Local Football Clubs: the Impact of Involving the Community Through Strategic Partnerships To Help Generate Financial Stability

This paper focuses on local football clubs and their interaction with their community as a potential way to generate financial stability. with more and more local clubs facing insolvency it is important to determine best business practices from both a league governance model as well as on a local club level. after discussing the current state of european football, using case studies, this paper looks specifically at two areas of community involvement: involving fans in decision-making and fan engagement , in order to determine the changing relationship between clubs and supporters as well as the benefits to clubs of making such partnerships. the investigation is based on an intensive literature review as well as various interviews with experts from local clubs and fan organizations. the study discusses the benefits and shortfalls of such partnerships, first through the practical case-studies and then through an academic benchmark using the german bundesliga – arguably a leader in community involvement thanks to its 50+1 regulation. this paper determines that partnerships with the community are important for local european clubs although they still face multiple challenges. the paper concludes by looking at the applicability of community partnerships on a global scale

Local football clubs: the impact of involving the community through strategic partnerships to help generate financial stability

This paper focuses on local football clubs and their interaction with their community as a potential way to generate financial stability. With more and more local clubs facing insolvency it is important to determine best business practices from both a league governance model as well as on a local club level. After discussing the current state of European football, using case studies, this paper looks specifically at two areas of community involvement: involving fans in decision-making and fan engagement , in order to determine the changing relationship between clubs and supporters as well as the benefits to clubs of making such partnerships. The investigation is based on an intensive literature review as well as various interviews with experts from local clubs and fan organizations. The study discusses the benefits and shortfalls of such partnerships, first through the practical case-studies and then through an academic benchmark using the German Bundesliga – arguably a leader in community involvement thanks to its 50+1 regulation. This paper determines that partnerships with the community are important for local European clubs although they still face multiple challenges. The paper concludes by looking at the applicability of community partnerships on a global scale