CEO perspectives on the first twenty-five years of football in the community: challenges, developments and opportunities

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This paper explores the perceptions of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) at Football in the Community (FitC) organisations associated with English professional football clubs regarding developments and changes over the 25 years since their inception. Of interest was how the schemes might/might not reflect the original underpinning ethos, aims, and intended outcomes.

Methodology/approach: Ten CEOs participated in interviews designed to explore their perceptions of the challenges, developments, and opportunities in the industry over 25 years.

Findings: Thematic analysis revealed four main issues facing the sector: security and sustainability of delivery and funding; the importance of growth and diversification; engagement with multiple agendas and agencies; “professionalisation” of the workforce; and brand values and awareness. For CEOs, success of their schemes was measured both in terms of financial security of programmes and social impact within the community.

Practical implications: The sustainability of FitC schemes is inextricably linked to the success of organisations, contributing to social policy objectives.

Research contribution: Through the identification of strategic and organisational factors that have underpinned the development and outcomes of FitC, the paper addresses the gap in the literature by considering the perspectives of CEOs.

KEYWORDS:

• Community engagement
• football in the community
• sport for development
• social inclusion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A key recommendation of the report Football and its Communities, to improve levels of engagement between football clubs and communities, was that Football in the Community departments should convert to “outward facing” independent community organisations (Brown et al., 2006, p. 23). Community trusts are also sometimes called community foundations or community organisations and have run Football in the Community schemes or programmes. During 2018, the term Club Community Organisations (CCOs) was added to the nomenclature. It refers to all organisations that operate as charitable trusts. A small minority retain ‘Football in the Community’ or ‘<name of club> in the Community’, with others identifying themselves as ‘Foundations’ or ‘Trusts’. Whilst the most appropriate and commonly used terminology is, at the time of writing, Club Community Organisations, the terms Football in the Community (FitC) and FitC organisations most accurately reflect the era covered by the paper and, therefore, are referred to hereafter.

2 Social Return on Investment is a recognised approach for charities to measure their impact by attaching a financial value to the achievement of the organisation. Net benefit is the total social value (in £s) that charity produces for the local community minus the amount of money invested into the projects. Whilst virtually every FitC organisation now publishes an annual report citing SROI values, the research is often carried out, under contract, by consultancy firms or academic institutions.