New Liverpool Owner John Henry

An eclectic and eccentric view of football, business and management by media entrepreneur Chris Ingram.

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A couple of weeks ago Rod Liddle was having a rant in the Sunday Times about the owners of Liverpool FC.  Now I like Rod Liddle’s rants because he always gets a reaction – either I’m furious, nodding my head in agreement or falling about laughing.

I want to put aside his view that Gillett and Hicks could well have been “swindled” at a sale price of £300m, I’ll come back to that one later.   It was his criticism that new owner, John W Henry “has no emotional commitment to the club whatsoever and indeed his track record in business has been one of controlled ruthlessness and an absence of emotional connectivity”!

Well, is that so bad? Blind passion from the fans about the action on the pitch is one thing, but do we need it off the pitch as well?  The roller-coaster ride on the pitch and the reasons for it are all what makes footie endlessly fascinating but a priority of any decent business is to avoid exactly that.

As the owner of a small football club, Woking FC, I know exactly what’s involved – apart from broadcasting rights ALL the issues are the same as with a Premier club except that the numbers are literally, several hundred times bigger! (i.e., Woking FC 750k turnover pa; Arsenal £223m).

If I’m running a business, not only do I not want to go from hero to zero and back again in a month, my mantra to my exec team is always “no nasty surprises”!  So what is good for football supporters – and the media – is exactly what I don’t want off the pitch.  Give me grinding professionalism mixed in with agility and creativity any time.  Do I manage to achieve that at Woking FC?  Sadly not, because I’m like most UK businessmen who, the moment they go into a club boardroom, they park their brains at the door.  I’m sure that, as long as I remained honest and long term in my approach, I would have done a much better job for Woking FC if I too, had “no emotional commitment to the club” and showed “controlled ruthlessness”.

Written By Chris Ingram

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Chris Ingram is as passionate about football as he is about business. Owner of Woking Football Club, and a majority shareholder in the fast growing sports media business Sports Revolution, Chris is one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs.

Recently celebrating 50 years in the media industry and still actively involved with Woking, Chris is ideally placed to comment on the business side of football.

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READ more of Chris Ingram's work at our Football Business Section