"Sydney FC is an inaugural member of the Australian A-League and a two time winner of the National Championship. It is considered the premier club of Australian football.
As CEO you will be responsible for providing the commercial resources to enable the club to have on-field success. This will include developing sponsorships, memberships, game day attendance and merchandise sales. This is a high profile, demanding role that will require a strong commercial background, entrepreneurial skills and the ability to develop new revenue streams.
Candidates for this exciting opportunity will need to demonstrate a successful management career at senior executive level. Commercial experience in a sport would be preferable but candidates with a successful and relevant corporate background will also be considered. Candidates will need excellent presentation skills, proven people and organisational leadership experience and strong a commercial acumen.
Prospective applicants should also be able to point out the errors in the first paragraph.*
http://executive.seek.com.au/Job/chief-executive-officer/in/sydney/19194222"
The fact that Sydney FC supporters will miss Edwin Lugt probably says more about the previous incarnations of the club's back-office, than anything particularly great that occurred during Lugt's management. Edwin was pretty good at engagement with the fans (right up to answering fans' questions on the forum, on the morning his resignation was announced) and was prepared to speak clearly and frankly about Sydney FC's opportunities and problems. The Sydney FC junior member scheme was a great long term move. Lugt was accessible and his performance at the fans forum was excellent. I also liked the fact that he called out Melbourne Victory in the lead up to that game to create a buzz about a marquee game.
Lugt was also pretty much on the money with his views as to what Sydney FC needs to do, to have more success in this toughest of markets: sign a high profile marquee that can attract headlines and airtime from a celebrity obsessed media, and otherwise to maintain a level of consistency and stability in the club.
However these highlights of the Lugt era also represented the low hanging fruit, the no-brainers and the easy wins. They should be the baseline from which the club and its next CEO operates; especially the bit about the marquee, but anybody paying attention could have told the Sydney board that (but should never have to).
I have no knowledge of and little interest in the rights and wrongs of the boardroom spat last week. I do know that notwithstanding the recruiter's spin, we are not the premier club of Australian football. A $6 million loss to come ninth in the league with dwindling crowds and no ability to cut through will raise pointed questions every time. Worse, we come into what should be the most exciting tournament in the club's history a rather leaky ship floundering on a sea of discontent, with everybody involved with the club still wondering what went wrong and even who we are. Picking the low hanging fruit was never going to be enough.
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The decision to re-appoint Lavicka was one of the better calls of 2011, and it probably should have been done immediately after the last game of the season. Vitja can coach. The players respond to him. He has a history of success. This season Sydney were as unlucky with injury as Roar have been lucky, but we got a glimpse of what might have been with an unbeaten run that extended longer than any unbeaten stretch during the double winning season last year.
There should be a fair bit to look forward to over the next week; a new jersey and a blue riband home game in the Asian Champions League. Frankly, how Sydney will fair is anybody's guess. It would be hard to imagine that the recent shenanigans have not taken their toll on the coherence of the team. But there is a decent side in there, and guys like Carle and Keller will have seen it all before. Lavicka's reappointment should give the squad and the footballing department the confidence to concentrate on the next six games. It seems that Sydney have a new start every other week, but the great thing about football is that redemption is always only a game away. It's time for Sydney to start climbing again.
*And The Winner Is additional criteria, inadvertently omitted from advertised job description.
