4.5. Recommendations
Concerning the stakeholders' management, football clubs are very
committed into developing links with their stakeholders. Their top managers
seem conscious about the benefits stakeholders bring them. But there is a wrong
point as well: clubs take much care about the stakeholders increasing their
income and less about the others. The best example remains the relation with
the players' agents. Clubs treat them bad all year long excepting during the
transfer periods. If clubs would develop a trespectful and true relationship
with them, they would benefit from their expertise and network to find
exceptional players. It is also important to highlight that French football
clubs are not committed enough to community programs if we compare with English
clubs. This is something important to improve. Concerning the competition, at a
European level, rules should be imposed to improve the clubs' finance by
forbidding access to competitions for overextended clubs. This would prevent
clubs from financial abuses which drive to bankruptcy. English football clubs
developed transparency in financial affairs and it would be a great example for
French ones. English clubs should benchmark France to develop their football
schools. It is certain that access to Stock Exchange market would provoke an
exceptional increase for French club's income. But are these clubs skilled
enough to manage this added money? To access financial markets, football clubs
would be required to have made profits for the last three years which is the
case of almost none French club. This rule from the Commission des
Opérations de Bourse (C.O.B.) limits the number of clubs who would
benefit this access. Football clubs are also too dependent of their income from
television right. To avoid a disaster, they should diversify their income as
much as possible.
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