Interview
Charlie Marshall

As a respected and important stakeholder in the international football landscape, can you describe the European Club Association’s scope of work and what the association’s core mission is?

ECA represents the interests of its members, the leading European football clubs, by acting as their voice in shaping decisions relating to the future development of the club game. In the first decade of ECA’s existence, our purpose was best described as seeking ‘to safeguard, strengthen and shape European club football’. Over recent years, as our organisation has matured, this purpose has evolved into ‘Placing Clubs at the Heart of Football’.

Our scope of work covers all matters relating to the professional club game but can be summarised by our six key goals:

·       Building the future of club football

·       Putting ECA at the heart of decisions

·       Evolving the commercial model of the club game

·       Guiding regulatory, policy and financial developments

·       Driving growth and development in areas such as women’s and youth football

·       Optimising ECA’s governance and operational structures

The challenges and opportunities the club game faces are profound. ECA’s Executive Board has set ambitious targets for its current cycle which concludes in 2023, aimed at laying the key foundations for the direction the game is heading in the years ahead. This, in a nutshell, is what our focus is geared towards on a daily basis, and even at present, our core goals remain and orientate us through COVID, future COVIDs and beyond.

What have been your organization’s main achievements since its foundation in 2008?

Since its foundation, ECA has established its role in the football stakeholder environment, working hand in hand with both FIFA and UEFA in shaping key decisions on matters that fall under their respective areas of responsibility.

Looking at tangible successes, I would begin by highlighting that today ECA has two seats on UEFA’s Executive Committee, the governing body’s main decision-making organ. In addition, ECA sits on UEFA’s Professional Football Strategy Council and UEFA’s Club Competitions Committee, which shapes the key aspects of the UEFA Club Competitions. ECA, alongside UEFA, also jointly manages the UCC SA, the advisory company driving the commercial development of the UEFA Club Competitions.

With FIFA, we are active participants in the Football Stakeholders Committee, Dispute Resolution Chamber and Player Status Committee, as well as various other task forces. Therefore, from a governance standpoint, clubs are very active through ECA in the decision making on professional game matters.

Other achievements include securing agreements for clubs to share in the revenues of both the FIFA World Cup and UEFA EURO for the contribution their players make to the success of both tournaments; the introduction by FIFA of the Club Protection Programme to cover salaries of players injured while on international duty; the emergence of Financial Fair Play in 2010 which has led to clubs operating in a much more fiscally responsible manner. In addition, we have worked closely with FIFA in modernising and bringing greater structure and balance to the International Match Calendar. ECA’s input in shaping recent changes to the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players has also been considerable and has led to changes that have further improved the way this side of the game is managed. More recently, we have worked alongside all our fellow professional game stakeholders in managing the COVID-19 crisis and finding solutions to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on football.

Whilst these achievements make us proud, we see a huge amount of work still to do in all of these areas, especially now to redefine the future in light of all of the lessons we are learning from COVID.

The ECA consists of 246 member clubs. How challenging is it for you to maintain a direct dialogue with all members?

Frequent, relevant contact is essential to any membership organisation. As an Administration, it’s essential to have our members feed into us the challenges they face on a daily basis and also their longer-term vision for the development of the game. For our members, it’s also important for them to be kept aware of the work the Administration undertakes on their behalf. We are always working to ensure that we deliver value to our members through the services we offer. We have made a growing suite of member offerings available, connecting clubs with the best knowledge and expertise out there, developing reports on topics such as fan engagement and esports, and providing education services like our ECA Club Management Programme in order to help our clubs grow as both businesses and sporting institutions.  Most importantly, we are developing ways of measuring the value we provide, so that we can continually refine and optimize our role for our members.

To ensure efficient interaction, we have developed various means to engage with members and have recently introduced new tools and approaches for managing member relationships in more relevant, systematic ways. Like all businesses, our major meetings, such as the General Assembly, are now taking place virtually. We are now engaging with a more digital mindset, ensuring our members are kept up to date with relevant and engaging content online and via webinars and video calls. The entire Administration is also encouraged to just pick up the phone - or send a WhatsApp – to engage with clubs and hear about their challenges to strengthen our representation.

The ECA membership panel of clubs is divided into 4 subdivisions. Can you elaborate a bit more on how the subdivisions are structured and characterized (i.e. the turnover range of each subcategory) and explain the main challenges faced by members of each subdivision?

Our membership is made up of clubs from each of UEFA’s 55 National Associations and our 4 subdivisions are based on the UEFA country ranking. Subdivision 1 is made up of clubs from National Associations 1-6, Subdivision 2 groups together clubs from National Associations 7-15, Subdivision 3 is comprised of clubs from 16-28, and Subdivision 4 brings together our members from countries ranked from 29-55. All are represented in our various bodies, including the Executive Board, Committees, Working Groups and Task Forces.

While all our members share common challenges and day to day realities, there are also some specificities that are unique to each category of clubs. The clubs vary on a wide range of areas such as club strategy, ownership model, economic drivers and more operational items. If you look at it from an international perspective, which is the perspective we take, Subdivision 1 clubs generally care mostly about increasing competitiveness, growing their brands globally, enhancing digital transformation and improving the way the transfer system operates. Clubs in Subdivision 2 can often be more focused on incentivising youth development, securing financial allocations from competing in European competition, strengthening links with the community, developing modern infrastructure to help compete at the highest level, as well as increasing brand value. Subdivision 3 may concentrate more on the amount of games available in European competitions, such as through the introduction of the UEFA Europa Conference League which will kick off in 2021, professionalising the club administration, and building new strategies to enhance focus on the long-term rather than short-term. Finally, looking at Subdivision 4, the protection of youth development and player trading is generally crucial to their business models, the opportunity to play more games in Europe is also key, increasing the income from participation in those competitions is desired,  and the ability to share knowledge and learn from other ECA members’ activities is of great benefit to them. These are, of course, general indicators about sets of multi-faceted and uniquely individual clubs. But, when it comes down to it, most ECA Member Clubs are building strategies focused on sporting performance at both domestic and international level, youth academy development and commercial growth. These are things which connect them all.  

Clearly, our model is distinctive but it allows for representation across the membership, leading to balanced and fair outcomes as we look to develop the club game across Europe as a whole.

How do you manage to reconcile all the different interests that are at stake (elite clubs vs. clubs from all the other subdivisions)?

This is probably the most challenging part of our work but, at the same time, the key to why we exist as an organisation. Our membership is an eclectic group of clubs, albeit each of them top clubs in their own countries. Our members differ in size, culture, history, location, and, of course, financially. The key is to set aside these differences and understand what it is that unites them all and why there is a greater benefit to work together as one, via ECA, to advance the cause of club football. It’s about finding the right balance in looking to further the needs of clubs as different as the champions of Spain and the champions of Moldova. Some clubs have the money to spend millions on superstar players while others shape their model on developing players through their academies and look to generate revenue through the sale of youth players. Some see large portions of their revenue generated through broadcasting, sponsorship and merchandise sales while others depend to a much greater extent on match day revenue.  Some are owned by private enterprises, some are owned by members.  Some are more focused on women’s football than men’s football.

So, it is sometimes difficult for these diverse clubs to agree and act collectively, even though there are clear areas of alignment and common pressing challenges. This is where ECA comes into play as an independent, club-led organisation. By bringing together leading clubs from every European nation, ECA finds solutions, provides expertise and enables collective decision-making that helps all of its members grow and thrive.

Since I joined ECA in 2018, keeping this togetherness and unity has been one of the most important and indeed exciting aspects of my work and one that is constantly at the forefront of my thinking in leading the work of the Administration and advising the Board.   

COVID-19 has been a disruptive force to the football industry as a whole. As the voice of European clubs, how are the clubs dealing with the aftermath of the crisis and what lessons are being learned from an operational and managerial club perspective?

The health and safety of everyone concerned with the game –players, staff, fans and the public at large –is of primary importance to us all. At ECA, we are actively engaging with all the relevant football stakeholders and public health authorities to ensure everything is done in the proper and safe manner.  There is no getting away from the fact that our members are facing great hardships on a level not seen before in the history of the game.

At the start of the crisis, we worked with doctors from across our membership in the ECA Medical Task Force to analyse protocols being put in place across Europe, bringing together some best practice principles to try and help clubs and competitions organisers return to play. We have also done the same with regards to the status of returning fans to stadia, at some capacity. Both cases, however, need the utmost consideration in protecting those involved in our game.

Club finances are in turmoil. FIFA’s own analysis suggests that 90% of the financial impact COVID-19 will inflict on the game will be at club level. Though recent years have been a time of growth for the football industry, what we have experienced this year is how quickly that can be reversed. The way football and its business models are structured is not yet sufficiently geared for the sustainability we need in the future.

Our clubs have seen large portions of their revenues dry up almost overnight but they have to continue to meet significant costs. The pressure on finances is considerable and the current situation is unsustainable. Despite the many important decisions taken to alleviate the pain on clubs, the situation remains dire and many are likely to fail if the pressure does not ease soon.

However, it’s true that after the initial shock, the return to play has offered some relief. The Football stakeholders have done great collective work to foster the development of new schedules, formats and protocols to promote the completion of domestic and European competitions; understand the potential financial impacts and agree liquidity, regulatory and commercial mechanisms to address these impacts; reach pragmatic conclusions on solutions for player contracts and transfer windows; and to take cautious but safe and deliberate steps to promote the return to play and subsequently return of fans to stadia.

This work will all need to redouble as we continue, as football and as a society, to steer our way through this unprecedented and as yet unabating crisis.

Under FIFA’s leadership to ensure strengthened dialogue and collaborative decision-making for a sustainable future of the game, the ECA is part of a network of football stakeholders committed to football’s continual development. From the ECA’s point of view, what are the most pressing issues faced by football clubs today and in the future?

Most critically, we need to be emerging from this crisis with a clear sense of how the next decade of professional football will need to be different from the last. For clubs, and therefore for ECA, paving the way for better quality and more international competitions, including the way these are designed, governed and commercialised, will be of central importance to appeal to a global fan audience and support the strategic development of the club game at all levels.

On the way to getting us where we are today, COVID-19 has highlighted a range of pressing issues that had already begun to focus minds in recent years.  For example, the challenges of the football calendar, the effectiveness of the financial and sporting regulations intended to promote a healthy balance across competitions and tiers of competitions, the sustainability of club economic models, the transformation of the media markets and the fan of the future, the continuing need to nurture and promote women’s football. 

As part of the common goal of creating a more sustainable football industry, the ECA published an analysis of the financial footprint the pandemic has left on European football clubs. What are the key takeaways for clubs from top and lower tiers and what steps has the ECA identified as necessary measures to mitigate the economic pressure points going forward?

The pandemic triggered a revenue crisis which hit all clubs’ revenue streams regardless of their size. This revenue crisis will unfortunately not be limited to the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons but will now precipitate a new financial reality. In addition, most clubs’ expenses are fixed and not adapted to withstand sudden decreases in revenue, with the obvious example being wage costs.

Therefore, ECA is constantly engaging with various stakeholders to seek common solutions to these structural financial issues. Now is the time to build common and widespread understanding across all stakeholders of the economic drivers and pressure points of football clubs, so that in working together on recovery we can also take the opportunity to build more sustainability. This is imperative as we are still living with COVID-19 and, if nothing else, we have learned that being flexible and prepared for unpredictability is part of our future.

For clubs and those that represent them, focused mitigating measures on costs and regulatory adaptations over time must be delivered to promote as much economic viability as we can. Managing cost and cash will be key until revenues have stabilised once more.

The ECA recently also published an insightful and interesting report which highlights the changing face of football fans. What are this report’s main findings and what is, in your opinion, the most difficult challenge the football industry is facing nowadays as a whole (looking beyond the club perspective)?

The Fan of the Future: Defining Modern Football Fandom report seeks to provide a holistic view of what it means to be a football fan in 2020 and beyond, looking at themes such as club affinity, engagement, and consumer behaviour, and what impact the evolving trends in these areas have on football clubs.

What is most evident from the report – not just for clubs but for everyone involved in the football industry - is that modern fans think differently about the game. This is the case with how new generations feel about all aspects of society and entertainment. Younger fans, especially, are engaging with the game through more varied and diverse means, which is a growing challenge and a huge opportunity for football clubs and organisations. Football’s business and commercial model was already undergoing significant changes before the seismic shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but with today’s “rapid response” management model, we must remember why we are all doing this: for the fans. Only through understanding what they value and how they are changing for the future will we be able to realise a sustainable future for football as the world’s leading sport and responsible engagement platform.

This year, we have seen the huge platform sport has provided for global conversations on social issues such as Black Lives Matter. Our report shows that there is clear evidence that fans today are starting to expect football clubs to focus beyond on the pitch success. They expect clubs to demonstrate social responsibility and authenticity in line with fan values and be a vehicle in helping to make the world a better place. This is something which must resonate with all bodies working in the game: football can be an incredible platform for driving social change and we must all be a part of that.

European Football vs. North-American Soccer: different cultures and diverse business models. Which one do you believe works best and why?

Ultimately, I prefer to view the game (whether we call it Football or Soccer) as one single ecosystem with different layers and parts all interconnected and all needing to succeed and develop for the industry as a whole to thrive.

But to answer your question directly, I don’t think one works better than the other. I see the logic in each and feel that they align with their respective sporting cultures and histories. The US model is built around a single nation with a very different sporting mix while Europe’s approach takes account of a wider and more eclectic mix of nations, more united around a single sport. The US sporting culture is based around an approach that places commercial and economic pragmatism closer to its core. Owners develop a system where return on investment is more carefully planned by reducing sporting risk – which explains the closed-league approach. By contrast we, in Europe, have much deeper pyramids in our major sports, built around ‘keeping the dream alive’ for all clubs and enabling mobility through promotion and relegation. Of course, this approach carries high degrees of risk and offers fewer financial guarantees, but makes for inherently more excitement through unpredictability. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. I think what’s important is that we keep an open mind and constantly look at different models and approaches, understanding their strengths and where we can look to integrate aspects into one another’s models, particularly when it comes to the often elusive quest for competitive balance.