Have you ever sat on a hot seat before? Well, if you haven’t, Carlos Ancelotti, former manager of Chelsea football club of England can tell you it’s not a funny experience. Your bom burns and you must find a way to stay on, if you cannot just jump-off the seat. The team manager of a football club often find himself in such position. The pressure is much, stakeholders want to win at all cost. They’re all loooking up to the team manager to wave his magic wand.
You may have the finest stadium or the finest supporters club, but if you don’t have a winning team, spectators will soon stop attending your games. Then, sponsors and advertisers will stay away and you’re in one big mess. So, the team manager often find himself between the devil and the deep blue sea. The only way he can keep his job is to win and to win. Winning is thew name of the business.
A smart team manager knows a game is not won in the field of play. Well, the goals are scored there, but there’s more to it. No team can win a major championship or league by solely depending on the players and coaching crew. There’s more that goes on behind the scene. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying matches are fixed, but over sixty percent of the game is played outside the pitch. An effective team manager is the one who has the capability to play in the boardroom game as well as the mind game that results in your team winning on the pitch after all.
You should understand, competition in football business is fierce. You’re up against many odds, because the stakes are so high. FIFA fair play doesn’t always succeed, because business people don’t play fair. Football is business, FIFA is a commercial animal, so are football associations all over the world. The team manager often find himself meddling in some unholy acts.
Five Unholy Acts of The Team Manager
Boardroom Game: There’s a popular saying that most football games are won in the boardroom. It’s interesting what goes on in FIFA or other FA boardrooms across the world. For some commercial reasons, some persons in the football administration office may want to give undue advantage to certain teams.
Sometimes, we find the team manager lobbing such officers to get some advantage over the opponent team.
Media Mind Game: People are so passionate about football because the sport involves the emotions. The media has the power to influence the emotions of both players and fans. Consequently their attitude towards each game.
The team manager often use the media to motivate his team as well as demoralize the opponent team. A well planned media hypes can sure motivate a team to win.
Playing On a Non-level Field: When we talk of home advantage, we’re referring to some climatic or environmental conditions of a place that might be unfavorable to the opponent team. The team manager usually take advantage of such unfavorable conditions for his team’s benefit.
For instance, a home team from Oceania country may take the opponent team from a tropical country to play in a weather condition below zero degree centurion. With such unfavorable weather condition, the opponent team cannot perform so well.
Hostile Reception: in a ploy to destabilize and stress out the opponent team, the team manager tries to create unfavorable reception for them. They’re given poor accommodation and poor feeding to make them feel welcomed.
The Team manger’s aim is to get the opponent team worked up and stressed out before the match. It’ll definitely affect the opponent team and they may not perform at their best.
Mobilizing Fans Support: The team manager often try to mobilize large number of fans to support his team as a way of motivating them. Moreover, such large crowd could instil fear on both the opponent team and the referees. This could negatively affect the way the opponent team play as well as influence referees decisions.
Although, the five unholy acts listed above may not be noble acts, but FIFA find it difficult to punish the offenders. But not when the team manager is involved in such grave sins as: Match fixing, bribery of referees and other match officials, Drugging players, Employing Hooligans to disrupt match process, featuring unqualified players etc. FIFA frown at these sins and they’re punishable under FIFA law.
