Over the last few years, certainly, in the wake of Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure from the club as manager, it is fair to say that Manchester United have been in somewhat organisational disarray.
Many have questioned how the club has been run for a number of years, especially since the Glazer family took charge in 2005, which sparked a significant drive and, seemingly, along with a period of irresponsible spending, which saw the headcount breach the one thousand mark.
When Sir Jim Ratcliffe, via his company, Ineos Group bought shares in the club and effectively took over the day-to-day running, he revealed his intention to considerably streamline operations, cutting 250 jobs from the 1,112 total headcount.
Man Utd’s latest accounts cover the period of the Ineos investment being officially confirmed#MUFChttps://t.co/1YJc6WMBX2
— Man United News (@ManUtdMEN) July 10, 2024
However, there have been a few strategic hires at the top of the hierarchy in order to assist with overall efficiency and organisation throughout the club in terms of day-to-day operations.
Over the last year, the club has also parted ways with four executives – then CEO, Richard Arnold, director of football, John Murtagh, interim chief executive officer (CEO), Patrick Stewart and chief finance officer CFO Cliff Baty.
Since, notable replacements have joined, with Omar Berrada sensationally snared from rivals, Manchester City as the new CEO, Jason Wilcox brought in from Southampton as technical director and the reputable Dan Ashworth hired as sporting director to lead the player recruitment drive. Meanwhile, Roger Bell was brought in as the new CFO.
Who Does What At Manchester United?
Like most large businesses or organisations, the club is split into different departments – each one being crucial to both the short and long term success as well as meeting different objectives.
As such, being one of the most well-known football clubs in the world, the marketing department plays an important role. Making sure the club is still established in particular countries and markets, in addition to working hard on their efforts to gain a foothold in others is considerably important.
This is run by the chief communications officer (CCO) – Ellie Norman, though underneath, there is director of marketing, Matt McKie. In tandem, the two oversee a marketing and PR department that is responsible for numerous growth strategies at the club.
The finance department is a big responsibility – it involves all of the costings at the club, including the payment of wages (both players, coaching staff and every other departmental staff member), in addition to issuing sponsorship invoices, expenses and anything else to do with money. Members of staff include numerous club accountants, payroll employees in addition to adminstrative staff.
Football operations, is undoubtedly the main department in a football club and this is no different at Manchester United. Afterall, success on the pitch effectively underlines every other factor in terms of being able to attract sponsorships, merchandising and being able to more easily raise awareness with marketing efforts.
As such, the director of football is key and is responsible for the hiring of the manager and identification of and recruitment of players, in addition to scouting and coaching staff, though he does work closely with the manager.
All of the football operations roles report into him, though at the same time, he is effectively accountable for how the club performs, having being the person who identified and hired the manager. It all starts at the top, though of course, he reports into the CEO.
Of course, there are also other departments that play just as an important role as the others. The chief technology officer (CTO), is responsible for the functioning and maintenance of every computer at Old Trafford and Carrington training ground, however, they do have staff that they can rely on for all of the different tasks.
Furthermore, like some football clubs, Manchester United also develops its own technology that it can use for inhouse purposes, such as tracking players’ fitness levels effectively in training.
How Do Other Clubs Function?
The key difference between Manchester United, compared to the majority of other football clubs, is that it is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which means there is a much more corporate atmosphere than others.
As such, the business is responsible to its many thousands of shareholders and, because of this, the pressure to perform is different.
Of course, other smaller Premier League football clubs, such as Fulham (one that is more or less, consistently in England’s top tier), there are significantly more employees – indeed, the West London club had approximately 554 as of July 2024.
Despite this though, the actual operations are still the same in terms of how the club is run on a day-to-day basis. Due to the fact that Fulham FC is not as well-known globally, the departments are smaller, though, nevertheless, these still work in the same way.
There could also be a disparity in salaries and wages between the two clubs, with Fulham not generating as much revenue per year – this is unusual for England, with employees in the country’s capital often earning more than the rest of the country, due to the higher cost of living.