handbook for Technical Directors

The position of the technical director within the member association / 2
17
clubs and coaches in domains related to
nutrition, injury prevention and medical
tests for players
Marketing
The department that manages marketing
is fundamental in producing the revenue
that can fund development activities
and tournaments (sponsoring/marketing/
ticketing/income generation) and in
projecting a positive image of the
association among the general population
(media, social media, website, etc.).
In terms of marketing, development
activities might represent a clear asset
because they concern age categories that
are associated with certain products that
target the youth, or future consumers in
general. An association that is particularly
active in grassroots and youth football
might have a higher chance to sign a
sponsorship contract with a company
that relies heavily on young people for
its business. These synergies must be
explored and discussed between the
technical director and the person in
charge of marketing and inputs from
both sides should be taken into account
to shape activities that satisfy both the
need for football development and
the requirements to sell the product to
sponsors.
Example
Copa Coca-Cola
The Copa Coca-Cola (U-15 or U-17)
takes place in many countries
worldwide. It is financed by Coca-Cola
and supported by the central and local
governments. It usually involves the
whole country, starting at community
and regional level. The best teams
(youth elite) qualify for the district
tournaments and then for the regional
tournaments. When it reaches national
level, the football association usually
takes charge with the organisation of
coaching and refereeing courses as
well as assistance for the organisation
of the final event. The objectives
are multi-folded, particularly
the development of mass youth
football and detection of talents.
www.copa.coca-cola.com
Communications
From a communications perspective,
development activities are a definite asset.
They enable the association to be visible in
the periods where the national teams are
not active or during the league’s breaks.
Moreover, development activities such as
grassroots, courses or training camps for
young talents are events that can be fully
controlled by the association and do not
present any element of surprise or risk, like
– for instance – the results of the national
team.
The technical director must develop good
awareness of how his work is perceived
by the general public and be aware of
the positive outcomes that it can bring
to the good image of the association. He
must be implicated in the definition of
the association’s communication approach
for development activities. In addition,
the technical director must provide the
communications staff with relevant
information, good quality pictures or video
footage for the production of articles or
posts on the web and/or Facebook page.
Finance and administration
As part of the general secretariat,
the technical director is bound by the
general rules that apply to all employees,
particularly the employee regulations
and the financial procedures. As a head
of department, the technical director has
responsibilities related to human resources
(recruitment, definition and revision of job
descriptions, annual appraisals, sanctions,
etc.) as well as in how money is spent (cost
centres). Part 3 and Section 3.2 concern the
management functions of the technical
director and will provide guidance on the
shared responsibilities concerning the
recruitment of staff.
One of the domains in which
cooperation with the head of finance
and administration is stronger is the
preparation of the annual budget, because
the technical department is typically
associated with important investments
by the association. We will analyse the
contribution of the technical director to the
annual budget exercise in Section 3.3.