Australia, local football (soccer) clubs are largely volunteer organizations. Beyond the A League most clubs are heavily reliant on volunteer support. Some have begun to find ways to afford a handful of paid support staff. By all accounts this has made a big difference for those clubs, even if in the beginning that paid staff is part time. This reliance on volunteerism has meant clubs lurch from season to season, some make progress until the "good" volunteers have had enough and then they slide back down. In many cases this is because, despite all the good will, just running a club is a lot and it means very little time is spent on a long term strategy for the club and then anything developed is likely changed when the new volunteers arrive.

In many cases it starts with can we recruit the right players into our academy and senior first teams and win. Just winning is not a viable long term strategy and while winning teams do attract some parents, it actually isn't sustainable.

In the first part of understanding the clubs, we will look at what the clubs are or what should they actually be selling? Ultimately, they sell two services, football development for an individual and they resell organized football leagues from the governing body. That is it. The huge complication is what is tied to it. For motivated kids and parents, it is about chasing their dream of being a professional footballer. For others it is about fun, playing a game they enjoy, being with friends and hopefully being competitive.

Football Development

There is a lot in those two words, which parents try to figure out. When you are trying to help your son or daughter chase their dream of becoming a professional footballer, every year matters. At the same time every child develops differently and there is no magic path.

The League

In Brisbane, parents chase Academy League 1, with the belief that training and playing against players in this league is the best way to develop or be seen. The reality is the top Academy 2 teams are generally as good as mid table academy one teams in both the boys and girls competitions. Training 3 nights a week against other motivated players even in this "lower" league will develop players.

However, the importance of the league is also exacerbated by the governing body taking most of the state players from the top league and only inviting top league teams to tournaments and carnivals where selectors are there. Parents need to know there are many, many players who never played representative football, but still played football professionally.

The Coach

In my opinion the most critical of all the factors is the coach and how they find away to develop each individual in the areas they need to improve. Then how do they incorporate this into the larger context of the team. This goes beyond just tactics, but the details they see of first touch, striking the ball (passing and shooting), body position and scanning. the basics which need to be constantly worked on all the way to and including senior football. I'd follow good development coaches to different clubs as they are critically important.

Game Time

Training is never enough, you have to be able to show what you have learned and that you can execute it in games. Consequently, players need to be where they are getting game time, even if it is in a lower division. So if you are in Academy 1 but not getting many minutes, maybe you'd be better off in Academy 2 and getting lots of minutes.

Same goes for parents who want their kids to play up and age group. An absolute scourge in the game is this belief that boys and girls need to play in older age brackets. It is as if they somehow think this is the stamp of their child being on their way. Better to stand out in your age bracket and be seen by the state selectors than be lost playing up.

Individual Skill Development

Shhhhhh! We aren't supposed to say this, actually now we can, but not to long ago this was absolutely frowned upon in Australia. The reality is if you need to fix something working on it yourself or 1 to 1 with a coach to produce high repetition and high levels of success is OK. It however it NOT going to make you ready for games, so it cannot be done in isolation and at the expense of everything else. It is an add on it training and many clubs now offer this as well as part of player development.

The Second Team

Rarely, will any club have a problem filling their "first team" across the senior and junior academy spaces. Players will go, or be asked to leave, but there will always be players looking for a team so these teams almost, without fail, fill. But a club with any ambition wants and needs a second team and many more in the same age group. But the second team is critical and most problematic. As clubs need to make a decision, are second teams a pathway into their academy first teams or are they "community" teams. As yet, clubs haven't quite found a model to do second teams as a pathway well, however several a going in the right direction. I'll explain in another article. If clubs however only deem second teams as "community" teams this can also be difficult to fill with a level of player skill consistency, whether this is the second top division or well down the line.

Everything Else

There are a lot of indirect things related to development. There is access to physios, the actual grounds (fields), medical staff, gyms, change rooms, video analysis equipment, and plenty more which might factor in but it as direct for development as the above. Does it matter, maybe more of the "cherry on top" but parents are unlikely to decide based on this.

Organized Football Leagues

While this is part of the academy offering which motivated kids and parents base decisions on, clubs are effectively resellers of a league. Based on the number of teams and the level the clubs think the teams would be competitive in the clubs nominate with the governing body women / men / girls / boys and mixed teams for a league. You must spare a thought for the governing body here as with all the changes in players and teams from season to season in the lower leagues it is incredibly difficult to give a level of consistency.

In Brisbane over a couple days and 4 to 6 games they try and sort these teams into leagues where everyone, as much as possible, will be competitive. It isn't possible to get it right. But it is important to the overall value parents and kids place on their experience. No one wants to get trounced week in and week out. So while the clubs resell this, they aren't in control and while in many cases the governing body does try and move teams a few weeks into a season, it just doesn't always happen. Consequently, this leads to dissatisfaction.

The other part of this, particularly for lower league teams, is the parents wanting a knowledgeable coach, which is understandable as they want their child's training to be organized, fun and effective. The right expectation for someone buying a service, but many clubs have problems finding enough coaches.

Product Summary

While it comes down to two "simple" products, there is a massive amount that goes into coordinating this service largely by volunteers. While more clubs are are getting paid staff and more are paying for coaches at lower league levels to provide a consistent service, there is then increased cost. Ultimately, the clubs aren't in total control of the product on offer either with leagues and referees sitting with the governing body. The clubs are moving in the right direction, but they aren't going to become great service providers overnight.