Forgive my nativity WP but how can a football CEO run a football business without having some form of power in how the football team is run?
CEO runs the business but the business ultimately is football? You could have the best CEO in the world but if you are paying awful football it won't be a successful business?
How do other business run Pope? They have a CEO but they also have managers running other departments reporting to the CEO do they not? Same applies.
Or to put it another way lets look at a successful club in Geelong, do you honestly think that Brian Cook has much influence/input into the footy dept or how the footy team is run? Answer is NO; he has Neil Balme in charge of the footy dept and Balme reports to Cook. They also have people running sponsorship, membership depts etc. Cook doesn't run all those depts. he has senior people in place that report to him.
YEs a football clubs core business is football but for it to function successfully it needs to generate the income to invest in football to enable that "product" to be the best it can be.
That is a footy club's CEO ultimate responsibility, to ensure all of the business is strong/successful enough to be able to invest in its core business of football. And that involves delivering other revenues streams so when things on field turn to crap the bottom line isn't completely obliterated.
So as I said the CEO can offer an opinion, voice concerns about the on field but should they have a direct say in recruiting, team selection, gameplan and the style of footy being played? No they shouldn't and the Geelongs & Hawthorns of the comp show that they don't need to
Pretty sure if the performances of the Geelongs and Hawthorns were hurting the bottom line of the club that he is CEO of, Brain Cook would have a massive say on how the side needs to improve. He might not get into the nitty gritty of it but if they were playing ugly footy that the members and paying supporters didn't want to watch, he would make the changes through the Neil Balmes and then down the line.
The CEO is in charge of the entire club, I know he has managers and people below that but he is the one that ultimately can make the changes in any part of the club, especially if what is happening isn't working. It's his duty. He is not going to sit by and watch all the good work of others go to waste because a coach is to stupid to realize what needs to happen.
At the end of the day if the coaches doesn't want to listen to what the hierarchy wants then he gets sacked.
