Maximising the events of a career

When an elite footballer is young, playing well, receiving adulation from fans and media alike, and being paid a king’s ransom for doing so, they can be forgiven for not looking too far into the future.

Yet viewed from a business perspective, the player as the owner of their own business is selling their product which happens to be performance. Blockbuster video failed to capitalise on the introduction of streaming, Kodak films failing to capitalise on the digital age of photography, both now cease to exist. Perhaps they were naive, but perhaps they also had an excuse.

A footballer doesn’t have an excuse. The one thing that is absolutely certain is that the product the player is selling - performance - is eventually going to become obsolete, totally, 100%. Eventually, the body will tell them and those that pay the wages that they can’t compete anymore

Viewed as a business therefore they have to plan for the future, plan for morphing into something else, becoming another product. Of course, there are jobs that are linked to football, but none of them are likely to pay what has been the norm for circa 10 years plus.

Given the salary levels of the elite footballers in the modern-day game, a player has very little excuse not to be classed as a mini family office by his mid 30’s and retirement. That can only be done via investments, which is the domain of financial experts, but what can help fuel those investments early enough for them to benefit from the growth over a number of years.

Typically a player will sign 4 or 5 contracts during a career, and each one has to be considered an event, an event in the current business cycle that fuels the new business product of becoming a small family office, a wealth management business that has the wherewithal to thrive and constantly provides income to the owner.

The events - the contracts - must therefore be structured in a manner to give the maximum benefit. Annual salary, signing-on fees, image rights contracts are all well and good, but a more holistic look at the contract structure, in-depth, can have financial benefits that are immediately tangible and can be utilised to begin or enhance the investment plans of the footballer. Applying business acumen, utilising financial instruments, at the same time as understanding each club’s own requirements within a negotiation will lead to a much more beneficial agreement being signed.

At Vine, this is where we focus our attention. We are not an agency, we provide a service born from being inside football at both ends of the spectrum which gives us a unique insight into how contracts can best be structured for the benefit of both club and player. Not being an agency, nor wanting to be one, we are on hand for both players and agents to tap into our knowledge.