Development of a system of performance targets for a professional football club

Abstract

The football business is of interest to researchers and investors as a potentially promising area for the development of management theory and investment respectively. One of the important issues in this context is performance management of professional football clubs. In this paper authors propose the criteria characterizing the effectiveness of a football club and build up a system of target indicators (KPI) aimed at quantitatively measuring of the strategic directions of development. The system of balanced scorecards is taken as a basis and includes four blocks: sporting achievements, financial indicators, negotiations with fans, effective management. The assessment criteria were selected based on scientific research in the field of sports management, and the assessment system was tested on the example of three football clubs: PFC CSKA (Russia), Olympique Lyon (France) and Copenhagen (Denmark). The proposals offered in this study can be used by professional football clubs and football federations in building up their development strategies and for the purposes of operational management to improve performance and create unique competitive advantages. Other kinds of team sports can also apply the proposed system of indicators.