Club CEO

Pay in the destination countries

Monthly, in US dollars. Each country is an Imora admission package — open one for that route's fees, language requirement and deadline.

What does the day look like?

You approve the annual budget and the transfer envelope, chair the weekly leadership meeting across football, commercial, finance, legal, media and stadium operations, sign off sponsorship and kit deals, report to the owner or board, deal with the league and federation, and face the press and supporters after results. O*NET 11-1011.00 lists the core tasks as directing financial and budget activities, conferring with board members and staff, preparing budgets for approval, directing policy and operations, presenting reports on activities and expenses, negotiating contracts, appointing department heads, and acting as liaison with shareholders and outside bodies. The tools are SAP software, Oracle PeopleSoft, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft SharePoint, Atlassian JIRA, Intuit QuickBooks and Sage 50 Accounting, plus ticketing and CRM platforms, hospitality sales systems and financial fair play monitoring files.

The part you imagine — lifting trophies and signing players — is a small share of the day. The large share is budgets, contracts, staffing, compliance and meetings. O*NET reports 86% of chief executives work more than 40 hours in a typical week, with daily email, telephone and face-to-face discussion. Matchdays, transfer deadlines and crises mean evening, weekend and on-call work. Travel between stadiums, training grounds and league meetings is routine.

Where does this lead?