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
