Football clubs, as with any business, are ran by higher management who are tasked with acting in the best interest of the organisation. It is therefore essential that these executives have a strong critical thinking and decision-making ability.
Clubs’ CEOs have a strong influence in what players are purchased and sold, all of which involves significant factors being weighed up against one another, such as price, ability of player, contract length etc. Critical thinking concerns the “the ability to cross-examine evidence and logical argument” (Korn et.al, 2014) and therefore evidently applies to the process of buying a football player.
Moreover, it is vital for the team coaches to be capable decision-makers and be able to asses risk. “In top teams managerial risk taking is not sensitive to prior outcomes” whereas “in weak teams, coaches strongly react to prior outcomes” (Bucciol, 2018) which indicates that coaches in so-called less talented teams are more rational and think more critically when preparing their team for the next match. Considering this, is there argument to suggest that CEOs and mangers of wealthy, successful clubs lack the capacity to logically construct arguments and make decisions, instead relying on the financial backing of the owners alongside the talent of the players themselves to bring positive results to the club?
It is interesting to give thought to the idea that executives in the football world would perhaps struggle to perform in different sectors due to the nature of football as a sport in which money seems to have little meaning and profit for the organisation is not the main objective, thus critical thinking not being such a necessary skill to possess.
The Shift in Football from Sport to Business 