I have been involved in football for years. Throughout this journey, I have heard countless times that nothing is more important than the outcome. This idea is found in the world of football and, at different times, the purpose of a club comes down to one imperative: we must win the next match.
Over time, I better understood the context behind this vision. For those working in this industry, one of the biggest challenges is understanding what’s happening beyond the dashboard. Football is an invitation to the imponderable, and yet we seek objective answers. Pressure to achieve results tends to relate more to the emotional realm than the technical realm. The game awakens insecurity, leading to impulsive decisions disconnected from reality, revealing the difficulty of leaders in dealing with the vulnerability of the environment.
In Brazil, some clubs have structured corporate spaces to better control their routine: they pay their bills on time, plan investments and organize support sectors. This is important and allows you to invest responsibly in football. However, it must be recognized that these are phenomena that are easier to measure. The challenge lies in managing the imponderable.
Football is a game that requires simple answers, but takes place in a complex context. Every day, clubs must make decisions about people, deciding whether certain professionals serve the institution or not. The dilemma of choosing a coach, the conflict within the squad, the doubt over the hiring or release of players are part of an inevitable scenario.
In an industry characterized by emotions, evaluation criteria have become an asset. Creating an institutional way of defining what is good or bad is still little explored. We can call this process culture building. It is not easy to understand why some professionals succeed in certain clubs and fail in others. The tendency of the environment is to simplify the analysis, few studies are carried out on the influence of the environment on collective and individual performance.
The impact of organizational culture in other sectors is proven, investment in the way of working is a differentiator for large companies. In football, international practices are also evolving in this direction. Today, areas such as performance, analytics and scouting are influenced by data and artificial intelligence. In this information-saturated environment, the real challenge lies in the question asked, because it reveals the purpose of the institution.
The result of a match is a thermometer to evaluate the evolution of a team, but it is far from being the definitive answer. It is essential that clubs understand that developing a working culture actually means controlling the decision-making process. The search for heroes – managers, players or coaches – is attractive, but it provides momentary relief from the feeling of helplessness generated by the game.
True redemption does not lie in an individual. What really makes an institution live or collapse is found in a less obvious layer, built silently on a daily basis. The future of a club lies in the construction of beliefs, principles, choices and renunciations which represent it, and which allow it to face the imponderable with identity.
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