3.3. Data collection
3.3.1. Secondary data
To have an overview of football clubs' sector, it has been useful
to integrate an important amount of secondary data. Both types of data were
used: qualitative and quantitative. The aim of this secondary data study was to
design football clubs' portraits to be able to conduct in-depth interviews
later on. The clubs' official documents (e.g. annual reports) were ordered by
e-mail, through the football clubs' websites. Clubs are used to answer students
request so they sent those
How stakeholders influence football clubs' strategy ? September
2003
information very quickly, in England. As they are considered as
traditional companies, English clubs have to publish their financial accounts.
In France, clubs did not have to publish their accounts (but things are
changing), so it was impossible to get them, even by asking the clubs. Clubs
websites were full of information and freely accessible. On these sites you
could find information for fans, downloadable documents, managers' interview,
players' interview... Leagues official reports have been the most useful
secondary data: they give an overview of the sector, forecasts for the future
of the business... They were accessible on demand by e-mail through the Premier
League, the Football Association and the Ligue de Football Professionel's
websites. The websites of stakeholders' groups were also analysed (G14,
players' association, agents...). It was also possible to find some academic
papers written by lecturers or students on universities websites. Most of them
were available on-line. They were really precise and useful to understand
football clubs' management and economy. The most recommendable universities
were Liverpool and Leicester ones because they had football studies
departments. Some other papers deal with the subject on the Internet. Emerald
and Mintel websites have been the most useful tools to gather documentary data.
Many books were edited about football business and football economics, but
their content was not useful for this study. In fact, most of the popular books
were focused on some polemic events and did not study deeply football clubs'
management. The only useful books were the ones written by academicians and
lecturers. A huge amount of (useful and useless) information came from
specialised magazines like 442 or France Football, daily newspapers, television
and radio. In fact, they often related speech of football clubs' managers,
players and sometimes of agents. It has been meaningful to feel the atmosphere
and the trend of football economics. All those secondary data have allowed the
author to have an overview of the current football business and to get some
clues about how were managed stakeholders by football clubs. The decisive part
of this research depended on the primary data collection.
3.3.2. Primary data
This information has been the core of this research. Primary data
came directly from football clubs' managers. It was important to select an
interview mode. A telephone interview would have been the quickest way to get
this data but it was also limited in time. People usually are not at ease with
long conversation on the phone, so they prefer to shorter the interview. To
understand stakeholders' management, an interview on the phone would not have
been long and `deep' enough. Liverpool F.C. asked the author to design an
e-mail interview, before they changed their mind and accepted to meet the
interviewer. Face-to-face interview was the mean chosen to conduct this
research. It was the most adapted mode to understand how the club is managed,
to have time enough to answer all the questions and to have spontaneous (and
usually true) answers. Then, some football clubs had to be chosen as sample for
these in-depth and standardised interviews.
| 
