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This conceptual paper aims to offer a theoretical contribution that explicates the “blind spot” cultural diversity and reward diversity team conflict contingencies, and personal audit as a mechanism for managing the consequences.

The paper suggests a framework for analysing and managing diversity (cultural and reward) driven team conflicts. Given the theoretical foundation, personal audit among team members is recommended as a tool for managing the consequences of such conflict factors.

This paper underlines the team building intervention utility for team effectiveness. It reinforces theoretical foundation that highlights conflict as a determinant of team effectiveness, and reviews two diversity dimensions of team conflicts. Finally, it suggests and explains an “active learning” personal audit model for achieving the conceptualised team effectiveness perspective.

The paper highlights critical but usually overlooked team conflict intricacies in football team management. This framework offers practical relevance in enabling understanding of “attitudes and behaviours” of team members and human resource management in football marketing. Managers would benefit from this perspective and improve team effectiveness, performance and organisation's performance.

The paper offers valuable conceptual insight for development, one that serves the interest of management of football clubs and academia.

The goal of this research was to explore career patterns of senior marketing managers in the best European football clubs (SMMEFCs).

The data came from the LinkedIn profiles of current and past SMMEFCs. Firstly, the optimal matching algorithm was used to determine clusters of pathways leading to a first SMMEFC position based on the main activity of the employing organisation. Secondly, these patterns were compared in terms of variables depicting the career paths, clubs and managers. Finally, the evolution of the post-SMMEFC careers was analysed.

People in their first SMMEFC positions are mainly male with a university degree in business and marketing, and with a predominantly functional experience in marketing. There are five ways to become an SMMEFC: through business (40% of the sample), football (32%), other sports (11%), marketing and communication (11%), and media (6%). As the majority of SMMEFCs come to their positions from outside the sporting world, the specificity of the football industry is not a serious obstacle. Instead, the careers are bounded by functional marketing experience. Among the individual sequences leading to a first SMMEFC position, only around half of the football cluster may be considered traditional careers. Football, and sports in general, seem attractive for post-SMMEFC career development for the majority of managers coming from all pathways.

The study is the first one to quantify career patterns in professional sports management. It provides new insights about marketing careers and practice in European club football.

This research aims to examine the fundamental elements regarding Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) marketing strategy. Specifically, the objective of this analysis is the implementation of globalizing the club brand of PSG.

The author held three 2-h face-to-face meetings. Given that the main criterion in the choice of the respondent for a case study was the quality of the information that could be obtained during the interview, the professionals were selected because of their direct involvement in the PSG’s global marketing strategy. Data collection was conducted with the aid of several in-depth interviews with the Deputy General Manager (in charge of commercial activities), Frédéric Longuépée, the Corporate and Brand Communications Manager, Nicolas Serres and the Brand Diversification and Development Manager (in charge of eSports), Fabien Allègre.

It appears that since the acquisition of PSG by Qatar Sports Investments, the club has entered a new era and has set in motion a strategy to compete with the biggest sports brands in the world. The results of this research reveal that the globalization strategy of PSG is itself part of Qatar’s internationalization approach. The findings also suggest that the global marketing strategy of the club is based on three key steps. First was the reorganization of the club to create an omnisports brand with a new CEO at its head, which is highlighted here. The rebuilding of the brand followed, through the creation of new identity and logotype, the acquisition of brands-athletes and controlled communication. Finally, the development of the club which is based on the diversification of growth drivers.

Overall, these results contribute to the enrichment of sports clubs and global marketing research This research offers a unique perspective and insights on the marketing strategic globalization of a professional sports club linked with the internationalization of a country. Best practices become visible through this analysis, which might serve as guidelines in other contexts.

It is not uncommon for sports fans to follow multiple sports teams across different sports and even several teams across different leagues of the same sport. Whereas this might be considered a competitive situation, the purpose of this paper is to examine how interest in overseas football (soccer) leagues played a symbiotic role in the successful development of an Australian national soccer league.

Results of survey data are presented from two clubs in Australia's newly formed A‐League. Three surveys were conducted over a two year period with over 3,700 season ticket holders. Specific attention is paid to fans' previous interest and exposure to football, which is then related to attitudes and behaviour associated with the new clubs.

Interest in overseas clubs and leagues is found to be a major antecedent of interest in the Australian league. Those who follow teams in overseas leagues are more likely to be heavy consumers of the new local league than those who follow local leagues or had no prior experience. They also exhibit stronger attitudinal and behavioural loyalty, such as higher attendance and renewal rates of season tickets.

Recognising fan interest in multiple teams/leagues as positive involves a shift in management thinking away from a competitive to a collaborative stance. In this case, rapid adoption of new teams is encouraged by capitalising on strong interest in overseas leagues. This requires careful structuring and branding of the competition that mimicks familiar foreign leagues, while minimising unfavourable comparisons in areas like quality of play.

This study capitalises on the rare opportunity to examine foundation teams in a new national league. The findings highlight the importance and value of taking a “global” perspective to the marketing of sports, and of carefully leveraging the interest in other elite competitions to build interest in new leagues.

Academically constructed segments may often fail to be implemented by practitioners. There may be a number of reasons for this, but at the heart of the matter for practitioners must be an economic reward that outweighs the incremental costs of segmenting. Central to this issue is the ease with which different types of data can be collected and used. Experience from direct marketing practice suggests that segments based on customer value and customer benefits sought often lead to successful strategies. Accordingly, looks to utilise these variables to complement the traditional use of geo‐demographic and psychographic approaches. Examines the business of football. Using a mixed qualitative and survey based approach, an exploration of football supporters was undertaken with the objective of identifying segmentation opportunities. A number of new segments were identified, among them “professional wanderers”; “carefree casuals” and “repertoire fans”. Suggests directions for broader studies. Hopes that this work will better inform the marketing efforts of professional sports franchises and indeed all leisure sectors that rely on regular live audiences for their livelihood.

This study explores the motivations underlying the European Super League (SL) breakaway attempt. While institutional settings bind football to tradition, investors conceive football companies as an opportunity to diversify their investments in a fast-growing technological industry. The study investigates the market structure and identifies the reasons behind the European football crisis, proposing to modify the role of Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in the European football market.

After summarizing the unusual features of the European football market, the article displays the agents involved and their interrelations. Modeling the market facilitates picturing the misalignment of targets of regulatory bodies and football clubs. It also helps visualize the potential consequences of the SL coup on the market.

The market does not allow football companies to monetize their business and compete with other entertainment sectors. Only a radical change in the balance of power between clubs and self-interested institutional settings can settle this situation. Indeed, this relation leads to market inefficiency because the two most critical clubs' financial problems (the high dependence on broadcasting revenues and the uncontrolled expenditures on players' salaries) are linked to the same issue: the governing bodies strongly influence the profit equation by holding control of media rights and incentivizing clubs to overspend to win both on-field and off-field.

This study is the first to assess the football business market using an evolutionary approach to address its problems. It offers a visualizing tool to understand the market and proposes an alternative solution for solving the football market crisis.

Sponsorship as a marketing tool is developing and growing quicker than any other marketing discipline. Increased media opportunities, in particular the Internet and Digital TV and sponsorship's unique ability to transcend borders and cultures have greatly increased its standing. The Internet and the development of WAP phone technology will enable the vital link between desire and purchase among customers to be considerably strengthened. The new technology will also improve the ability to accurately measure the results of sponsorship in terms of increased sales.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of brand associations on brand loyalty of fans toward professional football clubs in developed and emerging football markets (EFM). In particular, the following research questions are answered: how important are different determinants of brand associations for fans from developed football markets (DFM) and EFM? Are there any major differences in the importance of different brand associations and their influence on brand loyalty between fans from DFM and EFM?

Based on the customer-based brand equity framework the impact of brand associations on brand loyalty is tested with a sample of 3,587 fans from DFM – Germany, England, Spain, Italy, and France (2,032) – as well as fans from EFM – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and the USA (1,555).

Structural equation modeling is applied and shows a negative impact of brand attributes on attitudinal loyalty, whereas brand benefits positively impact attitudinal loyalty. Furthermore, significant differences between fans from developed and EFM are revealed. Implications for the management of football teams and for research on brand management are derived.

This study extends the work of Gladden and Funk (2001) by expanding the model used to assess brand loyalty and analyzes it empirically in different football markets. When looking to foster attitudinal loyalty, marketers should concentrate on benefit associations instead of attribute associations. Most importantly, marketers should be aware that when focusing on developing brand loyalty amongst EFM fans, they should not simply apply the same strategies that proved to be effective in DFM and vice versa.

The objective of this research is to understand and compare the perceived brand positioning of two football megabrands (Adidas and Nike) for a specific social group, the registered amateur football players in France, using the social representation theory (SRT) as the theoretical framework and the free word associations as the main method.

A survey was conducted through face-to-face questionnaire among a convenience sample of registered amateur football players in France (n = 362) and for which 52 percent chose Adidas and 48 percent Nike.

Findings demonstrated that Adidas and Nike have a different perceived brand positioning for the registered amateur football players in France. Adidas is perceived as more typical and positioned “inside the football ground” through main characteristics of its football goods for training and competition. Nike is more positioned “outside the football ground” through their sportswear goods for daily life and fashion.

The interest of this research is to be primarily inductive and focus on a specific group (membership of registered amateur football players) to understand the perceived brand positioning in the football market. The method allows activating the belonging with this group (higher level of practice with these brands) by using the SRT method of free word associations. Thanks to this original approach, results could help managers of Nike and Adidas reinforce their brand positioning and gain market share, as well as build their specific brand community like both megabrands did for the runners in France.