Clubs
Prof. Dr. Markus Buchberger
Experienced. Discreet. Committed.
Professional football is organized within clubs and corporate entities. In Germany, annual revenues already reach tens of millions of euros even in the League Three, while Bundesliga clubs generate annual revenues of hundreds of millions of euros. Professional football is constantly developing and therefore has to respond to new challenges. Clubs employ players, coaching staff, managing directors and board members, as well as an increasing number of other employees. This creates an increasing need for individual HR advisory services and strategic advice on the wide range of issues that continually arise in professional football.
The market for leading positions in professional football is small and fast-moving. High-performing employees stand out and are often approached by other clubs. This is why football clubs need to continuously identify interesting candidates for leading positions, enabling them to fill vacancies that arise at short notice and maintain their ability to act.
I know the market, proactively identify promising executives on your behalf and, in addition, provide discreet access to my candidate pool “200 in sports”.
If you have already agreed internally on candidates, I can also provide a discreet second opinion on your selection, giving you additional reassurance and helping to safeguard your decision.
Professional football is a special industry. Its seasonal nature, the media coverage surrounding many decisions and its dependence on sporting success all contribute to making it unique. For this reason, clubs traditionally rely on executives with experience in professional football. At the same time, however, the club-based structure of German professional football regularly brings newcomers into positions of responsibility who are expected to perform from day one. I help these executives quickly find their feet in this specialised environment.
Professional football clubs constantly have to address new strategic questions, such as: dealing with Germany’s 50+1 rule, which requires the parent club to retain majority voting control; positioning within both national and international football associations on a wide range of issues; the selection of candidates for governing bodies by electoral committees within clubs; preparing and presenting critical issues before and during members’ meetings; appropriate structures for articles of association and corporate agreements; or cooperation with investors and third parties. These are just some of the issues that may arise. In such cases, I can provide you with a well-founded assessment, taking into account the practical, legal and strategic aspects that are relevant to your club.
CLUBINVEST is an analysis and investment tool that calculates the additional financial commitment required for any conceivable investment scenario involving a German football club. Its modelling takes into account all relevant budget items within a football club and is based on the expenditure and revenue figures that are also decisive for the licensing system of German football associations. In this way, CLUBINVEST maps out all the milestones that need to be achieved from the start of an investment through to the achievement of the sporting objectives. By assigning an individual financial value to each of these milestones, CLUBINVEST also provides a regular monitoring function throughout the process of achieving the intended objectives. Even though CLUBINVEST cannot guarantee that financial investment will result in sporting success, it does ensure two things: Firstly, it prevents financial commitment from falling short of what is required to achieve the intended sporting objectives, thereby making those objectives unrealistic. Secondly, it prevents clubs from overestimating their financial needs and, as a result, unnecessarily deterring interested strategic partners or enabling a permanent stake in the club’s assets to be granted in exchange for insufficient consideration.
