ABSTRACT

A growing number of professional football clubs (PFCs) have expanded commercially into multi-channel brands crossing national borders and providing various products and services to various customer groups. This development has increased the complexity of their operations, forcing PFCs to relate to a number of actors on the supply side to satisfy various types of actors on the customer side. Consequently, the choice of suppliers and management of supply chains are suddenly centre-stage in PFCs. At the same time, the increasing complexity of PFCs means that they do not easily lend themselves to supply chain management (SCM) techniques, and the various supply chain relationships in professional football are not easily grasped and coordinated. This chapter takes some steps towards a comprehensive understanding of supply chains and their management within the context of PFCs, and how SCM practice is, and can be, used in the business of football.