Strengths
- Because The FA is a non-profit organisation it is guaranteed to make what is deemed the best decision for football in England and not be influenced by outside factors such as shareholders perhaps questioning its priority and will therefore strive to improve the quality of the game in England as a result (The FA, 2011).
- The FA is the only governing body for football in England and as a result all rules and regulations are set by The FA. This meaning that all levels of football played in England all fall under the same headquarters and are maintained by the same standards.
- The FA is keen to stamp out what is perceived as bad behaviour within football. Campaigns such as lets kick racism out of football is an indication of willingness to improve the experience of English football for all (kick it out, 2011).
Weaknesses
- A weakness of the FA as an NGB is that the over reliance on outside revenue which it generates internally through the sale of television rights, merchandise and competitions which it runs. The decline in the popularity of football would be detrimental for the FA as they rely heavily on their own success and reputation to continue necessary funding in the future.
- Another weakness of English football is the threat of relegation for teams which directly affects their income. The wealth of the premier league sees an influx of foreign players playing their trade in the premier league; this is a barrier for young English players to progress and compete at the highest level of football in England. As a result of this the national pool of English players able to participate in the national team suffers.
Opportunities
- The FA relies heavily on investment coming into English football from both businesses such as SKY and the public sector for things such as merchandise. Finding new schemes to attract new consumers and keep the current sectors happy with English football is something that is essential for football in England to meet their objectives.
- An opportunity for Football to develop further is their inclusion of an England football side in the upcoming Olympics, Meaning that football will take centre stage on arguably the world’s leading spectacle. This may generate the next influx of participants as this will be the first team England have entered a football team for the Olympic Games. This also meaning they are potentially gaining free advertisement and promotion of the F.A on a global scale.
Threats
- The main threat to The FA is if they do not make sure that, as football progresses and changes, English football adapts to these changes as well. It is important that England as a national team and footballing nation continues to improve and strives to be better.
PEST analysis
A PEST analysis gives an opportunity to see what kind of environment the business is operating in and what political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors the business must think about and work around. The pest framework is useful as a starting point for analysis of the businesses external influences (Palmer, 2004).
Political is anything to do with government involvement and legislation (Palmer, 2004). An example of this is that the FA has to make sure that it complies with any laws that football is bound to. For example health and safety regulations in England are very strict after incidents such as the Hillsborough disaster which saw fans crushed to death at a match between Liverpool and Sheffield Wednesday. This has brought about a requirement for stadiums to be seated to prevent this happening in the future. Security is also evident within stadiums and to make sure that supporters and players are safe and crime is reduced. Another political agenda is the national government and their approach on sport, as it those who produce the funding and decide how much funding will be given to sport. An example of this is the debate whether England should play in Zimbabwe after racial debates were evident and caused conflict between opposing governments (Watt, 2003).
Economic is concerned with the financial state of the business and the factors that may affect the organisation both internally and externally. A potential threat to the F.A is the economic situation which England and the world will become vulnerable to as, things such as recessions may limit funding opportunities for the F.A to continue its development. As a result the public may not be able to spend their income on things such as tickets and merchandise this meaning clubs will take in less revenue which may mean they struggle to continue to compete. The FA must think of ways of counteracting this and making football available to all those who would like to participate and support the clubs who may come under financial strain. Another economic point of sport is that it creates employment for people due to such events as the Olympics, Commonwealth games and other sporting events (Watt, 2003).
Social is concerned with the inclusion of all people, disregarding of race, culture and background and presenting the ability and chance to participate in football. The FA has a duty to encourage clubs to provide community links and sports clubs within the community which will establish a good working relationship. An example of this would be working alongside PESSYP which would see an opportunity given to those at grass roots level. An example of this is the FA Tesco Skills program which was launched in June 2007, over two million 5-11 year olds have benefited from program.
Goal-line technology and video replays has been the subject of much debate in recent years. Many of the world’s most viewed sports such as tennis, cricket and rugby use this form of technology but football has not incorporated it into the game yet. However the FA cannot act on this alone as FIFA is the world governing body and will ultimately decide whether these steps are to be implemented.
Whole Sport plan
All NGB’s in England must present Sport England with a whole sport plan. This is a document detailing what the aims and objectives of the NGB for a particular sport are. As with all organisations The FA have to make sure that they are setting SMART objectives. This means that all of the objectives have to be specific, measurable achievable, realistic and time-bound. The whole sport plan which Football currently has in place runs from 2009 until 2013. Sport England have 3 key points; grow, sustain and excel which Football and all other sports have to adhere to and show how they intend to meet this criteria.
The FA has identified several aspects of English football from grassroots football through to the elite. Beginning from grassroots the FA has set an objective of attracting 150,000 people in a four year time frame from a base figure of 2,144,700. This target is specific as they have a set figure of participants and a deadline of 2013. They can measure this by looking at the APS survey conducted by Sport England. This is both achievable and realistic target as Football already attracts 2,144,700 (2009) and to attract 150,000 more participants over a four year period is not over ambitious. Time is stated clearly as the FA has set out a 4 year plan and the rate in which they expect to grow at. By looking at this we can see that this objective relates back to the SMART principle and clearly meets the criteria expected of it.
The FA is looking to sustain levels of participation of football in England. However the objective set does not imply with the SMART principle as they show a figure of 78.2 which is not clear what they are attempting to measure. Therefore I am unable to relate it back to SMART.
Finally the FA moves on to the excel component. The four year plan given by the FA states that the FA intends to increase the number of female players in the FA centres of excellence from 1,710 to 3,000 and increase the number of disabled players in the FA to 1,260 from a base of 510 (Sport England, 2009). Both these areas are specific as they state clearly which group of people they are targeting and the figure they would like to grow towards. The way to measure this is again by referring back to the APS surveys done by sport England. These targets are without doubt achievable as the FA is such a wealthy organisation small targets like this should be realistic. Time is stated clearly as the FA has set out a 4 year plan and the rate in which they expect to grow at. By looking at this we can see that this objective relates back to the SMART principle and clearly meets the criteria expected of it.
PESSYP is another objective that the FA has identified on their four year plan. They intend to get 75,840 more young people in accredited clubs and 4,000 more young people involved with volunteering in football. This is specific as it states clearly what the FA is trying to achieve. This is specific as they are focussing on a particular group of people and give specific figures which they intend to grow towards. This is also measureable as PESSYP will record the level of participation. This objective is again realistic as the growth rate which they have set is not too high and also meets the time criteria as throughout the whole sports plan is over a four year period.
“Key performance indicators (KPIs) are used in combination with organizational objectives in order to establish success or failure” (Hoye et al, 2009, p.81).
I will now compare how participation rates in football have changed by looking not only by the information provided through the F.A. but take into consideration the results from the APS 1,2 & 3 to see if there are any changes and trends in participation rates. The APS survey is research conducted by sport England which measures the sports played by the people in England. Participation in each sport is defined as the percentage of the adult population in England aged 16 plus who take part in their chosen sport at moderate intensity for 30 minutes at least once a week. According to the APS 2 over 120,000 more people were participating in football in 2007/8 than in the previous APS 1 done in 2005/6. However since 2007/8 there has been a decrease in the number of participants as in the APS 3 they found there was a 20,000 decrease and again in the APS4 there was a further 30,000 decrease meaning that over that over the space of 2 years over 50,000 people had stopped participating in Football. More than two million people participate in football according to the APS 4 however; it is a notable decline and should be noted by the F.A.
The F.A represent their data in a different light as they state on their website that 7 million people in England participate in football in addition to 5 million in schools with over 500,000 volunteers (The FA, 2011). There is a clear difference in recorded participation levels found by the F.A and the APS. This is fundamentally due to how they conduct their research. For this to be generalized and valid there needs to be a general consensus to establish the actual participation levels of football in England.These are the performance indicators that I have chosen to use as they show whether the objectives which the FA set are been met.
Conclusion
After looking at the FA as an organisation I have noted their objectives and had the chance to judge their level of success based on the results shown from the APS in connection to their objectives stated on the whole sports plan done in 2009. I have noted a slight decline in the number of participants in football since the APS1 was conducted in 2005/6. I feel the FA should take note of this and take steps to counteract this decline as their whole sports plan is geared towards growth and therefore the objectives set out by the FA are not being met. Recommendations to achieve their objectives would be to switch the emphasis on to grass roots level which would see more funding and the development of more coaches and volunteers within the game to make football a continued success in England.
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