Leicester City’s Title win “secures their future for a decade”

Leicester City’s Premier League title win is perhaps one of the greatest sporting shocks; if not of all time then certainly of the 21st Century.

While events on the pitch have seen them crowned champions, events off it have helped them gain a footing at football’s top table.

Dr. Borja Garcia is a senior lecturer in Sports Policy and Management at Loughborough University and he believes good management was behind the rise.

He said: “The success of Leicester City in winning the Premier League is likely to secure the club’s future for at least the next decade – if it is properly managed.”

“One of the main features of Leicester’s rise to the top, besides the performance on the pitch, is the good decisions taken in the boardroom.”

“Funded by big spending of the Thai owners to the region of more than GBP 100m, the club has spent wisely, restructured its debt and regained ownership of its stadium. If similar good management continues in this new era of economic wealth, the club might grow from strength to strength.”

With new TV broadcasting contracts in both the Premier League and the Champions League, Leicester city will benefit from large revenue streams unknown to the club to date.

This almost seems the perfect time for Leicester to win the title with increased finances from the broadcasting deals.

Garcia continues: “They will be able to build equity for the future as long as they continue their policy of careful spending and very wise recruitment. One could see here parallels with clubs such as Sevilla FC or Villarreal in Spain.

Sevilla and Villarreal are competing in the Europa League semi-finals with one or perhaps both likely to be in the Champions League next season. Villareal were in Spain’s second tier in 2012 and look likely to finish fourth in La Liga this time around – guaranteeing at worst a Champions League Play-off.

The significance of Leicester is that they are already growing within the Thai market with a large part of that due to their ownership.

 

 

“The brand Leicester City is already important in Thailand, where the owners of the club have a monopoly on airport duty-free shops.”

“If one wonders around Bangkok airport, two Leicester City official stores can be found. The club shall be able to build on the title and, perhaps even more important, the epic story of a relatively small football club overpowering the major powers in English football.”

“Although Leicester City is not a poor clubs as some would like to portray at all (it has spent in players as much as Liverpool in the last two years), it is undeniable that the narrative of their title is attractive. It does not get to the level of Clough’s Forest, but it has tremendous commercial power.”

Garcia was keen to finally point out the potential pitfalls of Leicester winning the league and the importance of the clubs owners making use of their status without losing the ‘underdog’ tag.

He summarized: “The brand power of the underdog has been researched in the past, and results indicate that success stories like Leicester City’s generate important economic benefits. The risk is, however, that with the new incoming revenue Leicester may lose the label of the underdog in the people’s imaginary.”

“Therefore, there is a risk because the same success that is reinforcing the brand of Leicester City, which builds on their supposed ‘fairy-tale’ as a small club status, can actually erode that status with the new revenues. In that, the management of the club will need to be very wise and avoid being labelled as ‘new rich’.”