Until the 2002 Season there has been no legislative requirement for football clubs in Portugal to have stewards present at their sporting fixtures. With the coming of the European Championship in 2004, Portugal has invested heavily in new and refurbished stadiums in readiness for the competition. With such investment taking place they are now looking at the stewarding of the matchday operation in greater detail.
CARE, a stewarding organisation based in Lisbon, Portugal and currently contracted to Sporting Lisbon, viewed the opportunity of the European Championships as a catalyst to implement a programme of training and development for their existing staff.
In January 2002 key personnel employed by CARE came to England to begin their research of organisations and football clubs, looking at the training and development opportunities and benchmarking for their overall matchday operation. During their research they came across Watson Associates, a training organisation dedicated to training all event and matchday personnel. Watson Associates were able to offer a comprehensive training and development package written in Portuguese for Stewards, Supervisors and Assessors, as well as guidance and support in matchday operational procedures. Watson Associates had earned a renowned name within the football industry after Sue Watson the Managing Director trained over 1,000 Stewards, Supervisors and Area Supervisors at Wembley for the Euro ‘96 competition, which won worldwide acclaim for the way in which it was run.
CARE engaged the expertise of Watson Associates and contracted with them to go to Portugal and begin a three-year programme of training and development commencing with an awareness session on the roles and responsibilities of Safety Officers. Representatives who attended the programme came from CARE, Sporting Lisbon, Benfica and Vitoria Football clubs.
The initial training programme lasted for three days with specialist trainers in all areas of event safety management. On completion of the comprehensive training programme, all the trainers involved in the project were invited to visit some of the local stadiums and watch the matchday operation. They were also asked to view stewarding plans and visit the new stadiums being constructed.
Stadiums here and throughout Europe are increasingly being constructed to offer a multitude of services to the whole community, not just the football club. Their use is being extended from just hosting one or two football matches a week to conference facilities, other sports facilities and even different / complementary sports. Sporting Lisbon in Portugal is just one of the many football clubs in Portugal who are equipped to host many different sporting events.
Today no club can survive if it only looks at its individual parts in isolation and not the effective operation of the whole. A club may be considered to be the sum of its parts; each part is dependant upon its operation of the others. As the demands on the clubs for more revenue increase, they look more and more at how their capital investments can be utilised to help.
Some clubs have formed separate businesses within the stadium offering complementary services and others have diversified in to other areas, i.e. property, all with the intention of boosting turnover during the ‘closed season’. In some cases the separate businesses result in key activity being diverted away from the core business of football. Accountants used to be the last department to be formed at a football club and the first to be reduced, however without the constant monitoring of income and expenditure clubs can trade them themselves into huge debts.
As the ‘money’ from sponsorship becomes harder to get, more and more clubs have had to take a business-like overview of their operation. How can they increase their revenue without increasing the costs of the business?
Some clubs have gone down the route of ground sharing, with two different sports involved at the same ground, preferably with different seasons, but this does not necessarily have to be the case. The implications to the Safety Officer are extended lengths of employment for stewards, are they able to cover the new requirements? Different ground regulations and legislation for the different sports; do the same people attend both? How are you going to communicate the differences? Consideration also has to be given to the different cultures of the people attending the different sports: what extra training do the Matchday staff require?
Other clubs have looked at the resources they have for entertainment during the match and how this can be utilised in the future. Innovative ideas: such as converting executive boxes to bedrooms during the week – this is something that West Ham Football Club have done. Some football clubs have even joined forces with a further education establishment by having a college in the stadium. Charlton Athletics’ association with London Leisure College has seen the college grow into a market leader in educating and training people for all areas of the Leisure Industry.
Many stadiums are now looking to obtain a licence to carry out marriage ceremonies and use the conference and banqueting facilities for wedding receptions, again with the intention of boosting revenue.
Community partnerships have been forged between with the local education authority and stadiums to use rooms at the stadium to improve the skills of children. Learning centres have been developed in lots of football clubs who want to be gain recognition for being more than a football match or a football team by encouraging young people to realise their potential through learning new skills. At Leeds United footballers have been involved in a book challenge, going into local schools and encouraging reading skills. This has been highly successful through giving young people recognition for something they have done well and encouragement to succeed.
Taking into consideration the extended needs of each individual stadium the role of the Safety Officer now has to be developed further. Stadium Managers are the most common designated Safety Officers in stadiums and their expertise in facilities management is added to with the responsibility for matchday management. The pressure of building maintenance, future developments and the current Health and Safety Legislation often falls on the same pair of shoulders.
Watson Associates has spent years developing training programmes for all sports and stadiums incorporating the underpinning knowledge and skills as well as the anticipated needs of the Stadium Manager / Safety Officer.
The course is run over 3 days with input from specialist people within the sporting industry. Advice and guidance on specific matters relating to an individual stadium can be incorporated into the training programme. All delegates are asked to complete a pre course questionnaire enabling the speakers to ensure the specific needs of individuals are met either through a training session, by completing a desktop exercise or on a one to one basis.