Select a Sports Organisation you are familiar with or interested in (from the public, voluntary or private sector). Collect data to identify: The organisation's market niche, Nature of its environment, Funding/financial arrangements.
Select a Sports Organisation you are familiar with or interested in (from the public, voluntary or private sector). Collect data to identify:
* The organisation's market niche
* Nature of its environment
* Funding/financial arrangements
* Planning and/or Programming processes employed
Employ conceptual frameworks found in the literature for your data presentation and discuss your findings against perceived best practice
The market niche of the Football Association is that it is the governing body of association football in England. Thus it has no direct competition at a domestic level within the sport. The FA's aim is to "govern and develop the game with integrity". (http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/TheOrganisation/)
It is responsible for enforcing and developing the rules of the game, both independently at domestic level and in conjunction with UEFA and FIFA directives. It is responsible for organising 11 competitions, including the FA Cup, promoting development of coaching and the sport as a whole, from grass roots to elite level, for auditing facilities and also for the 16 National Teams, (the senior team, 6 youth teams, 3 women's teams, 5 disabled teams and the National Game XI).
The FA operates in a dynamic environment in so far as the movement of clubs (promotion and relegation), players and coaches (between clubs) is fairly fluid. There is also the financial situation which over the past 20 years in particular has been volatile to say the least.
The landscape has changed significantly over recent years, perhaps most notably at youth level. With the recent introduction of football academies at many professional clubs, young players with the ability and determination to succeed at the highest level have been able to be educated to a standard that had not been seen in this country before, both on the pitch and in the classroom. Whereas not so long ago young YTS apprentices spent their time cleaning boots and the like, today's young pros get a balanced diet of tactical, technical and physical training alongside national curriculum subjects.
There have also been changes in the social environment surrounding youth football; perhaps most notably in terms of child protection. As little as 4 years ago I was engaged as a volunteer to manage an under 10's boys football team. I had no FA qualifications, no previous experience, and was asked no questions regarding child protection or best practice. These newly-introduced programme on child protection, part of the FA initiative known as GOAL was introduced in September 2001 and through its successful implementation, covering every level of the game from the Academies to Sunday League, has put England ...
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There have also been changes in the social environment surrounding youth football; perhaps most notably in terms of child protection. As little as 4 years ago I was engaged as a volunteer to manage an under 10's boys football team. I had no FA qualifications, no previous experience, and was asked no questions regarding child protection or best practice. These newly-introduced programme on child protection, part of the FA initiative known as GOAL was introduced in September 2001 and through its successful implementation, covering every level of the game from the Academies to Sunday League, has put England at the forefront of world football in this area. 260 tutors have been trained to provide the one-day course, which has now been undertaken by more than 56,000 adults involved in football.
The overall aim of GOAL Child Protection is outlined at http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/GOALChildProtection/:
"It's about allowing children to enjoy the game without abuse of any kind. That means bullying, physical, emotional or sexual abuse and neglect."
The structure of the FA can, as Mintzberg (1979, 1983) suggests, be defined as "the total of the ways in which labour is divided into distinct tasks." The Six basic parts of the organisation come under the following headings:
. Strategic Apex (This is the top, decision making part of the organisation.)
2. Middle Line (Managerial positions)
3. Technostructure (The auxiliary staff concerned with the IT side of the organisation, e.g. the website etc.)
4. Support Staff (Those not involved with the actual 'product' as such, i.e. not directly involved in football.)
5. Operating Core (The lower level workforce, involved directly in the FA 'product'.)
6. Ideology (The set of ideas that defines the organisation, this surrounds the structure.)
http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/socsja/rice/fongjune/Images/Organisation%20of%20print%20room.gif
As the most prominent Sports Governing Body in the UK, the FA can attract a number of high profile sponsors to fund its activities. The main sponsors are outlined in the 'FA Partners' programme:
"FA Partners has five top tier partners. Each Partner is directly linked to one of the five key strands of football - "the pillars" - identified in The FA's long term strategy:
* Men's football - our mass market (Partner - Carlsberg)
* Women's football - our growth market (Partner - Nationwide)
* Youth football - our future market (Partner - Pepsi)
* Community football - our "classroom" and our "showroom" (Partner - McDonald's)
* Elite football - our "showcase" (Partner - Umbro)"
(http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/FAPartners/)
Each Partner has access to The FA's top two brands - The FA Cup and England - and a share of exposure to all other pillars. This provides great publicity for each partner, and the funds gained are put back into the relevant sectors in order to keep the game moving forward.
At club level, professional clubs are responsible for their own funding, as they are businesses in their own right. In terms of financing football at grass roots and youth level, the FA has further links with Sportsmatch, the governments grass roots sports sponsorship incentive scheme; Barclaycard Freekicks, aimed at helping disadvantaged areas; the Football Foundation and Sport England among others. This variety of schemes provides the necessary grants to keep football thriving at grass roots level throughout England.
In terms of planning for the future, the FA is a world leader in its field. I have already mentioned GOAL child protection as an example of the FA's forward thinking, and there are many more schemes in place to build the future of English football. Perhaps the most prominent example is the building of the National Football Centre near Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire. 'National Football Centre Limited' has been set up as a subsidiary company of the FA purely to focus on the creation and maintenance of the NFC, which will have dedicated resources for coach education, player development, research, sports science and medicine as well as the National teams themselves. The Acting Technical Director of the FA, Les Reed, commented on the progress of the project in March 2004:
"The range of facilities on offer will be second to none anywhere in the football world."
"It will enable us to deliver on the potential and expectations of football at every level in England and to further capitalise on the recent successes of our young representative teams. It will also be a leading learning centre featuring a range of educational courses from referees through to the UEFA Pro Licence Course."
(http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/NFC/)
As an example of the organisational structures existing in the FA, the NFC is particularly clear. Director of Operations Andrew Halstead is ultimately responsible for the success of the project. Beneath him, Project Manager Mandy Primus is responsible for the running of the project and the Project Core Group of 6 staff, including Les Reed. There are many more sub-divisional structures like the NFC project, exhibiting the Divisionalised Structure of the FA. This type of organisational structure is particularly common in such old and very large institutions, of which the FA provides the perfect example. The structure lends itself to some areas of specialisation, and a formalised, bureaucratic organisational behaviour. Whereas the responsibility for the FA lies ultimately with Chief Executive Mark Palios and the Board of Directors, the activities of the organisation are controlled from the middle line.
The FA does not tend to get involved with the day-to-day planning of football fixtures and events. However, it is responsible for 11 domestic competitions, and as such is required to construct the timetables to accommodate the playing of such fixtures, and in doing so works alongside the various league committees in order to minimise fixture congestion and other such potential difficulties.
The FA has its own best practice policy in association with GOAL Child Protection. However, in terms of the running of the organisation as a whole, does it fit in with the perceived notion of best practice? That is to say does it provide sufficient evidence of model ethics policy, equity guidance and does it display a working fairness in terms of conflicts of interest?
With the various schemes within GOAL, the 'Let's Kick Racism out of Football' drive that has now been running for 10 years, with significant success, and the 'Asians in Football' scheme that has been running more recently, among others, it is fair to say that the FA have not only met but exceeded the criteria for best practice on these grounds. The FA has also taken on responsibility in areas such as health, from its 'Keeping an eye on the ball' testicular cancer awareness campaign, to 'Goalpost Safety - Play Your Part'.
The FA doesn't stop at these issues though. It also assumes responsibility beyond its political boundaries, into International relations; most notably with the four-monthly newsletter 'Communique'; which outlines the details of the activities supported by the FA around the world.
However, there is still plenty to be done for the image of the game at the highest level; in recent years trouble in off the field has marred some major successes on it. Names such as Woodgate, Morris, Ferdinand and now in 2004 Sinclair, Dickov and Gillespie are consistently banded about in the media in referral to their respective allegations. Perhaps the next FA initiative would be best directed at tackling this aspect of the game, in order to achieve the full objective of the FA; "to govern and develop the game with integrity."
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