In 2010, when the EyjafjallaJokull volcano erupted in Iceland and caused enormous disruption to air travel across western and northern Europe, the then Blackburn Rovers Football Club manager Sam Allardyce was in talks to sign young Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, who was looking for a move from his hometown club Lech Poznan.
Allardyce was due to hold talks with the player and was confident of securing the €4.5 million deal when the eruption happened. This meant Lewandoski couldn’t travel, the deal fell through and a few days later German outfit Borussia Dortmund swooped in and signed the player on a four-year contract.
He went on to become one of the most sought after players in Europe, eventually signing for European champions Bayern Munich and now worth an estimated £40 million. A season later Blackburn were relegated from the Premier League.
The ash cloud crisis provides one example of the challenges working with the combined unpredictable sector of travel and the equally chaotic world of football. However, on the face of it, there are many similarities between managing travel in football and in other sectors, as travel manager and player liaison officer at Premier League club Swansea City, Robert Young, explains.
“The attention to detail is crucial, as it is in all aspects of travel management,” he says. “The timing of everything is important and unfortunately players, like business travellers, can be an impatient bunch of individuals, so timing is key.”
In football travel there are the same issues to be dealt with as for any business, such as duty-of-care, security, negotiating rates with hotels, and traveller tracking in emerging areas of the world – although your traveller will probably be in Brazil scouting the latest
£5 million-rated South American wonderkid rather than thrashing out a business deal for a blue-chip technology firm. But for football clubs travelling for regular away season games, every part of the trip must be rigorously planned to ensure everything is arranged for kick-off.
Young says: “There’s always a big entourage that will travel with the team on domestic away-games to ensure preparation is perfect. For example, we will always take a chef with us, as it’s crucial what the players eat and that it’s prepared properly. We also need dedicated private dining areas for the players; all the rooms must be on the same floor; we will need a physio; and require kit rooms and meeting areas.
“In the UK we work to a strategy: the hotel must be within a certain distance of the ground, as on matchday you have to be at the ground 90 minutes before kick-off; and pre-match meals must be eaten at the right time. If we get a hiccup along the line, it has a knock-on effect on everything else.”
Guy Dunwoody is director at professional sports travel management firm TMG, which has managed travel for some of the biggest clubs in the UK, including Chelsea, Leeds and Manchester United. He explains how minor points have the potential to cause huge issues at a club. “In 2007 we helped manage a Premier League Asian tournament in Hong Kong and there was a commercial agreement in place with Lucozade, so the players had to be seen drinking only that brand of sports drink. Fortunately someone checked, and realised the recipe for Lucozade in Asia is different from Europe, so at the last minute a crate-load of Lucozade was shipped out to the tournament. This is an extreme example of the importance of detail in football travel planning.”
Premier crew
In 1992, the Premier League was formed as a breakaway from the traditional football league format so the clubs could negotiate their own TV contracts. The first deal from 1992 ran for five years and was worth £191 million, a figure dwarfed by the TV rights deal announced in February this year, which saw BT and Sky pay the Premier League £5.1 billion.
These incredible sums mean that even the club that finishes bottom of the league will receive almost £100 million, before prize money, sponsorship and European revenue is taken into account. According to Deloitte’s 2015 Football Money League ‘rich list’, by the end of next season all 20 Premier League teams could break into the top 30 richest clubs in the world.
Despite this influx of money, a travel manager in football must still account for every penny and work to strict budgets. Kate Suddards is sports account manager at ATPI, which manages travel for both Premier League and foreign teams. She says: “There is a misconception that football clubs are not concerned about the cost of travel. Budgets and costs are extremely important and need to be managed as strictly as any other organisation, so our relationship with the finance department at each club is crucial, and is something that is continually monitored and reported on.”
However, when I speak to another Premier League club travel buyer – who doesn’t want to be named – he says that because so much can happen in a season, the team’s priorities can quickly change, so budgets are flexible. “There are budgets in place for football, but these are rarely adhered to as ‘needs must’ take over. A budget is done for 19 Premier League games, Champions League fixtures and pre-season tours using historical information, but allowances have to be made for ad hoc travel that can’t be planned.”
Despite requirements for hotels and flights being different, the negotiating process follows a similar format to that of other sectors. Suddards says she knows the “best possible negotiations” for the client are “paramount”.
“There are usually only a limited number of hotels in each city that will have the ability to correctly service football teams; however, this does not mean a premium price should be applied or accepted. We always negotiate as strongly as possible with all suppliers for any fixture.”
Our Premier League travel buyer said his club “relies heavily on the TMC [travel management company] to negotiate the best price for both flights and hotels; and we rely on waivers and favours to reduce some of the costs”. He adds: “Our players will always have to travel first class, especially coming back from international duty, at our cost – which for some players from the African countries can be very expensive.”
Young says at Swansea they work to a budget but flexibility within those contracts is important. “For around eight to ten games a season we will charter an aircraft, and that will be done almost a season in advance to ensure we get the availability and so we can negotiate a season-long loan deal.
“For our hotel bookings, once the fixture lists are released we will secure all our accommodation for the season, but put in caveats for final number of rooms required. Strong relationships with suppliers are key, so we don’t incur extra costs when cancelling rooms at short notice due to things such as player injuries. But from a hotel perspective, it’s a very lucrative business, so we know there will be good working relationships on both sides.”
He adds: “Some suppliers see a Premier League club and think they can afford anything; but that’s not true – we have to count every cost”.
Security issuesIn 2010, before an African Cup of Nations game in Angola, gunmen fired on a bus carrying Togo’s football team to the match. Rebels who had been fighting for the region’s independence admitted responsibility for the attack, which wounded several players and killed the driver.
Situations like this are extremely rare, but highlight the fact that the high-profile nature of the players means they can be a target wherever they travel, something buyers must be aware of. ATPI’s Suddards explains: “Having a strong working relationship with the security staff at the clubs, as well as the police, is an important part of the planning and fulfilment of team travel. Each trip is planned in great detail in advance: this includes a pre-site inspection, together with security personnel, of the airports, transport movements, hotels and stadium. This level of planning is paramount to any fixture.
“A breach of security at any point could not only pose a problem to the individuals but also have a detrimental impact on the focus of the team and distract or cause delays, which could influence the preparation of the game,” she adds.
Our Premier League travel buyer says: “The club doesn’t currently have a duty-of-care policy in place, but that will change and is something being worked on for the 2015/16 season. Our security team liaise with local police and security teams at the away venue, either with a recce or with historical knowledge. The team always travels with three close protection officers, who stay over at the hotels with them.”
Revolving doors
In most sectors, a travel buyer’s usual point of contact will be the procurement team, and can rely on a degree of stability. A lot of companies pride themselves on low staff turnover – something that is unfortunately rare now at the highest echelons of football.
Football fans are notoriously fickle, and a couple of bad results can see fans calling for the manager’s head, so no surprise that during the 2012/13 season across the 92 teams in the top four divisions, there were 63 managerial changes. This meant at the end of 2013 the average tenure of a Premier League manager was just over one season.
This can have a disruptive influence on travel plans and something both buyer and TMC must be aware of, as TMG’s Dunwoody explains: “If a manager is sacked then everything changes. A new manager will sometimes have their own dining plans and nutrition teams, so all the work liaising with certain hotels could all be for nothing. Sometimes, on pre-season tours, if the weather is not right the manager will cancel training and we will have to re-arrange transfers and find alternative venues.”
Dunwoody says that as a TMC they aren’t privy to any extra information, so the first they hear of a manager’s sacking is when the rest of the world does.
Signing of the times
For everyone connected with football, from players to fans, January 31 and August 31 are special days: Twice a year, ‘deadline day’ is when Sky Sports’ ostentatious reporting goes into overdrive. Managers are desperate to get last-minute multi-million pound deals done before midnight, which can mean last-minute travel for players from abroad. Deadline day can provide plenty of challenges for travel teams, as Suddards explains: “A footballer rarely travels alone and so travel for a new player signing is almost always very last minute and needs to be managed with a high level of discretion.
“The diversity of nationalities in a Premier League team now means that managing the time-window for visa applications inbetween foreign travel is difficult. We recommend that additional passports are obtained for each player and the club holds at least one in their possession at all times.”
After the player’s signature is secured, the club wants to ensure its £5 million new asset is properly integrated into the club and city he is staying in as quickly as possible, something Swansea FC’s Young helps deal with.
“Earlier this season we signed Ecuadorian international Jefferson Montero, who arrived from Ecuador to Swansea – a big culture shock. He arrived with his family, so we helped them find a place to live and with schooling. We ensured their homelife was stable as quickly as possible, which will enhance his performance on the pitch.
“We even go with some players to the local Ikea to help them pick furniture out – it’s that level of detail in football management that makes the job so important.”
When Eyjafjallajökull kicked off...
TMG’s Guy Dunwoody explains how the 2010 ash cloud crisis had an effect on Fulham FC’s important semi-final Europa League tie in Germany...
THE ERUPTION OF THE ICELANDIC VOLCANO in 2010 coincided with the planning of our ninth overseas trip of the season managing Europa League travel for Fulham FC, and had a significant impact on travel planning for their semi-final match in Hamburg.
Unlike many overseas business meetings or events due to take place in mid-April 2010, which could be rearranged or cancelled, it was clear from the outset that the match would not be postponed. Initially, the planning was as per the previous 400 or so overseas fixtures for which we’ve managed travel; but, less than one week ahead of the outbound travel date, the shutters went down over UK airspace and contingency planning commenced.
Our key responsibility on any football trip is to ensure that the players arrive at the match rested, refreshed and ready for kick off. It became clear quite quickly that the only feasible way of getting the team to the match would be by coach – far from ideal, but needs must.
Utilising the team coach over such a long journey was a first. We took instruction from Fulham as to what was needed to minimise disruption to the playing staff, and we planned the itinerary accordingly.
In short, this involved coach travel via Eurotunnel, a meal stop at a specified time en route to an overnight stay in Münster, before the onward journey to Hamburg, where the team were to arrive in time to ensure they were able to complete their press and training commitments.