By: Matt Gonsiewski
When talking about successful football clubs, the conversation is usually about what happens on the pitch. But football clubs are businesses too. Behind every successful team is an organization responsible for recruitment, finances, commercial deals, stadium operations, academies, scouting, etc. things supporters never see. A great manager and talented squad can take a club a long way, but without a strong foundation behind them, that success can be difficult to sustain. So what actually makes a football club successful off the pitch?
Recruitment
One of the most important parts of running a football club is signing the right players. However, good recruitment is about much more than finding the biggest name available. Clubs have increasingly invested in scouting networks, data analysis and recruitment departments designed to identify players before their market value explodes.
Brighton & Hove Albion have become the best example when we talk about this. The club has gained a reputation for finding players at low prices, developing them and eventually selling them for significant profits. Just this summer window, they sold Carlos Baleba to Manchester United for a reported £70 million and Jan Paul van Hecke to Tottenham for £52 million. Losing those important players they are now third in the Premier League. This just shows their stability on and off the pitch.
That doesn’t mean every transfer will work. No recruitment department gets every decision right. The difference is making a system where a few mistakes don’t destroy the club financially. That is what makes recruitment more than simply buying players. It becomes part of the club’s overall business model.
Developing Young Players
Recruitment and player development are very important and are pretty much the same. A club that can develop its own talent has an advantage that doesn’t require spending millions on transfer fees every summer.
Youth academies can provide first team players, create transfer income and establish a recognizable identity for a club. Barcelona and Ajax are two of the most famous examples of clubs that have built their identities around youth development, but the concept extends far beyond those two clubs.
Using Barcelona here, the likes of Lamine Yamal who is now one of the greatest in the world. This has saved Barca millions because he has fixed so many problems for them. Then you look at the likes of Arsenal who had Emile Smith Rowe, Eddie Nketiah and Florian Balogun. All were sold instead of kept and they gained a total of around 100 million pounds just from their academy. These numbers and development is so important.
For many clubs outside Europe’s financial elite, developing young players can be one of the most realistic ways to compete. The player doesn’t necessarily have to stay forever. If a club develops a player who eventually earns a major transfer, that sale can help finance the next generation of players. In that sense, the academy can function as both a sporting department and an investment.
Financial Management
A club can have a good squad and still find itself in serious trouble if its finances aren’t managed properly. UEFA’s European Club Finance and Investment Landscape projects that top-division European club revenue will surpass €30 billion, while also showing us the rising costs facing clubs.
Clubs have to balance player wages, transfer spending, staff, debt and long term investments while still trying to have a competitive team. Financial regulations have also become an important part of the game, meaning clubs have to think carefully about how they spend and generate money.
Making more money is great but knowing how to use that money is even more important. The best financial strategy isn’t necessarily spending the most. It’s making sure the money being spent actually moves the club forward.
Commercial Growth
Football is not just about selling tickets to games anymore. They’re selling shirts, sponsorships, hospitality packages, memberships, digital content and experiences to fans around the world. Football clubs have become global entertainment brands, and commercial revenue has become one of the most important parts of their business models.
Real Madrid is the best example of how powerful this can become. The club reported 1.221 billion in operating revenue during the 2025/26 season, with 539 million coming from marketing and 363 million from stadium revenue.
The new Santiago Bernabéu has also become a major part of that strategy. The stadium is no longer a place where Real Madrid plays football. It has become a major commercial asset capable of generating revenue beyond traditional matchdays. Things like concerts have been huge.
I have found that commercial revenue reached 5.3 billion among the 20 highest-revenue clubs in world football during the 2024/25 season, making it the largest revenue stream for those clubs for the third consecutive year. For the biggest clubs in the world, building a global fanbase can be just as important financially as winning another trophy.
The Stadium and Matchday Experience
A football stadium is more than a place to watch a game. The goal is no longer simply to sell tickets for football. Clubs want supporters arriving earlier, staying later and spending more while they’re there.
Things like better hospitality, restaurants, club stores, museums, events and other experiences. For clubs without the global reach of Real Madrid, the scale may be different, but the principle remains the same. A better matchday experience can create additional revenue while making supporters more connected to the club. The stadium can become one of the biggest assets a club owns, both financially and culturally.
Leadership and Structure
Who controls recruitment? Who determines the club’s long-term strategy? How much influence does the manager have? How closely do the sporting and business departments work together? A club can have talented individuals in every department and still struggle if those departments aren’t working toward the same goal.
A club like Manchester City for example. Pep Guardiola was there with the same owners and sporting directors for 10 years. They built a global powerhouse because of how aligned they all were on the same goals. That is so important and they won all they needed to win while gaining record revenue.
This is why sporting directors and recruitment departments have become such an important part of modern football. The manager might change every few years. The club’s overall strategy shouldn’t have to. A successful organization needs to be able to survive changes in managers, players and even ownership without completely losing its identity.
Different Clubs, Different Models
There isn’t one formula for building a successful football club. Real Madrid has built an enormous global commercial operation while continuing to compete for the biggest trophies in the sport. Brighton has built a model heavily centered around recruitment, development and player trading. Brentford has become known for its data-driven approach and intelligent recruitment despite operating with far fewer financial resources than the Premier League’s biggest clubs.
Borussia Dortmund gives us another interesting example. The club has historically combined youth development, player trading, commercial growth and Champions League football. Each of these clubs operates differently, but they’ve all created structures that allow them to compete within their own circumstances.
That’s important because what works for Real Madrid isn’t necessarily going to work for Brentford, and what works for Brentford isn’t necessarily going to work for a club fighting for promotion from the Championship. Every club is different but can be successful in their own ways.
So, What Actually Makes a Club Successful?
It’s not just one thing. A successful football club needs good recruitment. It needs financial discipline. It needs a strong academy. It needs commercial growth. It needs smart leadership. It needs infrastructure that can generate revenue. Those pieces need to work together.Winning trophies can make a club successful. But building an organization capable of competing for those trophies is a completely different thing.
Football is becoming more financially competitive every year. European clubs are generating more revenue than ever, but they’re also dealing with higher wages, transfer fees and operating costs. That means the clubs that can build sustainable systems away from the pitch may have just as much of an advantage as the clubs that can find the next superstar on it. At the end of the day, the 90 minutes on the pitch are only one part of running a football club.
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