Over the weekend I have mused, laughed and considered that wonderful part of the football season that is the “January transfer window”, and the happenings that occurred last week as it drew to a close. I guess my musings were not least because my team lost a striker without securing a replacement on the last day!

There were a few questions that came to mind:

Why does a player move clubs? Many go for more money, some to a better team, for a “new challenge”, to get more game time, to get to play at a higher level or to avoid dropping a level.

Why do clubs look for new players? Often it is because they are threatened with relegation and want a better player to help them to stay up, maybe they have gaps in their squad, if they have a new manager he often wants different players – often from his old club.

Many leave it until the last day, or even few hours to make a deal. Last year, one player was sold on the last evening for £50M and was replaced by another player for £35M.Both of them have shown that, even in the crazy world of football, they are worth nothing like those amounts!!

Last week we had the pictures of the player that drove 200 miles, telling the press that he was signing for a new club, only to be told no deal had been agreed and he had to return with his tail between his legs, sent home from training for a few days to eat a lot of humble pie!

Often, with the pressures to succeed, this sort of activity can endanger a club financially. Spending too much in transfer fees and wages has been the undoing of a number of clubs that have dropped through the divisions and become financially insolvent.

So, as churches and charities, what can we learn from football clubs and their wonderful transfer window? I believe there are two things that it needs to reinforce for us:

  • ensure that the decisions that we make are based on solid financial information and do not put our organisation at risk
  • when we look to add to our team – or join a new organisation – our focus should be on the skills and strengths of the individual and how they fit into the role that you are looking to fill to enable us to be more effective

When you next look at a football match – or another activity that has a lot of money around it – think of your organisation, its finances, its people, its governance and ensure that you take as much care as you can to ensure that you can achieve the aims that you have sensibly and solvently!