The contemporary sporting director: tri-partite leadership

Ian Lawrence and Rob Wilson

Abstract

This paper explores the emergence of a new, formalised sporting director role, in professional football clubs in the United Kingdom. A role typified by the pursuit of on-field success and positioned at executive level to develop club wide strategy. We situate the paper to illustrate a tri-partite leadership approach which can be effective in a dispersed ownership model.

The sporting director role challenges high-performance environments, supplementing the role of a manager, or head coach. Its functional responsibility should be at board level, engaging with executive responsibilities including player transactions, financial sustainability, and communication with key stakeholders.

Externally the role is seen as the de-facto leader of football business, thus being in full charge of the football club, further emphasising the need for the role to be considered as a crucial leadership function. Thus a tri-partite group, represented by the CEO, Head Coach and Sporting Director, is becoming the most effective solution to complex decision making, delivering on, and off field, performance.