Along with contracts, transfers, star show matches, cheerleader groups and others, completely new professions came to Russian sports and, above all, to football and hockey - club president, scout, general manager. The first of this list manages all the activities of the club, at the same time being its financial guarantor. Scouts are responsible for breeding and screening potential newcomers to the team. But what are the official functions of the general manager, the fans hardly know.
Import from America
In Russia, there are general and simple managers in clubs and federations for various sports - hockey, football, basketball, volleyball, athletics. Their appearance is associated primarily with the entry of the leading domestic teams to the international level, with the study and adoption of certain features of Western professional sports. Including the institute of management and organization of the entire club structure.
It is no secret that all this is most developed in the United States, on the example and experience of the clubs of which the Russians, after the disappearance of the stable system of Soviet amateur sports, basically studied. It was there that the first Russian sports organizers at one time were surprised to learn that a large number of people work in truly professional clubs and there is a clear distribution of job responsibilities.
Many of them were shocked by the fact that the coaches of Western teams are only engaged in purely coaching work on the field or court, not wasting time on finding and persuading the players they need, organizing matches, communicating with the federation, trips, meetings in the league office, etc. do Soviet coaches. In America and Western Europe, all this is handled by the link between the club-containing president and a large coaching staff called the "general manager". By the way, in many countries the profession of a general manager is even taught. For example, in France, this is being done by the Center for Economics and Sports Law in Limoges, of which former captain of the local football team Zinedine Zidane recently became one of the graduates.
Hockey manager
The main indicator of the work of a good Russian general manager is the successful performance of the club team (in Soviet times it was called the team of masters) in the KHL (Continental Hockey League) championship. The general manager, as a person who understands modern hockey, who is well acquainted not only with the nuances of the game, but also with the referee, who is able to solve complex organizational issues, is entrusted with the most difficult duty of recruiting a high-quality team for the new season. The manager also participates in the selection of personnel for the club itself.
It is the general manager who sometimes conducts very difficult and lengthy negotiations with the players from other clubs that interested the scouts and coaches about their transfer. He constantly communicates with agents of hockey players, prepares and discusses the details and terms of contracts with both newcomers and those goalkeepers, defenders and strikers from his team whom the head coach wants to see in her further. In addition, he negotiates with colleagues from other clubs about transfers and player exchanges, and takes part in the draft of newcomers.
Another of the many responsibilities of the general manager of a hockey club is his constant contact with the management of the so-called farm club. That is, an independent legal organization from a lower league with which the KHL club has a contractual relationship. By the decision of the coaches and the general manager, it is allowed to send hockey players of the main or backup team to the farm club. And his best and most ready players, on the contrary, can be attracted to the main team. No less important is the constant communication of the general manager with the leading staff of the KHL, his participation in organizational meetings of the league, the development of a calendar, competition regulations and other important documents.
Roughly the same responsibilities, only of a higher level, and the general manager of the national team of the country - no less important person for the team than the head coach. Its main task is to form the composition of the team and solve the most important organizational issues (placement, holding control games, insurance) necessary for the national team to participate in major international tournaments such as the Olympics and the World Cup.
Football manager
Unlike hockey clubs, their football counterparts, at least in Russia, do not always resort to the services of professional general managers, often preferring to work in the old fashioned way. Negotiations with agents, clubs and with the players themselves, even in the highest echelon of Russian football - the Premier League - are often handled by either the president of the club, or the head coach, or both. Meanwhile, in Russia there is even a Graduate School of Football Management, which trains general managers for clubs. But it is not very popular.
In reality, managers, if there are any in Russian clubs, are most often tasked with performing less ambitious tasks such as acquiring uniforms, equipment and organizing training camps. In addition, in many domestic clubs there is a position that does not exist in hockey - a sports director, who in essence is an analogue of a general manager. The only exception to the rule was the football club Spartak (Moscow), whose head coach Valery Karpin was also general manager for some time. By the way, the situation in the Russian football team is not too different, where all the key and most important issues are the prerogative of head coach Fabio Capello.
