Kaestner Project - Promotion of Futsal in Europe

PERSONAL PROJECT

Strategies for the Development and Promotion of Futsal in Europe

MATTIAS KAESTNER

Lausanne

August, 2004

MSA 2004 – AISTS - Personal Project Page 2/58 Mattias Kaestner

STRATEGIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROMOTION OF FUTSAL IN EUROPE

MATTIAS KAESTNER ONE-PARAGRAPH SUMMARY Futsal is a relatively young sport in Europe; it is already very popular in some countries such as Italy, Spain or

Portugal, but almost unknown in countries like Germany and Sweden. UEFA has launched the first European Futsal

Championship in 1996 and the first European Club competition in 2002, but realises that a lot still needs to be done

on the promotional side of the game to increase the sport’s attractiveness and popularity. The paper develops

strategies to further develop and promote Futsal and in particular the two UEFA Futsal competitions in all parts of

Europe. The strategic analysis involves a number of strategic tools such as strategic group mapping, SWOT analysis

and the Boston Consulting Matrix, and aims as a means of example to provide a methodology that can also be used

to assess other new emerging sports and find ways to develop the sports further.

SUPERVISOR(s): Daniel Oyon, Professor HEC Lausanne


STRATEGIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROMOTION OF FUTSAL IN EUROPE

MATTIAS KAESTNER EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Futsal is a relatively young sport in Europe; it is already very popular in some countries such as Italy, Spain or

Portugal, but almost unknown in countries like Germany and Sweden. UEFA has launched the first European Futsal

Championship in 1996 and the first European Club Competition in 2002, but realises that a lot still needs to be done

on the promotional side of the game to increase the sport’s attractiveness and popularity. The objective of this paper

was to develop strategies to further develop and promote Futsal and in particular the two UEFA Futsal competitions

in all parts of Europe.

Both secondary and primary research was conducted. In the secondary research existing literature was revised,

covering literature specifically related to Futsal, literature regarding new emerging sports and professional sports as

well as theoretical literature including the areas of strategic management, marketing and product development. The

primary research consisted of personal interviews with Futsal experts from UEFA, FIFA and National Futsal

Associations.

A framework from Thompson and Strickland was adapted to the sport industry in order to a) conduct a strategic

analysis of the sport as a whole, b) to analyse the UEFA competitions and their competitive environment and c) to

develop strategies and recommend an organisational structure.

The strategic analysis of Futsal revealed that Futsal, although still a relative small sport compared to football in

terms of participants, spectators and TV audience, has a great growth potential and could rejuvenate football, which

is currently in the maturity phase, with a new ‘fun’ variation of the game. The life cycle analysis further revealed

that Futsal is currently in the ‘global spread’ phase, the fourth of six suggested growth phases, and that the next

logical step of development would be to make Futsal an Olympic sport.

The SWOT analysis showed that Futsal has all the right strength to become a successful, modern sport, but needs to

work more on the weaknesses, especially the lack of awareness and a weak image in some parts of Europe. The

main opportunities were believed to be the still high growth potential across the European continent and the

possibility of making Futsal an Olympic sport.

Looking at the trends and driving forces that influence the emergence of a new sport, on overriding theme or trend

in the success of new sports is that people are looking for a modern sport that is fast, exciting, fun and which has a

culture that appeals to the youth. Futsal fulfils these criteria but needs to do more to promote the cultural aspect of

the game to appeal to younger consumers.

The strategic group map showed that the industry seems to be divided into a smaller, but faster growing segment of

new fun sports and a bigger segment of competitive, but slower growing sports. Most federations participate now


besides their traditional competitive sports with a ‘fun variation’ in the faster growing market segment. The

challenge was to position Futsal in a correct way to participate in this faster growing segment.

Analysing the UEFA competitions (UEFA Futsal Cup and UEFA European Futsal Championships) and their

competitive position, it was found that the main threats to Futsal were the strong competitions from other indoor

sports such as Volleyball, Basketball and Handball and other substitute entertainment offerings such as Reality TV,

cinema and Internet. The key was to differentiate Futsal from all its competitors and to provide added entertainment

value.

The Boston Consulting Group Matrix showed that Futsal competitions can be classified as ‘question marks’ and

now have two viable classic strategic options: To invest and build market share or to divest and stop supporting the

sport. To invest just enough to keep Futsal at its current position or to maximise short term cash flow by reducing

the investments do not seem to be meaningful strategic options.

In the next step, the major strategic options for UEFA were identified and discussed in detail, namely:

Divest Strategies:

• Strategic option 1A: Stop supporting Futsal and concentrate purely on promotion of Football

• Strategic option 1B: Stop supporting Futsal and promote Beach Soccer instead

Invest Strategies to build market share:

• Strategic option 2A: Support Futsal and apply the successful UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup

approaches to promote it

• Strategic option 2B: Support Futsal, but promote it in a distinct, differentiated way

Weighting advantages and disadvantages of each strategic option and considering the objectives to make Futsal

more popular and attractive with the ultimate goal to be included in the Olympics, it was found that strategic option

2B was the most suited strategy. It was recommended to actively invest in Futsal and differentiate the sport in a

unique, distinct way that was hard for competitors to copy. The suggestions was to use Futsal’s original Brazilian

culture in promoting the game by amongst others using Samba bands and dancers during Futsal matches, providing

a Latin atmosphere to the competitions and using Brazilian Football stars to promote the game.

Finally it was suggested that UEFA should consider setting up a separate business unit for Futsal within the UEFA

organisation to provide flexibility for the dynamic and fast growing market segment. As the organisation operates

with a mix of offerings and markets, some of which exhibit stability (Football) while others will be more dynamic

(Futsal), it needs to balance systems that are centralised and budget orientated to encourage cost-efficient

production of standard products and systems that are decentralised and result-orientated so as to enhance the

effectiveness with which new offerings can be adapted. In addition, a separate business unit can also better ‘live’

and implement the suggested Futsal culture.

As a final result of this paper, a general methodology was suggested, which can now be used for assessing any new

emerging sports and to find ways to develop the sport further.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page:

1. Introduction........................................................................................................................................... 8

2. Problematic & Issues .......................................................................................................................... 10

3. Goal and Scope ................................................................................................................................... 11

4. Research Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 12

5. Strategic Analysis of Futsal in Europe................................................................................................ 13

5.1. What are the sport’s dominant economic features?.................................................................... 13

5.2. SWOT Analysis for Futsal in Europe ........................................................................................ 25

5.3. What are the drivers of change/trends in the sport industry and what impact will they have? . 28

5.4. Which sports are in the strongest/weakest position?.................................................................. 31

6. Strategic Analysis of the UEFA Futsal Competitions and their competitive position........................ 33

6.1. What is competition like and how strong are each of the competitive forces? .......................... 33

6.2. How strong is Futsal’s competitive position within UEFA’s portfolio? .................................... 37

6.3. What strategic issues need to be address? .................................................................................. 39

7. Discussion of UEFA’s Strategic Options .......................................................................................... 40

7.1. Objectives................................................................................................................................... 40

7.2. Discussion of strategic options................................................................................................... 42

7.3. Strategy Recommendation ......................................................................................................... 48

7.4. Organisational Structure Recommendation................................................................................ 49

8. Conclusions......................................................................................................................................... 53

9. Recommended Generic Methodology for Assessing New Sports ...................................................... 55

10. Lessons Learned ................................................................................................................................ 56

11. Literature............................................................................................................................................. 57

11.1. Literature related specifically to Futsal .................................................................................. 57

11.2. Literature related to other new sports and the promotion of new leagues.............................. 57

11.3. Literature related to management theory................................................................................ 58


TABLE OF FIGURES

Page:

Tables

Table 1: Differences between Football and Futsal....................................................................................... 8

Table 2: Registered Players of Selected Sports in Europe......................................................................... 13

Table 3: Countries participating in FIFA Futsal World Cups.................................................................... 14

Table 4: Spectators at UEFA and FIFA competitions ............................................................................... 16

Table 5: TV Audiences for UEFA Futsal European Championships 2003 in Italy on Eurosport ............ 17

Table 6: Number of Live Futsal Matches shown on Portuguese TV......................................................... 19

Table 7: Advantages and Disadvantages of Strategic Option 1A .............................................................. 42

Table 8: Advantages and Disadvantages of Strategic Option 1B .............................................................. 43

Table 9: Advantages and Disadvantages of Strategic Option 2A .............................................................. 44

Table 10: Advantages and Disadvantages of Strategic Option 2B ............................................................ 47 Figures

Figure 1: Overview Participating Countries in the UEFA Futsal Cup ...................................................... 15

– Changes from 2001/02 to 2004/05

Figure 2: Registered Futsal Players in Portugal 1986-2004....................................................................... 18

Figure 3: The life cycle of tourism-related sports disciplines: .................................................................. 21

fewer conventional skiers, a growing number of snowboarders

Figure 4: The life cycle of football in Germany - DFB members since 1950............................................ 22

Figure 5: Life Cycle Phases of Sports at the Example of Futsal................................................................ 23

Figure 6: SWOT Analysis – Futsal in Europe ........................................................................................... 25

Figure 7: Strategic Group Map of Selected Major Sports.......................................................................... 32

Figure 8: Porter’s Industry Structure Analysis for UEFA Futsal Competitions in Europe........................ 34

Figure 9: Boston Consulting Group Matrix: Industry Attractiveness ....................................................... 37

Vs. Competitive Strength Matrix

Figure 10: Strategy-Structure Relationship................................................................................................ 49

Figure 11: Parties involved in the development of Futsal in Europe ......................................................... 50

Figure 12: Methodology for assessing new emerging sports and find ways to develop the sports further 55


“Futsal guarantees spectacle and emotion and this sport is the best kind of entertainment. Its development potential is enormous. More and more people are discovering Futsal and are completely captivated by it.”

Victor Beceiro, ex-FIFA Futsal Manager, in FIFA Magazine June 2000

“The future is very bright because Futsal has a lot of things to offer to spectators, to the media and to sponsors. It is a very attractive game, featuring lots of goals, skilful and technical play and brilliant combinations.”

Petr Fousek, Chairman UEFA Futsal committee, 2003 on uefa.com


1. Introduction “Futsal??? What is Futsal???” This was the first reaction from many people when they heard about this research

project. Only when the sport was explained as “indoor football” or “five-a-side” football, people started to

understand the topic better. This was a first indication that those involved with Futsal still have a lot of work to do

to establish Futsal as one of the major sports and that there was a need for a promotional strategy for Futsal in

Europe.

So what exactly is “Futsal” then?

The term is an abbreviation of the Portuguese "futebol de salão" or the Spanish "fútbol sala", both of which mean

"indoor football". Futsal is basically a scaled down version of conventional football and is played by two teams of

five players each, including a goalkeeper on each side. It is played on basketball/handball-sized courts, on a variety

of surfaces both indoors and outdoors. The game does not require the use of expensive dasher boards, but has

instead the normal touchline boundaries with no walls. The ball is a smaller size (size 3 or 4), heavier and has a

dampened bounce (Burns 2003). The following table shows the main differences in the rules between Futsal and

Football:

Table 1: Differences between Football and Futsal

Football Futsal Ball circumference 68-70 cm Ball circumference 62-68 cm 11 players 5 players 3 substitutions Unlimited “flying” substitutions Throw-in Kick-in Main referee & 2 assistants (linesmen) Main referee & assistant referee Running clock operated by referee Stopped clock operated by timekeeper 45-minute halves 20-minute halves No time-outs 1 time-out per half Goal kicks Goalkeeper throws ball into play No absolute time limit to restart game 4-second rule on restarts Offside rule No offside rule (Goalkeeper) 6 second rule on restarts 4-second rule to put ball back into play Unlimited fouling 5 foul limit, no wall after 5 fouls No substitution for player sent off Player sent off can be substituted after 2 minutes or after

opponent scores Corner kick in area Corner kick on corner Unlimited playback to goalkeeper’s feet One play back to goalkeeper’s feet Some contact, side tackling allowed No shoulder charge or side tackle. Non contact slides

allowed Source: holisticsoccer.com

History of Futsal

Futsal was invented in 1930 by the Argentinean coach Juan Carlos Ceriani. Fed up by rain interrupting the practice

sessions, he developed a game which, although it had lots in common with football, also drew on aspects of

basketball (the number of players, tactics, and positions), handball (the pitch size) and even water polo

(goalkeeper’s rule). As ‘futebol de salao’, the game soon spread throughout South America, with Brazil giving

futebol de salao its first local league, a new set of rules and a governing body (UEFA 2003).


According to Burns (2003), in 1954, all the States of Brazil agreed to common rules and in 1974, the international

body FIFUSA (Federação Internationale de Futbebol de Salão) was established in São Paolo with its first president

being João Havelange, later president of FIFA. The first Futbebol de Salão international competition was held in

1965 when Paraguay won the first South American cup. Up to 1979, six more South American cups were held with

Brazil winning all of them. The first World Championship conducted under the auspices of FIFUSA was held in

São Paolo, Brazil, in 1982 with Brazil finishing yet again first. The Brazilians were champions again in the 2nd

World Championship in 1985 in Spain, but lost to Paraguay in 1988 in Australia.

In 1989 most of the countries were integrated into FIFA, agreeing to combine all the variations of the small-sided

football. FIFA split with FIFUSA, introduced a new set of rules and came up with a version of indoor football

superior to the FIFUSA one.

The 1st FIFA World Championship took place in Holland in 1989 and the 2nd in 1992 in Hong Kong, Brazil

winning both times. The 3rd FIFA World Championship was played 1996 in Spain and was won again by Brazil.

The 4th FIFA World Championship took place in 2000 in Guatemala with the Spaniards being the winners for the

first time. The 5th FIFA World Championship will be held in Taiwan in November 2004.

Today, Futsal is considered the most rapid growing indoor sport in the world. Around 30 million people of both

sexes play Futsal in over 100 countries. (Burns 2003)

Futsal in Europe

In Europe, the sport is still relatively young. The first European Futsal Championship was held in January 1996 and

won by the hosts, Spain. In 2002, the first European club competition, the UEFA Futsal Cup, was won by the

Spanish club Playa’s de Castillion with 27 clubs entering this event (UEFA 2003). So far, there are professional

leagues in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and Russia. The strongest league is in Spain with 16 teams in the first

league and players earning up to EUR 10 000 per months. However, Futsal is almost unknown in some countries,

the most important of which being the UK, France and Germany.

This paper will explore strategies in order to make Futsal attractive throughout Europe and further its development

and growth. The first part of this paper will analyse the current situation of Futsal as a sport in Europe, using some

of the major strategic analysis tools such as SWOT analysis and strategic group mapping. In the second part, the

actual UEFA Futsal competitions and their competitive position will be analysed. The third part of this paper will

then explore possible strategies and select and propose the most suited strategy. Finally, internal and external

organisational structures will be discussed to implement the selected strategy.


2. Problematic and Issues

“Futsal is a relatively young sport in Europe, but millions across the continent enjoy playing and watching

the five-a-side game: This European Futsal Championship [2003 in Italy] attracted a record entry, and the

qualifying matches showed the game is getting more competitive than ever. And in the past year, new

leagues have been set up in Finland, Moldavia, Switzerland and Greece. Other countries such as Germany

and England are discussing how to promote the game, and UEFA will keep working with national

associations to help the game grow.”

Lennart Johannsson, UEFA President, in UEFA Futsal Championships 2003 Official Programme

This quote from Lennart Johansson, UEFA President, shows best the issue of Futsal in Europe today. It has been

hugely popular in some countries like Spain and Italy, but is widely underdeveloped in other important football

countries like the UK and Germany.

This paper therefore aims to:

• analyse the current situation of Futsal in Europe

• construct a strategy to help develop Futsal in all parts of Europe

• position Futsal in a complimentary way to Football and to differentiate it from other indoor sports such as

basketball and volleyball.

• discuss UEFA’s role and suggest an organizational structure for the promotion of Futsal

• help establish Futsal as a major indoor sport

“The European Futsal Championship promises to be a great competition but we realise a lot still needs to

be done to increase the popularity of the game – such as some hard work on the promotional side of

Futsal”

Petr Fousek, Chairman UEFA Futsal Committee, 2004 on uefa.com

In addition, Petr Fousek highlights here the need for a promotional strategy to market the game in a way that will

attract new spectators and participants to the game. Therefore a positioning strategy will also be proposed to build

an even more attractive image of the sport.

Based on the analysis done at the example of Futsal, a methodology will be developed, which can be used to assess

an emerging new sport and find ways to develop the sport further. The goal is to provide a framework which can be

used by other new emerging sports as well.


3. Goals and Scope The aim of this paper is to help promote Futsal in Europe and to establish Futsal as one of the major indoor sports

by going through a systematic analytical approach. In that way it aims to provide a methodology for conducting a

sound strategic situation analysis, for making strategy recommendation, and for suggesting a suitable organisational

structure, which then can be used for other new emerging sports.

However, the specific results of this study (the conclusion to be drawn and the recommendation to be made) and

strategies analysed are not generic and have to be seen in the European Futsal context. Equally, the strategy

recommendation is specifically made for UEFA and takes the European view. The strategies are not aimed for

individual countries, as specific country issues might apply.

Limitations

Financial constraints

The research budget is not sufficiently large enough to hire interviewers and researchers. Therefore the study is

limited to the efforts of one researcher and a limited number of interviews.

Time

The study has been conducted over a period of three months (June, July, and August 2004). This time period

unfortunately did not include any major Futsal events like the FIFA Futsal World Cup (November 2004) or the

UEFA European Futsal Championships (February 2005), which could have provided excellent occasions for further

research. Additionally, political and financial conditions analysed in the period might change due to some

unpredictable events and might have a significant effect on the validity of the results of the study.

Geographic boundaries

The study focuses on Futsal in Europe. It does not include Futsal outside Europe and does not specifically explore

situations in individual countries.


4. Research Methodology

Research has been conducted in the form of:

Literature review

The literature that has been reviewed can be roughly divided into three groups:

1. Literature related specifically to Futsal

As Futsal is a relatively new sport in Europe, this type of literature was the most difficult to find. The literature

was mainly sourced from UEFA and FIFA in forms of articles in their respective magazines or publications in

relation to their respective Futsal competitions. Also website articles from Futsal specific website such as

futsalplanet.com have proved to be useful.

2. Literature related to other new sports and the promotion of new leagues

A special emphasis was put on the new trend sports Beach Volleyball and Snowboarding. However, also

articles related to the promotion of professional North American sport leagues have been consulted.

3. Literature related to management theory

A range of literature related to strategic management, new product development, strategic marketing and

organizational structure has been reviewed.

Experience Surveys:

Individuals who have specific knowledge and experience in the study field have been interviewed informally to gain

knowledge of the specific issues related to Futsal and to gain a better understanding of the current situation of

Futsal. In particular interviews have been conducted with the following experts, either in person, by telephone or by

email:

• Laurent Morel, Futsal Manager, UEFA Football Development Division

• Victor Beceiro, Ex-FIFA Futsal Manager (1999 - April 2004)

• Pedro Dias, Specialist of Futsal in Portugal, Assessor FISU (International Federation of University Sports)

• Alberto Pastor, Promoter and Director of Sports, Swiss Futsal Association

• Sabrina Ben Salah, Director of Youth-related Organisation, Swiss Futsal Association

• Thomas Gerstner, Editor www.futsal.de and one of the Pioneers of Futsal in Germany


5. Strategic Analysis of Futsal in Europe

“Analysis is the critical starting point of strategic thinking”

Kenichi Ohmae

The first main part of this paper focuses on the sport Futsal and tries to understand where the sport stands in Europe

as a whole. It will explore its market size in terms of active participation, spectators, sponsorship and TV audience;

where Futsal and Football are in the life cycle; what the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Futsal

are; what the trends in the sport industry with regards to new emerging sports are; and what the positioning of Futsal

is compared to other sports.

5.1 What are the sport’s dominant economic features?

5.1.1 Market Size in Europe

In order to give a reasonable overview over the market for Futsal in Europe, the following variables have been

examined: active participation, spectators, sponsorships and TV audience.

Active Participation

It is extremely difficult to find reliable figures for active Futsal participation in Europe. According to UEFA’s

publication “First division clubs 2003/04”, there are about 500 000 registered Futsal players in Europe, the biggest

countries being Netherlands (75 000), Italy (70 000), Croatia (60 000), Spain (50 000), Russia (40 000) and Czech

Republic (30 000). In contrast, other sources (Italian Olympic Committee, UEFA 2003) speak of around 4 million

Futsal players in Italy alone which also includes all social Futsal players. Although these figures are only estimates,

they give nevertheless a good indication of the popularity of Futsal. The following table puts the number of

registered Futsal players into perspective by comparing them to other sports.

Table 2: Registered Players of Selected Sports in Europe

Sport

Registered Participants in Europe

(rounded figures)

Estimated Total Participants World

Wide (rounded figures)

Futsal 500 000 (Source: UEFA 2003) 30 000 000 (Burns 2004)

Football 8 800 000 (Source: FIFA, 05/2001) 250 000 000 (FIFA 05/2001)

Ice Hockey 400 000 (Source: IIHF, 2002) 1 600 000 (registered, IIHF 2002)

Beach Volleyball not available 3 000 000 (registered, CEV 2004)

As can be seen from the table, the Futsal number represents only 1/20 of registered Football players, but is already

on a similar level to registered Ice Hockey players in Europe, which is a significant size and shows that the sport

should be taken seriously as an emerging major sport.


On a world-wide basis, the growth in Futsal, measured by countries participating in the FIFA Futsal World Cup, has

been spectacular. The following table shows the increase in participation from original 16 countries to 96 countries

in 2004.

Table 3: Countries Participating in FIFA Futsal World Cups

Year World Cup Hosts

Participating Countries

1989 Holland 16

1992 Hong Kong 27

1996 Spain 46

2000 Guatemala 64

2004 Taiwan 96

Source: FIFA

For Europe, the following maps show the countries that have participated in the UEFA Futsal Cup in 2001/02

compared to those that participate in the 2004/2005 season. There has been an increase of 6 participating countries

from originally 27 to now 33 countries (out of 52 UEFA member associations). Most notably England, which is

one of the major football nations in Europe, has been able to send its national champion since 2003. However,

major football countries like Germany and France were still not able to hold a national championship and participate

at the UEFA Futsal Cup.


Figure 1: Overview participating countries in the UEFA Futsal Cup – Changes from 2001/02 to 2004/05

Source: UEFA

FRA AND

ESP POR

BEL NL GER

LUX ENG WAL

IRL NIR SCO

ISL

SUI ITA

AUT

CZE

SMR

MLT CYP

ISR

TUR

ARM

AZE

GEO

RUS

KZK EST

LAT

LIT

POL

NOR

HUNSLO

CRO

BHZ

BLS

ROM

SMN

ALB

MKD

GRE

BUL

SWE

FIN

SVK

UKR

DEN

FAR

LIEFRA AND

MOL

Map of the participants to the qualifying rounds - 1st Futsal Cup 2001/2002 (27)

Green = Associations registered Red = Associations not registered

Map of the participants to the qualifying rounds – 4th Futsal Cup 2004/2005 (33)

Green = Associations registered

Red = Associations not registered

FRA AND

ESP POR

BEL NL GER

LUX ENG WAL

IRL NIR SCO

ISL

SUI ITA

AUT

CZE

SMR

MLT CYP

ISR

TUR

ARM

AZE

GEO

RUS

KZK EST

LAT

LIT

POL

NOR

HUNSLO

CRO

BHZ

BLS

ROM

SMN

ALBMKD

GRE

BUL

SWE

FIN

SVK

UKR

DEN

FAR

LIEFRA

AND MOL


Spectators

At the top Futsal competitions, namely FIFA Futsal World Cup, UEFA European Futsal Championships and UEFA

Futsal Cup, attendances vary generally between several hundreds to a few thousand spectators. The total and

average spectator figures are shown in the following table. On average, the entrance prices for these top

competitions vary between EUR 2 and EUR 10.

Table 4: Spectators at UEFA and FIFA competitions

Competition Total spectators Matches

(incl. qualification)

Average/Match % of Capacity

UEFA Futsal Cup 2001/02

36 500 48 629 11.87


52 500 47 1 117 58.72


37 820 48 788 15.19

UEFA European Futsal Championships 1998/99

72 970 44 1 658 30.65


71 170 48 1 483 33.75


60 095 57 1 054 37.58

FIFA Futsal World Championships 1996

65 400 39 1 677 26.10

FIFA Futsal World Championships 2000

94 179 39 2 415 72.44

Source: UEFA 2004

Sponsors

The estimated total sponsorship spending in the sport industry in Europe in 2002 amounted to about 7bn US$.

(Source: IEG Sponsorship report, vol. 20, no 24 24.12.2001).

In the European Futsal competition, there are currently three sponsors involved: Ford, Eurosport and Adidas.

However, the sponsorship contracts are part of a package deal including other competitions like the football U21

and U19 European Championships and women competitions. Therefore it is not possible to attribute a certain

amount or value from these sponsorships specifically to Futsal.

In many national leagues like Switzerland, the main sponsors are the Futsal ball producers, namely the Brazilian

brand Dalponte® and Futsal®. (Interestingly, the latter brand has registered the name Futsal as a protected brand

name in the early 80’s. So far, this has not been an issue, but it will need to be resolved at some stage in the future.)

TV Audience

In Europe the sport market, measured by revenues from television rights is worth about US$ 5bn, 72% of which are

accounted for by conventional Football, including the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League and the national

leagues. (Source: McKinsey Quarterly June 2004)

For the UEFA Futsal European Championships competition, there is an exclusive contract agreement with

Eurosport. Again this is part of a package deal including youth and women competitions, so it is impossible to

attribute a certain figure to the value of TV rights for UEFA Futsal competitions. However, under the contract,

Eurosport was obliged to show all 15 games of the UEFA European Championships 2003 in full length, which was


excellent promotion for the sport. During the UEFA European Futsal Championships 2003 in Italy, about 10 million

TV spectators watched the 15 matches live on Eurosport.

Table 5: TV audiences for UEFA Futsal European Championships 2003 in Italy on Eurosport

Match

Live/Delayed Date Time Audience

BEL-UKR Live 17/02/2003 16:30 682 000

CZE – RUS Live 17/02/2003 18:00 758 000

ESP – POR Live 17/02/2003 19:30 582 000

ITA - SLO Live 17/02/2003 21:00 762 000

ESP – BEL Live 18/02/2003 16:30 1 031 000

SLO – RUS Live 18/02/2003 18:00 753 000

POR – UKR Live 18/02/2003 19:30 693 000

ITA – CZE Live 18/02/2003 21:00 542 000

UKR – ESP Live 20/02/2003 18:30 605 000

RUS – ITA Live 20/02/2003 21:00 414 000

SLO – CZE Delayed 20/02/2003 0:15 354 000

SF: ITA - ESP Live 22/02/2003 19:45 943 000

SF: UKR – CZE Live 22/02/2003 21:45 695 000

Final: ITA – UKR Live 24/02/2003 20:15 714 000

Total Audience 9 528 000

Average Audience 680 000

Source: UEFA

On a national basis, there is not yet a market for Futsal TV rights. The organisers are still more than happy about

any Futsal TV coverage to promote the sport and the sponsors.

The above gives a general overview of where Futsal is today in Europe as a whole. However, there are significant

regional differences. As a means of example and to highlight regional differences, a brief overview over the Futsal

markets of three countries will be given: A country that has a strong Futsal tradition (Portugal), a country that is

about to start a National Futsal League (Switzerland) and a country where Futsal is still in the early phases of

development (Germany).


Portugal Active participation

In Portugal, Futsal has shown an explosive growth in the last few years. The following figure shows the growth

curve of the officially with the Portuguese Football Association registered players. The officially registered players

only represent the ‘tip of the iceberg’ in terms of mass participation, however, the development gives a good

indication of the growth of Futsal in Portugal.

Figure 2: Registered Futsal Players in Portugal 1986-2004

Source: Portuguese Football Association

Futsal has also been implemented in schools and universities as part of the curriculum. Since 2000/2001, Futsal was

officially included in the program of the secondary and high school curriculum and at University level, there are

currently three higher education institutions (UTAD University, Maia Higher Institute-ISMAI, Lusófona

University) with a specialization in Futsal within the Physical Education (PE) degree.

Spectators

Although there are no official spectators statistics from the Portuguese Football Association it is estimated that there

are on average around 450 spectators for the first division matches. For some big matches there can be occasionally

more than 5 000 spectators. The average ticket prices vary form EUR 3 to EUR 10.

Sponsors

The Portuguese Football Association has no specific sponsors for Futsal. However, each club has its own season

sponsors and normally arranges some additional sponsors for live broadcasted matches.

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04


TV Audience

Although the interest of TV stations has increased significantly since 1998, the stations do not have to pay for

broadcasting rights yet.

Table 6: Number of Live Futsal Matches shown on Portuguese TV

TV Channel

99/00 00/01 01/02 02/03 03/04

Sport TV (cable) 26 18 9 13

RTP1 (public) 5 4

RTP2 (public) 7 8 16

NTV (cable) 9

TVI (private)

TOTAL 26 25 22 42 30-35(*)

(*) estimate

Source: Portuguese Football Association

Marketing rights belong to the Portuguese FA but currently the rights are passed on to the clubs free of charge.

Sometimes, clubs manage to enter into special agreements with TV stations to broadcast matches, where clubs take

the responsibility for production costs (around EUR 6 000 per match). In return, clubs will generate higher income

through sponsorship revenues.

Switzerland Active Participation

There are currently 48 Futsal teams and roughly 1000 players in Switzerland. Some of the major teams, such as FC

Basel, Grasshoppers Zürich and FC Zürich will participate in the new Swiss Football League. The first national

league will start November 2004, with four teams playing in four regional groups. Each group shares one venue, an

indoor sport centre hired by Swiss Futsal League, where all matches will be played.

Spectators

The venues have capacities from normally 50 to 200. For the big matches towards the end of the seasons, some

arenas with capacities of up to 2000 will be used. However, no entrance fees will be charged for the games.

Sponsors

Dalponte, the Brazilian Futsal ball producer is currently the only major sponsor. The budget for the first season is

around CHF 350 000, which is aimed to be covered by sponsors but will probably make a deficit in the first years.

As it was still not clear if Swiss Futsal will be integrated into the Swiss Football Association, further sponsorship

talks have been put on hold to avoid conflicts with SFA’s own sponsors.

TV Audience

There have been some talks with Swiss television about the broadcast of Swiss Futsal matches. TSI, the Italian arm

of Swiss TV, has expressed some interest in live broadcast of the big matches and the national cup final. However,

there is currently no commercial market for TV rights in Switzerland.


Germany Active participation

Futsal is still are very young sport in Germany. The game has only been introduced in 2000 on a private basis. The

number of Futsal players in Germany is therefore difficult to estimate as there are no officially registered players

and the league system is not established on a country-wide basis. Although Futsal is played in most parts of the

country, it is done mostly in terms of a social leisure activity without official leagues. Futsal is not yet officially

backed by the German Football Association (DFB).

Spectators

Spectators of matches are normally limited to friends and family of players, sometimes some local press

representatives. No entrance fees are charged.

TV Audiences

FIFA World Cups and UEFA European Championships can be watched on Eurosport or DSF, however, no national

or regional matches are currently shown on German TV.

Sponsors

There are currently no major sponsors involved in Futsal in Germany.

As can be seen from the above, the regional differences in the phases of development of Futsal in Europe are large.

However, the large differences also show that there is still a huge growth potential in some European countries.


5.1.2 Market growth rate and where the industry is in the growth cycle

It has been argued that all sports are going through a life cycle type of development (Keller 1998). Life cycle curves

are usually portrayed to be S-shaped, and break down into four segments: introduction, growth, maturity and

decline. In the introduction phase, both the growth rate and the size of the market are low, thus making it

unattractive for most prospective participants who would rather wait on the sidelines for a period of time. When

markets grow, they become more attractive. At the maturity phase, the assessment is unclear – while the growth rate

is low, the market size could be at its peak. Finally, the decline phase usually is so unattractive that most parties

involved flee the category (Lehman et al 1994). Professor Keller (1998) argues that there has been a life cycle type

of development in snow sports. While skiing has been growing strongly in the 1960`s, it has reached its maturity in

the 80`s and started a decline in the 90`s. It was then that snowboarding grew strongly and rejuvenated the

popularity of snow sports. Keller argues that if you want to retain the popularity of a sport, you have to rejuvenate it

to attract new customers.

“Sports disciplines, like tourism products, have an ever shorter life cycle. Appropriate innovation

management is therefore necessary for adapting the supply to new market requirements.”

Professor Peter Keller, HEC Lausanne

The following graph shows the life cycle of snow sports according to Keller.

Figure 3: The life cycle of tourism-related sports disciplines: fewer conventional skiers, a growing number of

snowboarders

Sports requiring ski slopes

Source: P. Keller, WTO, 1st Congress on Snow and Winter Sports, Andorra 1998

Participants in millions

Time

1960 1990 2000

Snowboarders“Carving”

70

35

Skiers


So assuming the above holds true, the question is, does Football go through a life cycle type of development? And

could Futsal rejuvenate the football related sports?

As there is no available data for European membership developments since 1950, the following figure shows the

development of members in the German Football Association (DFB), Europe’s largest football association, since

1950.

Figure 4: The life cycle of football in Germany - DFB Members since 1950

Source of data: DFB

As can be seen in this graph, there has been strong growth of memberships in the 70’s from just over 2 million to

just over 4 million, however, this growth has slowed considerably in the 80’s. In the 90’s there was a slight recovery

of the growth due to the inclusion of Eastern German players in the statistic. From the year 2000, the curve has

flattened again. Overall a life cycle type of development can indeed be observed in Football, where Football seems

to be in the maturity phase, which becomes even more apparent when looking at a possible development without the

Eastern part of Germany, as shown by the lower dotted line.

Considering the strong growth that Futsal has shown in the last 10-20 years, even if no exact quantitative figures are

available, it can be assumed that Futsal indeed has the potential to rejuvenate the football related sports in terms of

memberships.

0

1000000

2000000

3000000

4000000

5000000

6000000

7000000

1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2004

?

Football

Futsal

?

Football without East Germany


However, Futsal and all other new sports themselves are going through a life cycle type of development as well. It

will here be suggested that the life cycle of a sport could be roughly divided into 6 growth phases: ‘Introduction’,

‘Local Spread’, ‘Regional Spread’, ‘Global Spread’, ‘Olympic Sport’ and ‘Major Established Sport’ phase. Each of

these phases could be the final growth phase depending on the sport and could already be followed by the decline of

the sport.

Figure 5: Life Cycle Phases of Sports at the Example of Futsal

Introduction Phase

In the ‘Introduction’ phase, the sport is invented and introduced on a local basis. In the case of Futsal, the Argentine

football coach Juan Carlos Ceriani devised the first rules for an indoor five-a-side game in 1930. However the game

then spread to Brazil, where it gained real popularity. Examples of sports that are currently in the ‘Introduction’

phase are beach tennis and retro-running.

Local Spread Phase

In this phase, the sport gets a formal structure and a local governing body and becomes a popular sport in the home

country. In 1954, all the States of Brazil agreed to common rules and introduced its first local leagues. Examples of

sports that are currently in a ‘Local Spread’ phase are Gallic sports or Suomi wrestling.

Regional Spread Phase

In the ‘Regional Spread’ phase, the sport establishes its first international regulatory body and spreads to some other

countries, often on the same continent.

1930 – 1954 Futsal introduced in Brazil

1954 – 1974 First Futsal Association in Brazil

1974 - 1989 First International Futsal Association (FIFUSA) 16 Countries mainly from South America

1989 - ???? FIFA takes on Futsal; growth from 16 to 96 countries 1996 First UEFA Championships

Introduction

Local Spread Regional Spread

Global Spread

Olympic Sport

Major Established

Sport

Participation

Time


In 1974, the international body FIFUSA (Federação Internationale de Futbebol de Salão) was established in São

Paolo. The first Futbebol de Salão international competition was held in 1965 when Paraguay won the first South

American cup. Up to 1979, six more South American cups were held with Brazil winning all of them. The first

World Championship conducted under the auspices of FIFUSA was held in São Paolo, Brazil, in 1982. Examples

of sports that are currently in the ‘Regional Spread’ phase are American Football and Cricket.

Global Spread Phase

In the ‘Global Spread’ phase the sport is often taken over by one of the major regulatory bodies and accelerates the

spread on a truly global basis, due to the professional world-wide structures and resources.

In 1989 most of the countries were integrated into FIFA, agreeing to combine all the variations of the small-sided

football. FIFA split with FIFUSA and introduced a new set of rules in order to make the game more attractive. The

first FIFA World Cup was held in 1989 with 16 countries participating. This number grew over the years to 96

participating countries at the FIFA World Cup 2004. In 1996 the first European Championships were held and in

2002, the first European Club Championships, with 33 countries out of 52 UEFA member associations

participating. The game also grows popular in other part of the world such as in the US and Japan. Futsal is

currently in the ‘Global Spread’ phase and should be aiming to take the next step of becoming an Olympic sport.

Other sports that are in this phase of spreading globally but are not yet in the Olympics are for example Rugby and

Waterskiing.

Olympic Sport

Here, the sport passes all criteria of the IOC and is voted to become an Olympic sport. The inclusion of a sport into

the Olympics usually gives a sport a major boost as the sport is followed by a world-wide audience. Beach

Volleyball and Snowboarding are both examples of sports that have recently joined the Olympics and have

experienced a major boost through being exposed to a world audience.

Major Established Sport

Finally, after the sport has participated in a number of Olympics, it might achieve the status of a major established

sport. Examples of major sports that have participated already at a number of Olympics are football, tennis,

volleyball and basketball. However, it can be argued that some of the major established sports are already entering

into the decline phase, skiing being a possible example.

In summary, Futsal is currently in the fourth of six possible growth phases and should focus strategically on taking

the next step of becoming an Olympic sport.


5.2 SWOT Analysis – Futsal in Europe The SWOT analysis explores the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Futsal in Europe today. It will

provide further insight where the sport stands at the moment.

Figure 6: SWOT Analysis – Futsal in Europe Strengths

• Faster and more goals than football • Very technical and tactical • Uses existing infrastructure • Needs less space than 11-a-side football • Can be played in all climates • Produced well known football stars • Ideal youth development tool • Regional strongholds in Europe • High growth rate across Europe

Weaknesses

• Relatively young competition • Rules are not well established on amateur

level • Not yet established in some major

European countries • Futsal stars and top teams are not well

known • Image problems in some countries

Opportunities

• Still large growth potential in Europe • Inclusion in Olympic Games • Interest national broadcasters • Make Futsal indoor fan spectacle similar to

NHL or NBA

Threats

• Some national football association not supporting Futsal

• Best players change to football for financial reasons

• Perception in public of ‘too much football’ • High competition for indoor venues • High competition from other indoor team

sports for spectators

Strengths

Futsal is generally considered to be a much faster game, in which a lot more goals are scored than football. At the

last UEFA European Futsal Championships 2003, 77 goals were scored in 15 games (average 5.13), compared to 76

goals in 31 games of the EURO 2004 in Portugal (average: 2.45). It is also considered to be a very technical game,

as there is a lot less space to dribble, pass and shoot than on the normal field and thus requires greater skills.

Futsal uses existing infrastructure and can be played in most indoor centres on the handball or basketball fields.

Most cities in Europe have already the required facilities in place. Also, it has been described as ideal for big

overcrowded cities as it requires less space to play a Futsal match. This at least partly explains why it grew so

popular in Brazil in the overcrowded cities of Rio and Sao Paolo. (UEFA 2003). Also, as it is also played indoors, it

can be played in countries with harsh, cold climates, which partly explains the popularity of the sport in Russia and

Ukraine (Swiss Futsal League Magazine 1/2003).

Futsal has over the years produced some of the greatest talent of Brazilian football: Pelè, Zico, Romario and

Ronaldo to name a few, have all played Futsal in their youth. Some experts see Futsal as an ideal youth

development tool. Technique and ball skills improve through repetition and in the five-a-side game; children get to

touch the ball much more often. Also, the speed of making decision is greatly improved, as ten players constantly

change position on the smaller field, which requires to make decisions even before getting the ball (Swiss Futsal

League Magazine 1/2003).


Another strength of Futsal is that the sport already has regional strongholds in Europe. In Spain, more people play

Futsal than the outdoor game, Russia (European Champions 1999) and Ukraine (European Finalist 2003) achieved

remarkable results in the past and in Italy, Futsal players now outnumber footballers by a ratio four to one (UEFA

2003). These regional strongholds should help to develop the Futsal competitions in other European countries as

they can be used as reference points, where valuable experience can be transferred.

Weaknesses

Futsal in Europe is a relatively young sport. UEFA has taken Futsal in its programme only in 1996, but it was

played in some countries (Spain, Italy and others) in the 1960’s. However, it is not very well known in some regions

of Europe (Germany, UK and others) and is still at an early phase of development. As one of the consequences, the

rules of the games are not consistent and not fully understood on the amateur level. There are hundreds of small

variations as all kind of forms of indoor and five-a-side football are played.

Finally, most sports live from heroes and stars. In Futsal, the main players and main clubs are not very well known,

which makes it more difficult to promote them. Futsal would be much further today if stars such as Romario, Pele,

Ronaldo and others would still be playing the game. Also, it has been mentioned that the image of the sport could be

better in some countries:

“In some parts of Europe, Futsal does not have the best image: It is often played in dark, cold, run-down

sport halls.”

Laurent Morel, UEFA Football Development Division

The image aspects will be discussed in more detail in a later chapter.

Opportunities

Certainly the main opportunity is the further growth potential throughout Europe, as some countries are still

undeveloped Futsal terrain. The largest football association in the world, the German DFB has not yet officially

included Futsal in its program. Given that in both Italy and Spain Futsal players outnumber football players, one can

only image the vast potential in this country alone.

Another opportunity is the inclusion of Futsal in the Olympic program as discussed earlier. Olympic Games are an

ideal vehicle for the promotion of smaller sport and their competitions, as this is often the only time that they are

shown on National TV. Including Futsal in the Olympic Games alongside Basketball and Volleyball would be the

logically next step and would certainly give Futsal a further big boost.

Currently the major UEFA Futsal competitions are transmitted on Eurosport. Although this is already a good trans-

European coverage, Eurosport does not reach all the consumers in Europe. A higher penetration could be reached

by winning over the national broadcasters via the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). This is certainly a major

challenge and will take some time to achieve.

Finally, there is a great opportunity to make Futsal competitions a similar indoor fan spectacle to the NBA or the

NHL. Indoor arenas usually have a very good acoustic due to the closed roof. Also, fans tend to be closer to the

field and can provide a special atmosphere. One major challenge is to fill up the Futsal arenas and make the sport a


spectator experience similar to Ice Hockey, where many fans attend less because they really love the sport but

because they enjoy the special stadium atmosphere. This point will be discussed further in a later chapter.

Threats

A major threat to Futsal is the non-acceptance of Futsal from some of the national football federations. More and

more national football federations have supported Futsal in the last few years, however, there are still a few country

(for example Germany), where the national football association hesitate to embrace the new sport and develop it.

Although Futsal can develop without the support of the national federation, it is certainly a lot more difficult if

football associations perceive Futsal as a threat.

Sooner or later Futsal also need to keep their greatest stars. In the past, numerous players like Ronaldo, Zico and

Romario have changed to football, as it is financially more interesting. If Futsal continues to loose their best stars, it

will be difficult to bring Futsal to the next step of professionalism, as major sports need big names as spectator

magnets.

In the last decade there has been a certain perception in the public that there is already too much football on TV.

Most games from FIFA World Cup, UEFA EURO, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup and all the national

leagues and cups are transmitted live on TV. As a consequence other minor sports have suffered and are shown less.

Futsal, as a form of football has to fight against this perception when entering the TV market. As a consequence and

if not positioned in a differentiated way, an increase in the amount of Futsal being shown on TV might lead to a

decrease of other football shown on TV.

On a more local level, one of the major threats to Futsal is the competition for indoor venues from other indoor

sports. Handball, Basketball, Volleyball and others all compete for the same indoor facilities, which are very often

already fully booked. An increase of Futsal time in these venues would lead often to a decrease in venue usage of

other sports.

“The key to Futsal’s progress are competition from other sports and the availability of sport halls”

Petr Fousek, Chairman UEFA Futsal Committee, uefa.com

In addition, as discussed earlier, these other indoor team sports are also direct competitors when it comes to

attracting spectators to the arenas. Going forward, one can expect a fierce competitive battle between these sports.

Finally, a threat is the overlap between Football and Futsal schedules. Futsal currently is played in most countries

between November and March in every year. However, football is played from August to May of each year, with

only a short winter break in December and January. If the schedule is not adapted to make the two sports more

complimentary, Football and Futsal will at some stage have to compete directly for venue spectators, TV rights and

sponsors.


5.3 What are the drivers of change/trends in the sport industry and what impact will they

have?

So what are the drivers of change or the trends that influence the emergence of a new sport? In the recent decades

there have been two fast growing new sports that have become enormously popular: Snowboarding and Beach

Volleyball. What made these sports so popular and what was different to the existing main stream sports Skiing and

Volleyball?

Snowboarding

Looking at the case of snowboarding, the fastest growing alpine sport, Rebecca Heino (2000) claims that

snowboarding was born in youthful resistance to the popular sport of skiing and the values of sport it represents.

The difference between skiing and snowboarding being not so much that of technique but that of culture: the

resistance to the dominant ski culture. Snowboarding began for different reason than did skiing. It was not

developed for practical or competitive reasons.

“There is an incredible feeling that you get when you ride your snowboard when you learn and when you

excel. Everybody gets this feeling, whatever level you are at. Then there is this feeling of being in the

mountains – every time I strap that board to my feet, the same buzz is there, even after all these years.”

Nick Perata, one of the pioneers of snowboarding 1996

It seems that snowboarding addressed a need for excitement, fun and freedom. In addition, snowboarding was new

and different, a way for youth to differentiate themselves from their parents’ practice. Instead of aligning

themselves with the dominant ski culture, they presented their cultural roots in surfing, skateboarding and the

“gangsta” (Anderson 1999). Snowboarders clashed with skiers in style of dress and body presentation, equipment

and language.

However, the rebellious image of snowboarding has been more and more eroded over time due to the increasing

maturity and commercialisation of the sport. Nick Perata predicted in the book “Snowboarding” (Gibbins 1996) that

the baggy clothes and the ‘grunge’ appearance that have become an image statement for snowboarding will fade

away as the sports matures and that the conflicts with skiing, which are already diminishing, will disappear as it

gains respect. Heino (2000) notes that the fairly non-competitive sport of snowboarding, with just the rider, his

board and the mountain, was transformed into high drama entertainment in the Winter X Games. The media affects

and controls the development of the new sport but in a more subtle way for different purposes. For media, the

purpose of control is for consumerism, to drive the market. Therefore, decisions about snowboarding are made to

make its mediated presentation more entertaining.

Beach Volleyball

Another example of a successful emerging sport is beach volleyball. Again, it seems that the culture around the

sport had a big influence on the development and growth of the sport.

Beach Volleyball had its origin in the 1920’s in Santa Monica in South California. Over the time, the players were

reduced from 6 to 2 players. The early stars of the game were motivated not by money but by status. As O’Hara, an


early star of the game, puts it: “Even though there were no major crowds or money, being ‘king of the hill’ had real

status. Woman would die to date you, men fought to be your friend.” (Smith 1996)

Krohn (1994) argues that by the end of the 60’s, Beach Volleyball had (together with surfing) gained an image of

being the preferred leisure activity of “well-build life artists”. Krohn (1994) further notes that beach volleyball also

played with erotic: while in athletics and ice skating the dresses and jerseys become shorter and shorter, in beach

volleyball the bikini has always been part of the game. Beach Volleyball seems to symbolise a certain life style and

culture that one could describe with the popular slogan “life is a beach”.

“There is nothing better than being on the beach getting exercise and having fun. There is a certain

amount of freedom you experience while playing Beach Volleyball that is very hard to explain but once you

have played you will understand”

Sinjin Smith, President, FIVB Beach Volleyball Council, in “Beach Volleyball - Get involved”(1997)

The FIVB (1997) explains the success factors of Beach Volleyball as follows: “Beach Volleyball has all the virtues

of modern sports: fast game, permanent incertitude, high physical requirements, easy TV broadcasting, attraction for

promoters and sponsors. In a few words, a spectacular sport.”

In conclusion, an overriding theme or trend that seems to be evident in the success of both sports is that people are

looking for a fast, exciting, fun sport and which had a culture that appealed to younger people.

Futsal

The question now is whether Futsal also has these virtues and whether there is a specific culture in Futsal that is

different from that of football. And what role does this culture play in the popularity and development of the sport?

As there is no existing literature on the culture of Futsal, interviews with Futsal experts had to shed some light into

what exactly the ‘Futsal culture’ was.

A common theme when describing the Futsal virtues was expressed through adjectives such as “fast, exciting, very

technical” (Morel), “very attractive, skilful and technical” (Fousek), “highly technical, exciting action” (Gerstner),

“very dynamic, never static” (Pastor). So similar to FIVB’s description of beach volleyball, one could also speak in

the case of Futsal of a ‘spectacular sport with all the virtues of modern sport’.

However, there is also an interesting notion, which goes back to the origin of Futsal, that Futsal has taken over

certain elements of the Brazilian culture.

“Futsal has definitely a ‘Latin flavour’ to it. Its roots are in Brazil and the game is still associated with

Brazilian flags, Samba music and Caipirina”

Sabrina Ben Salah, Director of Youth-related organization, Swiss Futsal Association

In Switzerland for example, the game is enormously popular amongst Switzerland’s large Latin American

community. This ‘Latin flavour’ is congruent with an emerging trend of “Latino style popularity” in the youth

culture. All over Europe, Salsa and Latin dance schools are mushrooming, the latest fashion accessories are Brazil

T-shirts and Caipirina is a popular cocktail in most bars. This is also underlined by Bacardi’s hugely successful

advertising campaign with the slogan “There is Latin spirit in every one” (www.bacardibreezer.co.uk). This Latin


culture appeal could partly explain why the game grew so popular in Spain, Portugal and Italy. It is possible that

some of the other European countries have missed this aspect of Futsal in promoting the game, which could have a

potentially huge appeal to the youth.

In summary, it can be said that like Snowboarding and Beach Volleyball, Futsal is a fast, exciting, fun sport and that

its culture has the potential to appeal to young people. How this culture can be used in the right way to promote the

sport will be explored in a later chapter.


5.4 Which sports are in the strongest/weakest position? One technique for revealing the competitive positions of industry participants is strategic group mapping. This

analytical tool is a bridge between looking at the industry as a whole and considering the standing of each sport

separately. The author has identified the following characteristics that are considered to differentiate sports best:

o Expensive/Elite Sport vs. Inexpensive/Mass Sport

o Fun Sport vs. Competitive Sport

These differentiating characteristics have been used to construct a two-variable strategic group map with selected

sports as follows:

Figure 7: Strategic Group Map of Selected Major Sports

Elite/Expensive

Mass/Inexpensive

Competitive

Fun Sports

Golf

Ice Hockey

Tennis

Road Cycling

Athletics

Football

Basketball

Volleyball

Kite Surfing

Snowboarding

Windsurfing

Mountain

Skiing

Beach Volley

Hiking

Climbing

Futsal?

Inline Hockey

Beach Soccer


First of all, to avoid misunderstandings, it has to be noted that on the highest level, all of the above sports can be

considered competitive. However, the positioning above rather reflects the general image of the sport in the mass

market. For example, although there is a very competitive windsurfing world tour, in terms of mass participation,

windsurfing is very much considered to be a fun sport, ‘a play with wind and waves’.

Looking at the above strategic map, the following points can be observed:

1. Sports on the left side are generally growing stronger than sports on the right side

There has been a real explosion in fun sports in the last few decades. Windsurfing was created out of nothing in the

60’s and counts now several million participants worldwide. As discussed earlier, snowboarding and beach

volleyball have been growing much faster than skiing and volleyball and outdoor fun sports such as mountain

biking and climbing have also recently experienced strong growth. One could argue that the sport industry is split

into two distinct markets:

• The market of traditional competitive sports, which is large in volume but has matured and shows slow

growth;

• and the market of new emerging fun sports, which is smaller in size but is growing strongly

2. From most major sports, “new” sports that emphasise the ‘fun’ aspect more, have emerged

Volleyball has produced beach volleyball, skiing has produced snowboarding, ice hockey has produced inline

hockey and cycling has produced mountain biking. It seems that most of the major sports need a “fun” variation of

the sport to cater for the changing consumer preference especially amongst the youth towards more fun and

excitement. It seems that most major sport federation are now in some way participating in this faster growing

segment of the sport market.

3. Basketball, volleyball and football are the closest competitors of Futsal

As discussed earlier, basketball, volleyball and football are also on this strategic group map visibly the closest

competitors. All of these sports are fairly inexpensive, as the players only need some sport shoes and clothes, a ball

and goals/nets. Usually players do not have to rent the fields by the hour (as in tennis) but can join sport clubs for a

small annual fee and so gain free access to the fields. In addition, all these sports emphasise more the

winning/loosing aspects and are competitive in nature. Having said that, there seem to be an opportunity to

differentiate Futsal from these sports by positioning it as a more ‘fun’ variation of football on a mass participation

level. This will be discussed in more detail in chapter 7.


6. Strategic Analysis of the UEFA Futsal competitions After having looked at Futsal as a sport, the next important step is to look at the UEFA Futsal competitions and

what the competitive situation of the UEFA Futsal Cup and the UEFA European Futsal Championships are. This

chapter will firstly look at what the competition is like and how strong each of the competitive forces (according to

Porter) are. In a second step, the Futsal competitions will be analysed within the UEFA portfolio, using the Boston

Consulting Group Matrix.

6.1 What is competition like and how strong are each of the competitive forces?

6.1.1 Number of competitors

Competitors are here defined as all other sports leagues and events that might compete for the sport interested

spectator. To get a better understanding of which sports these might be, it is essential to look at the time period in

which Futsal is normally played. Usually the leagues in Europe begin in November and end the following March.

This would suggest that the main competitors of the UEFA Futsal competitions are other indoor sport competitions

such as Basketball, Volleyball, Ice Hockey, Handball leagues as well as winter sports such as skiing and bob sleigh.

To narrow this range of sports further down, one could look at only the team sports, as they can be considered close

substitutes; this would eliminate winter sports. This definition seems meaningful, as Futsal does not only compete in

terms of spectators with these sports but also in terms of venues (indoor sport centres) and inclusion in the physical

education curriculum. The biggest competitors in Europe are therefore Basketball, Volleyball, Handball and Ice

Hockey.

“Football is the number 1 amongst outdoor sports. Futsal could become the number 1 amongst indoor

sports. Football is not the competitor of Futsal - these are Handball, Basketball and Volleyball”

Petr Fousek, Chairman UEFA Futsal committee, in an interview with Futsal5

This statement of Mr Fousek confirms that UEFA perceives Handball, Basketball and Volleyball as their main

competitors. However, an important point of debate is whether to consider traditional football competitions as close

substitutes and thus as possible competition. On the one hand, a close relationship is underlined by the fact that

many well-known football stars such as Ronaldo and Zico have left Futsal to play the financially more attractive

conventional Football. Furthermore Football is by far the most popular sport in Europe and the amount of Football

shown on TV has reached a certain saturation (World Cup, EURO, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, and

National Football Leagues). The time periods of UEFA Football competitions (usually August – May,

December/January break) and Futsal competitions (November – March) currently overlap significantly. It therefore

can be assumed that for example an increase in TV coverage of Futsal would lead to a decrease in other Football

shown. Following this line of argumentation would mean that a certain cannibalisation could hardly be avoided.

However, the challenge lies in positioning Futsal in a way to develop as far as possible a complimentary offering to

Football and not a competitive offering. How this could be achieved will be discussed in a later chapter.


6.1.2 Porter’s Industry Structure Analysis

One of the key analyses to assess the attractiveness of the industry is to analyze the competition and the competitive

forces within the industry. The most popular tool to conduct this analysis has been for some time the “five forces”

model introduced by Porter in 1979. The model argues that there are in essence five forces that determine an

industry’s overall attractiveness: Competitive rivalry between close competitors, the threat of new entrants, the

availability of substitutes and the bargaining power of both suppliers and buyers. In the following this model is

applied from the perspective of UEFA Futsal competitions within the European context.

Figure 8: Porter’s Industry Structure Analysis for UEFA Futsal Competitions in Europe

Competitive Rivalry - -

• Currently no other European Futsal Competitions

Customers +/- • Fans (individual,

corporate) • Sponsors

Suppliers - -

• Players • Agents • Futsal Clubs

Substitutes +++ • Other Indoor sports • UEFA Champions

League • National Football

Leagues • New variations of

football (beach soccer)• Other new sports • Concerts • Cinema/movies • TV • Reality TV • Etc.

New entrants -

• New European Futsal League from rival Futsal Association


Competitive Rivalry

UEFA is currently the sole provider of European Futsal competitions; therefore there is no competitive rivalry on

the European level. In contrast, on a worldwide basis there is a Futsal Association (AMF) that organises its own

competitions and tries to compete with FIFA, however with only very limited success so far. The competitive

rivalry in Europe can be considered as low.

Threats of new entrants

It is thinkable that another organisation such as an European Futsal Association could introduce its own European

Futsal competition or league. A significant threat in the case of football is the potential establishment of an

European Super League driven by the G14 Clubs. The threat of new entrance in Futsal can however be considered

as low as there is currently no European Futsal organisation to rival UEFA.

Availability of substitutes

There are a wide number of substitute offerings: Other sports, football related sports and all other entertainment

offerings.

The increase in number of TV channels and in Internet uses means that more sports can be watched and followed

from home and have also lead to an increase of competition. Many new sports have entered the market and compete

for TV exposure. In terms of TV coverage, many sports nowadays produce the content at own expense and pay the

TV station to broadcast their sport, which can be seen as the equivalent of `price dumping` – normally a clear

indication for a very competitive environment.

Football related products such as Beach Soccer, Soccer 5 or Volleyfootball could be considered substitutes. All of

these sports have reached a certain popularity on a more leisure sport basis, meaning that many people enjoy

playing the sports on holidays or while being on the beach. However, so far, none of these sports have introduced

serious leagues or competitions, also because these sports can only be played during the summer months; therefore

the competition is not very strong for the moment.

As sport and Futsal are very much entertainment offerings, all other kind of entertainments must be considered as

possible substitutes. These could include cinemas, movies, television, reading, and computer/Internet. According to

M.K. Mauws et al (2003), what has changed over the years is not the fact that there are other entertainment

offerings but the variety of offerings: More movies are being released every year, constantly increase of TV

channels, explosion in the number of Internet sites, etc. In addition, the recent phenomenon of Reality TV, which

offers unscripted drama with uncertain outcome in a way similar to sports, poses a serious threat to sports. The

likelihood that somebody would watch Futsal just because there is nothing else on offer is fast approaching zero.

This means that it’s no longer enough just to be present as an offering to get a certain amount of spectators but it is

nowadays vital to provide consumers with better entertainment value than other offerings. Thus competition has

clearly increased with regards to the availability of other substitutes.

Thus, over the years one could observe that there are more and more groups competing for the sport spectator’s time

and money therefore reducing the overall attractiveness of the industry. This conclusion has also been reached by

M.K. Mauws et al (2003).


Supplier Power

In sports, there are normally two main suppliers: The players and the clubs. In Futsal, there are a large number of

players wanting to play professionally, but still only few jobs for them to fill. Currently, there are only five

professional leagues in Europe namely in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and Russia. In contrast, there are millions

of players on the supply side. This decreases supplier power, as management can easily replace a player making

unreasonable demands. (Cruise and Grifiths 1991). In other professional sports such as football, the emergence and

strength of player’s associations as well as more knowledgeable player agents has increased the supplier’s power

(M.K. Mauwes et al 2003). However, Futsal is still a long way from developing in a similar way.

Clubs in the Futsal context are also not very powerful, as they have neither great financial strength nor a long term

loyalty from their fan base, as many clubs are still relatively young. This is in sharp contrast to the situation in

conventional football, where the major European clubs have formed the G14 and are able to exercise a high degree

of bargaining power towards UEFA, based on their financial strength but also based on their large loyal fan base.

Again Futsal clubs are still far from finding themselves in such a powerful position. In the contrary, Futsal and the

Futsal clubs are very much dependent on UEFA in terms of financial support and know-how which has been

generated through their football competitions. Therefore the overall supplier power can be considered as weak.

Buyer Power

Buyer power is mainly determined by the number of potential buyers and their switching or opportunity costs.

(Porter 1979). An individual fan has generally little bargaining power as there are a large number of potential

buyers and the fan is one of many. However in Futsal, loyalty to clubs is still in the process of being developed,

therefore there are relatively (compared to conventional football) low switching costs for the fans. With regards to

corporate buyers, who have been an increasing source of revenue, and the sale of VIP boxes, the situation is

different. There are fewer potential buyers and corporations tend to be less loyal than individual fans. This would be

especially true for Futsal games, where there is still not a high demand from the corporate side. It is however

doubtful that most Futsal clubs would rely on the revenues generated from the VIP boxes.

Overall, the bargaining power of buyers in Futsal can be classified as low to moderate.

Summary

The industry appears to be highly competitive from the perspective of UEFA Futsal competitions with regards to the

competition from substitute offerings such as other sports or other entertainment offerings. It seems key to find

ways to differentiate Futsal from other sports and provide added entertainment value compared to other

entertainment offerings.

On a more positive note, Futsal is still a young sport and has not to battle yet with very powerful suppliers and

buyers or competitive rivalry with close substitutes as is the case in more established sports such as conventional

football. However, without doubt, these factors will come into play at later stages of the Futsal development.


6.2 How strong is Futsal’s competitive position within UEFA’s portfolio?

Organisations that are large enough to be organised into strategic business units (SBU) face the challenge of

allocating resources amongst those units. An SBU is a unit of the company that has separate missions and objectives

and that can be planned independently from the other businesses. An SBU can be a company division, a product

line or even individual brands, it depends how the organisation is organised (QuickMBA 2004). The author

proposes to use the different UEFA Football and Futsal brands as SBUs:

- UEFA EURO Championships

- UEFA Champions League

- UEFA Cup

- UEFA European Futsal Championships

- UEFA Futsal Cup

In the early 1970’s the Boston Consulting Group developed a model for managing a portfolio of different business

units. The BCG growth-share matrix displays the various business units on a graph in terms of relative market share

and the expected future growth rate and provides a good basis to assess the competitive position of Futsal. Revenues

from TV rights and sponsors have been taken as a basis for market growth and market share. As argued before,

traditional sports are seen to form a market that is big in size while growing slowly and new fun sports form a

market that is growing stronger but is still smaller in size.

Figure 9: Boston Consulting Group Matrix: Industry Attractiveness (estimated future market growth) vs.

Competitive Strength Matrix (relative market share)

Competitive Position

Stars

Question Marks

UEFA Futsal Champ.

UEFA Futsal Cup

Cash Cows

UEFA Champions League

UEFA EURO UEFA Cup

Dogs

Strong Weak

Industry Attractiveness

High Low


Resources are allocated to business units according to where they are situated on the grid as follows (Tutor2u

2004):

Cash Cows: Cash Cows are low-growth businesses or products with a relatively high market share. These are

mature, successful businesses with relatively little need for investment. They need to be managed for continued

profit – so that they continue to generate the strong cash flows that the company needs for stars and question marks.

UEFA’s top brands, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA EURO and to a slightly lesser degree the UEFA Cup

have a very high market share in terms of TV and sponsorship revenue, but have now matured and operate in

markets which are growing slower. Therefore they are classified as cash cows.

Question marks: Question marks are businesses with low market share but which operate in higher growth

markets. This suggests that they have potential, but may require substantial investment in order to grow market

share at the expense of the more powerful competitors. The UEFA Futsal European Championships and to a lesser

degree the UEFA Futsal Cup still have only a marginal market share in terms of TV and sponsorship revenues,

however, the potential for growth is enormous. Therefore these competitions have been classified as ‘Question

Marks’.

Stars: Stars are high growth businesses or products competing in markets where they are relatively strong

compared with the competition. Often they need heavy investment to sustain their growth. Eventually their growth

will slow and assuming they maintain their relative market share become cash cows. UEFA currently has not stars,

however, the UEFA European Futsal Championship could move in the future to a high growth business unit with a

significant market share.

Dogs: Unsurprisingly, the term “dogs” refer to businesses or products that have low relative share in unattractive

low-growth markets. Dogs may generate enough cash to break even, but they are rarely, if ever, worth investing in.

UEFA is currently in the fortunate position not to have a ‘dog’ in its portfolio, however, the UEFA Cup of Cup

Winners competition, which has been stopped a few years ago, could have been classified as a “dog”.

Conventional strategic thinking suggests there are four possible strategies for each SBU:

(1) Build Share: here the company can invest to increase market share (for example turning “question mark” into a

star)

(2) Hold: here the company invests just enough to keep the SBU in its present position

(3) Harvest: here the company reduces the amount of investment in order to maximise the short term cash flows

and profits from the SBU. This may have the effect of turning stars into cash cows.

(4) Divest: the company can divest the SBU by phasing it out or selling it – in order to use resources elsewhere (e.g.

investing in the more promising “question marks”).

As Futsal competitions have been classified as question marks, only strategies (1) and (4) are viable options and will

be discussed in a later chapter.


6.3 What strategic issues need to be address? The final analytical task is to zero in on the issues management needs to address in forming an effective strategic

action plan. The task is to draw upon all the prior analysis, put the sports overall situation in perspective and get a

lock on exactly where the strategic attention should be (Thomson & Strickland 1998). This really means

summarising the situation analysis and drawing conclusions and priorities from it:

1. The analysis of the industry’s key economic features has shown that although Futsal is still a relatively small

sport, in terms of participants, spectators and TV audience, it has a great growth potential and can rejuvenate

football with a new fun variation of the game. Also, the life cycle analysis has shown that Futsal is currently in the

‘global spread’ phase of development and the next logical step to develop the sport is to focus on making Futsal an

Olympic sport.

2. From the SWOT analysis, the top priorities seem to be to build on the strength of Futsal and communicate these

to consumers and as well as improve the image of the sport to outsiders. This need for a promotional strategy to

market the game is also emphasised by the following quote from UEFA Chairman Petr Fousek:

“The European Futsal Championship promises to be a great competition but we realise a lot still needs to

be done to increase the popularity of the game – such as some hard work on the promotional side of

Futsal”

Petr Fousek, Chairman UEFA Futsal Committee, 2004 on uefa.com

3. Looking at the trends and driving forces that influence the emergence of a new sport, an overriding theme or

trend in the success of successfully emerging new sports is that people are looking for a modern sport that is fast,

exciting, fun and which has a culture that appeals to younger people. Futsal fulfils these criteria but will need to

work more to promote the cultural aspect of the game to appeal to younger consumers.

4. The strategic group map showed that the industry seems to be divided into a smaller, but faster growing segment

of new fun sports and a bigger segment of traditional but slower growing sports. Most federation participate now

besides their traditional sport with a fun variation in the faster growing market segment. Futsal need to be correctly

positioned to participate in this faster growing segment.

5. From the analysis of Porter’s five forces we learned that the main threats to Futsal is the strong competition from

substitute offerings: From other indoor sports such as volleyball, basketball, handball, conventional football, new

sports such as beach soccer and other entertainment offerings such as reality TV and cinema. The key strategic issue

seems to be to differentiate Futsal from all of its competitors and to provide added entertainment value to

consumers.

6. The Boston Consulting Group Matrix showed that Futsal competitions can be classified as ‘question marks’ and

now have two viable classic strategic options: To invest and build market share or to divest and stop supporting the

sport. To invest just enough to keep Futsal at its current position or to maximise short term cash flow by reducing

the investments do not seem to be meaningful strategic options.


7. Discussion of UEFA’s Strategic Options The final analytical task is to identify and discuss UEFA’s realistic strategic options considering certain criteria and

objectives. The author has identified the following strategic options which will be discussed in the following in

more detail:

Divest Strategies:

• Strategic option 1A: Stop supporting Futsal and concentrate purely on promotion of Football

• Strategic option 1B: Stop supporting Futsal and promote Beach Soccer instead

Invest Strategies to build market share:

• Strategic option 2A: Support Futsal and apply the successful UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup


• Strategic option 2B: Support Futsal, but promote it in a distinct, differentiated way

However, before the strategic option can be discussed, objectives for the strategic choices need to be established.

7.1 Objectives In the first step, before making a generic decision between an Invest and a Divest strategy, the objective is to ensure

that football and all football related sports remain popular in terms of active participation and audience, as well as

profitable in the long term. UEFA’s core mission is to safeguard the development of European football at every

level of the game.

In the second step, if a decision has been made to invest into the future of Futsal, more specific objectives can be

set. These objectives should focus on achieving the next step in the development of a new sport as shown in the life

cycle analysis: To make Futsal an Olympic sport.

The criteria set by the IOC for a sport to be included into the Olympic program according to the Olympic charter are

the following:

Article 52

1.1.1 Only sports widely practised by men in at least 75 countries and four continents and by women in at least

40 countries and on three continents, may be included in the programme of the Games of the Olympiad.

1.1.3 Only sports that adopt and implement the World Anti-Doping Code can be included and remain in the

programme of the Olympic Games

1: Divest Futsal

2: Invest in Futsal

1A: Focus on Football only

1B: Promote Beach Soccer instead

2A: Promote Futsal applying Champions League Model

2B: Promote Futsal in distinct, differentiated way


1.1.4 Sports are admitted to the programme of the Olympic Games at least seven years before specific Olympic

Games in respect of which no change shall thereafter be permitted

The standards for the admission of disciplines are the same as those required for the admission of Olympic sports.

Futsal would qualify as a discipline of football, which certainly is an advantage, as the Olympic Games are limited

to 28 sports. Therefore it is much easier to add a discipline than a new sport. Furthermore, Futsal certainly fulfils the

criteria with respect to men’s Futsal (as it is played by 96 countries in all continents) and with respect to the World

Anti-Doping Code, as UEFA and FIFA have now accepted it. However, a growth strategy should focus more on

promoting Futsal amongst women.

The IOC has recently also put more emphasis on image and popularity of the sport when voting for a sport to be

included in the Olympics. Therefore the objectives for the next step of development of Futsal are suggested to be as

follows (Objectives should be SMART: Significant, Measurable, Action orientated, Realistic, Time related):

Main Objective:

1. To make Futsal an Olympic sport by 2016

To achieve this goal, the following sub-objectives should be met in Europe to show the IOC in time (i.e. 2009,

when the new sports for 2016 are chosen) that the popularity and image criteria have been fulfilled as well:

a) To achieve an average of more than 2000 stadium spectators for the UEFA Futsal European Competitions

and the UEFA Futsal Cup in 2009

b) To achieve an average of more than 1 million TV spectators per match for the UEFA European

Competitions in 2009

c) To have more than 1 million registered Futsal players in Europe by 2009

d) To achieve participation of more than 2/3 of European countries (37/55 associations) in the UEFA Futsal

Cup by 2009

e) To launch a UEFA Futsal European Championships for women by 2009 with at least 20 European

countries participating

Fulfilling these objectives should put Futsal in a very strong position to be included in the Olympics by latest 2016.


7.2 Discussion of Strategic Options

Strategic Option 1A: Stop supporting Futsal and concentrate purely on promotion of Football

This strategy could be considered as the classic “Divest Strategy”. Following this strategy would mean that UEFA

frees up resources to focus on and increase the promotion of Football. This would also mean leaving the

development of Futsal to others such as the specialised Futsal associations.

Advantages

The main advantage of this strategy is that UEFA could focus all its resources on its core business, the Football

competitions (UEFA EURO, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup). All of these competitions are very popular

and profitable at the moment, while the Futsal competitions are still running a deficit. UEFA would probably

maximise its profits in the short to medium term.

Leaving the development to Futsal associations could mean that these associations, as they are smaller and more

specialised, become in some respect more dynamic and adapt the sport quicker to consumer’s preferences.

However, as they are very often in an embryonic stage, they often lack the professional resources.

Disadvantages

The main disadvantage of stopping to support Futsal is that it would mean to ignore a potentially strong growth

market. Focusing only on football might be risky as the market is saturated and does not allow for much further

growth, both in terms of active participation and in terms of financial revenues. Also, as shown before, there is a

trend of young people to look for fast exciting fun sports. These changing consumer’s preferences could mean a

delusion of the current market leadership of football in the long term. It can only be seen as prudent “not to put all

eggs in one basket” and develop another strong footing for the future of football. In the world of business, each

company has to invest for the future to remain competitive, even if this decreases profits in the short term.

Another effect of stopping to support Futsal would be a step back for the sport. Without the European competitions,

the know-how transfer and the financial support, Futsal would need some time to re-group and continue with the

development and growth. It would almost certainly have a damaging effect on the sport in the short term.

Table 7: Advantages and Disadvantages of Strategic Option 1A

Advantages

Disadvantages

• UEFA can focus all resources on football

• UEFA would increase profitability in short

term

• Futsal Association might be more dynamic in

developing Futsal

• Ignorance of strong growth in Futsal

• Does not cater for changing consumer’s

preferences

• “All eggs in one basket”

• Futsal as a sport would suffer in short term due

to lack of professional structures and financial

support


Strategic Option 1B: Stop supporting Futsal and promote Beach Soccer instead

Again this strategy would be classified as a classical “Divest Strategy”. However, the benefactor of the freed

resources would not be football but another ‘question mark’: Beach Soccer. This strategic option would only make

sense if beach soccer had a higher potential for growth, development and profitability than Futsal.

Advantages

Beach Soccer currently probably has a friendlier image than Futsal and could therefore easier be commercialised for

sponsors and TV rights in the short term. The image is similar to Beach Volleyball and events could be similarly

promoted as ‘beach parties’.

Disadvantages

Beach Soccer can only be played in summer, usually between June and August, and is very weather dependant. It

has had great success in Brazil, where the weather is more reliably sunny and where there is unlimited supply of

great beaches. Introducing beach soccer in Central Europe would be a lot more challenging, as summer is often

unpredictable and suitable beaches are rare. To build a suitable beach soccer field would cost around CHF 30 000

per field (Pastor). This is considerably more expensive than Futsal where most of the infrastructure in form of

indoor sport centres is already available. Beach Soccer is more suitable as a show case or promotional events for

elite players, but is difficult to implement in terms of mass participation. A proper league system would most likely

need more than three months of playing time a year and could not cope with a large number of match cancellations

due to bad weather. In terms of growth potential for mass participation and mass audience, Futsal should have a

clear advantage in the long term. Supporting beach soccer as fun events for commercial reasons seems to be

reasonable in the short term. But to ensure growth of football related sports in the long term, Futsal should be given

preferences, as Beach Soccer has clear limitations.

Table 8: Advantages and Disadvantages of Strategic Option 1B

Advantages

Disadvantages

• UEFA can use resources on beach soccer

• UEFA would increase profitability in short

term, as beach soccer is currently more

marketable/ has a good image

• Futsal Association might be more dynamic in

developing Futsal

• Ignorance of strong growth in Futsal

• Beach soccer too weather dependant and only

playable in summer

• Limited growth prospects as not enough

suitable beaches in Europe

• Futsal as a sport would suffer in short term due

to lack of professional structures and financial

support


Strategic Option 2A: Support Futsal and apply the successful UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup


This strategic option is an investment strategy to build market share. Applying the successful UEFA Champions

League and UEFA Cup approaches to promote it would mean to position Futsal in a similar way, hoping for an

image transfer from these hugely popular competitions to the Futsal events. This would further apply using the same

marketing agencies to create a similar UEFA offering and hoping that the market for these products is not saturated

yet.

Advantages

This approach certainly deserves some merits as it would first of all recognise Futsal as an additional product

offering with a potential for strong growth and would therefore diversify the future of football accordingly. The

UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup have been proven to be attractive, successful and profitable product

offerings and therefore Futsal could benefit from image transfers and the developed know-how in organising and

promoting the competitions. It could potentially fill some gaps in the football calendar to ensure a round the year

coverage of football on TV.

Disadvantages

The main problem with this strategy is that it does not differentiate Futsal enough from existing football

competitions. It could create a “me too” perception in the mind of the consumers who might already be overloaded

with conventional football shown on TV. This approach risks a “football fatigue” with yet another similar UEFA

product on the market. Even if Futsal could fill some gaps in the football calendar, there are also significant

overlaps in the schedules so that Futsal had to compete directly with football for TV audiences, spectators and

sponsors, as they don’t necessary see the image difference or added entertainment value. It seems to be crucial to

differentiate the offerings sufficiently to avoid any cannibalism and position Futsal in a unique and differentiated

way.

Table 9: Advantages and Disadvantages of Strategic Option 2A

Advantages

Disadvantages

• UEFA can participate in strong Futsal growth

• Diversification of risk for future of UEFA

• Image transfer from existing UEFA football

competitions to Futsal competition possible

• Know-how transfer from Football to Futsal

competition maximised

• Not sufficiently differentiated offering

• Could create competitive situation between

Football and Futsal competitions in terms of

TV audiences, spectators and sponsors

• Risk of football fatigue amongst consumers


Strategic Option 2B: Support Futsal, but promote it in a distinct, differentiated way

Differentiation strategies seek to produce a competitive edge by incorporating attributes and features into the service

offering that rivals don’t have (Thompson & Strickland 1998). McKinsey (2004) notes that “in an increasingly

fickle media marketplace, a sport needs to consider innovative approaches, to both its contests and its marketing,

that will emphasise its distinctiveness as well as generate excitement.

One possibility to achieve this differentiation could be to use the original culture of Futsal in all promotional efforts.

This ‘Brazilian culture’ could have additional appeal to attract more spectators in general and specifically more

women and young people to the game as discussed earlier.

The influence of the Brazilian culture could be incorporated in marketing efforts in many ways, for example:

- Brazilian samba bands and samba dancers could perform before, during and after the matches

- The sport halls could be decorated using as much bright colours (Yellow, Green, Blue) as possible. This

would give the game a friendlier image, as opposed to the dark cold halls, in which Futsal is often played.

- Refreshment stands could serve Latin American cocktails (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) during breaks

- Promotional video clips, using samba music and Brazilian ex-Futsal celebrities (Pele, Ronaldo and others)

endorsing the game should be recorded and televised during breaks of other UEFA competitions (EURO,

Champions League).

- During summer there should be some outdoor show matches in underdeveloped Futsal countries, and these

events should be marketed in a “summer party” kind of way to improve Futsal’s image in consumer’s

perceptions.

It is important to create a coherent branding, positioning Futsal clearly as “Fun” or “Samba” Football, which should

create associations such as “exciting, very technical, skilful, Latin flair” in the mind of the sport consumers.

Creating this coherent branding will build brand equity, which Gladden et al (2001) emphasises should be the

prevailing focus of sport managers today.

“The strategy of choice for most organisations is brand marketing”

AT Kearney, The New Sports Consumer

As this distinct image should be able to attract slightly different kind of spectators, probably younger and with a

higher female proportion than traditional football, the competition in terms of spectators and TV audience with

conventional football could be minimised. Another side effect of this distinct positioning of Futsal would be to

attract new sponsors that can identify with the communicated image. In addition, this ‘Brazilian image’ would also

be hard to copy from other sports like Basketball, Handball, Volleyball and Ice Hockey, as the connection would

not be very obvious.

Finally, McKinsey (2004) has identified 7 success factors for the sports industry, which also should be considered

as part of the strategy to develop Futsal:

1. Changing the sport

There needs to be a balance between tradition of the sport and changing the rules slightly to improve its

attractiveness. Futsal has seen many changes and improvement in its rules, the most significant in 1989 when FIFA


took over the game. The newest FIFA rules with some minor additional changes have been released in 2002. With

respect to rule changes, there is very little that can be done further to improve the attractiveness of Futsal.

2. Calendaring and scheduling

In the future it will be crucial to adapt Football and Futsal schedules to minimise overlaps. As most Futsal leagues

run logically in the winter months between November and March, the football calendar should be adapted to keep

these months as free as possible. There is not really a good argument for a long summer break in Europe for outdoor

Football; however, the change will be difficult to implement as there are long running traditions in European

football to have a summer break in June and July. This change has probably only a chance of being accepted, when

Futsal has grown and gained a much stronger position. In addition, it should be ensured that European Futsal

matches are played at regular times during the week like the UEFA Champions League, to increase attractiveness to

TV stations.

3. Developing stars

Stars are critical in promoting the game as they are an inspiration to the youth and spectator magnets. Each sport

organisation needs to ensure that it has the mandate and the structure to promote its most talented and popular

players in ways that guarantee them maximum exposure and benefit the sport overall. Futsal legends like Manoel

Tobias (voted 5 times Best Player in the World; 13 years as captain of the Brazilian Team), should be promoted

stronger and made ambassadors of the sport. Also famous ex-Futsal players such as Ronaldo, Zico, Romario and

Pele should be used in promoting the game.

4. Coherent branding

A coordinated, consistent brand identity is the key to the sale of licensed sport gear and services. This coherent

branding has already been discussed in the Futsal context above. Another example of coherent branding is the

music, logo and flag used at all Champions League matches. Using these elements consistently has successfully

increased the brand equity of the Champions League brand.

5. Marketing Partnerships

Futsal should have a coordinated public-relations strategy to ensure that its players participate in promotional

appearances and media events. Marketing partnerships should be seeked with those companies that most closely

match the sport in terms of culture and image. For Futsal these could be for example new sponsors such as Bacardi

Breezer (because of its Latin culture) or specialised Futsal equipment producers (Futsal, Dalponte).

6. Bundling rights

When the broadcast and sponsorship rights are packaged together, those rights are usually far more valuable since

the whole is usually worth more than the sum of its parts. A good example is the approach taken by the UEFA

Champions League. This bundling of rights should be contractually agreed for all UEFA Futsal competitions from

the beginning.

7. Professionalizing the organisation

Many Futsal clubs and associations are essentially small start-up businesses that need to adapt to a big business

environment over the coming years. Some smaller Football associations have no dedicated Futsal staff and others

have staff, but are unable to communicate internationally as they lack the necessary language skills. A special effort


should be made to put professional structures in place in all national associations and leagues. This will require

some financial investment.

Advantages

According to Thompson and Strickland (1998), differentiation offers a buffer against the strategies of rivals when it

results in enhanced buyer loyalty to a brand. In addition, (1) successful differentiation erects barriers in the form of

customer loyalty and uniqueness that newcomers find hard to hurdle, (2) lessons buyers’ bargaining power since the

offerings of alternative entertainment providers are less attractive to them, and (3) helps a sport to fend off threats

from substitutes not having comparable features or attributes.

Positioning Futsal in a clear distinctive way will differentiate the sport from other indoor sports and will minimise

competition to the conventional football offerings. The new image could attract new fans (i.e. women and the

youth) to the sport as well as new sponsors whose branding is compatible to the new Futsal image. And last but not

least, show elements like Brazilian samba bands and dancers should be attractive for TV stations when broadcasting

the matches.

Disadvantages

There are, of course, no guarantees that differentiation will produce a meaningful competitive advantage. If

consumers see little value in the unique service feature that is emphasised, then the differentiation strategy will get a

less excited reception in the market place. (Thompson & Strikland 1998). It is therefore advisable to test this

strategy on a smaller scale first and to get some consumer feedback, before implementing this strategy on a

European scale.

Further disadvantages are of course the cost involved. To create a coherent branding, a certain financial investment

is necessary to build brand awareness and loyalty. A financial analysis needs to be conducted to explore whether the

initial investment can be recovered by increasing revenues from spectators, sponsors and TV rights.

Table 10: Advantages and Disadvantages of Strategic Option 2B

Advantages

Disadvantages

• UEFA can participate in strong Futsal growth

• Diversification of risk for future of UEFA

• Minimises competition between Football and

Futsal

• Can enhance brand value and customer loyalty

• Helps fend off threats from substitute

entertainment offerings

• Can attract new consumer groups (women and

youth) and sponsors

• Requires financial investment

• No guarantee that market place will respond

positive on branding; might not produce

meaningful competitive advantage

• Financial return not guaranteed, business risk


7.3 Strategy Recommendation

In summary, the best strategy is believed to be the fourth strategic option: Support Futsal, but promote it in a

distinct, differentiated way. This strategy is recommended due to the following reasons:

1. The differentiation strategy has a good fit with the sport’s situation.

As the sport is believed to have a strong growth potential and can become the largest indoor sport in Europe, only

an investment strategy to build market share seems meaningful. Also, the suggested strategy differentiates the sport

from traditional football and from other indoor sports by providing added entertainment value not only through a

fun, fast and exciting game but also by providing a unique fan experience by emphasising the Brazilian culture of

the game.

2. The differentiation strategy will build competitive advantage.

The cornerstone of a successful differentiation strategy is creating buyer value in ways unmatched by rivals. One of

the approaches to creating buyers value is to incorporate features that enhance buyer satisfaction in non-economic

or intangible ways (Thompson & Strickland 1998). The Samba music and dancers as an added entertainment value

might increase customer’s satisfaction even if they might be otherwise unsatisfied with for example the outcome of

the game. In addition, this competitive advantage would be hard to copy by other indoor sport as the connection to

the Brazilian culture is missing – they would have to come up with their unique way of adding entertainment value.

3. The differentiation strategy will attract more spectators to the sport.

Giving the sport a unique “Latin flavour” would not only attract the traditional Football fans to watch the game, but

might also attract consumers who are less interested in the game but can identify with the Latin lifestyle or simply

enjoy the spectator atmosphere. New customer segments such as for example more women might be won in this

way. A side effect of attracting new market segments of the market and creating a unique fan experience will be that

new sponsors might be interested in getting involved with the game.

4. The differentiation strategy will attract more participants in the sport.

Participation might increase less because of the Samba music and dancers, but might increase by the use of

Brazilian football celebrities and heroes to promote the game. Some of the world greatest football idols are Brazilian

and have the power to make more young people curious in the emerging sport. However, to increase participation,

putting the correct infrastructure (coach seminars, availability of sport halls, youth development programs, etc.) in

place will be at least as important as increasing promotional efforts of the game.

For all of the above reasons, an investment strategy in the form of a differentiation strategy to build market share is

recommended. As a result, the chances of being included in the Olympics 2016 should have been maximised.


7.4 Organisational structure recommendation The choice of the appropriate strategy was based on a detailed situation analysis of Futsal and its competitions in

Europe using strategic management tools such as SWOT analysis, BCG Matrix or strategic group mapping and than

an in-depth evaluation of each of the strategic options. The next step, as a result of the strategy, is to institute the

appropriate organisational structure. This sequence is shown graphically in the following figure (Slack 1997).

Figure 10: Strategy-Structure Relationship

Source: Slack, T. (1997), Understanding Sport Organizations, The Application of Organisational Theory, Human

Kinetics

In the following both the internal structure of UEFA and the external structure in terms of all parties involved in the

development of Futsal will be examined.

7.4.1 Internal Structure

The best known of the more recent work on strategy and structure is Miles and Snow’s four part classification of

organisations as Defenders, Prospectors, Analysers, and Reactors (Slack 1997):

Defenders are organisations that limit themselves to a narrow range of products and services offered to only a

limited segment of the total potential market. The type of structure associated with a Defender Strategy is

centralised, with a high level of task specialisation and a relatively high level of formalization. The centralised

structure means control is in the hands of senior managers; integration is achieved through formal policies and

procedures.

Prospectors actively seek new products and new market opportunities. Because their success depends on

innovation, prospectors must scan their environment constantly for new trends and opportunities. The need for

prospectors to respond rapidly to environmental changes means they must adopt a flexible structure. Consequently,

task specialisation is low, as is formalisation, decision making is decentralised.

Analysers lie somewhere between Defenders and Prospectors. The organisation minimizes risk while maximising

opportunity for profit. The Analysers operates with a mix of products and markets, some of which exhibit stability

while others will be more dynamic. The sport organisation adopting an Analyser strategy will have to develop a

structure that allows them to exercise tight controls over the stable product and market areas and looser controls

Assessment of environmental

threats and opportunities

Internal strength and weaknesses

Strategy

Organisational Structure


over the areas in which new products are being developed. Control involves a delicate balance between systems that

are centralised and budget orientated to encourage cost-efficient production of standard products and systems that

are decentralised and result-orientated so as to enhance the effectiveness with which new products can be adapted.

Reactors are organisations that do not respond appropriately to their environment. Because a reactor strategy is an

inappropriate strategy, there are no clear linkages between this type of strategy and structure.

Following the suggested strategy of on the one hand managing the stable businesses (cash cows) UEFA Champions

League, UEFA EURO and UEFA Cup for profit, but on the other hand investing in Futsal competitions to grow

their market share and develop the service offering, UEFA would fall into the Analyser category. Therefore a mixed

structure seems to be most meaningful. In praxis, this means running the Football products in the established way,

while creating a separate business unit within UEFA for all Futsal competitions and provide this business unit with

maximal flexibility and result orientated, decentralised control. The business unit must be able to respond rapidly to

change and thus be more dynamic. The business unit should be awarded its own budget, and consist of specialist

from each area of UEFA’s activities such as football development, event management and marketing.

A second argument for a specialised Futsal business unit within UEFA is based on the suggested differentiation

strategy. The culture of Futsal is and should be different from the Football culture, to make Futsal a complimentary

offering to Football and not a competitive offering. Therefore, a separate business unit needs to “live” and

implement this differentiated culture. It would be much more difficult for one specialist to cater for both Football

and Futsal competitions and think “with two different hats on”.

7.4.2 External Structure

The following figure shows the interrelationship between the three main parties involved in the development of

Futsal: The International Football Bodies, the National Football Associations and the National Futsal Associations.

Figure 11: Parties involved in the development of Futsal in Europe

International Football Bodies

UEFA, FIFA

National Football

Associations

National Futsal

Associations


A problem in the current external structure is that the responsibilities and roles of each of the parties involved in

developing Futsal are not clearly defined. There is some uncertainty and disagreement of the role that each party

should play in the development of Futsal.

Slack (1997) differentiates between two approaches to understanding organisations: “In the rational model,

organisations are seen as entities in which members share common goals, make decisions in an orderly and logical

manner, and see conflict as dysfunctional to their central purpose. In the political model it is accepted that people

and groups within the organisations have different goals, make decisions in their own best interests, and engage in

conflictual behaviour.”

Following the rational model, it seems obvious that a close cooperation between the parties is key to the

development of the sport and that all parties have something to contribute:

- The International Football Bodies have the financial resources as well as the know-how in event

management, youth development and marketing on an international level.

- The National Football Associations have also financial resources as well as event management experience

and youth development know-how on a national level

- The National Futsal Associations are familiar with the sport, its culture and its particularities and should be

consulted as specialists with important Futsal know-how.

It seems less critical whether the Futsal Associations are independent bodies or business units of the Football

Association as described above, as long as all parties realise that they have something to contribute and can also

benefit from a development of Futsal and thus have to cooperate closely.

However, following the political model it seems that some Football Associations feel somewhat threatened by a

strong emergence of Futsal and Futsal Associations fear the take-over by Football Association of their sport. This

issue is not new and as the quote of Gibbens shows also exists in other sports.

“When something ‘different’ comes along and challenges the existence of a major sport such as skiing,

there is bound to be a conflict.”

Jonno Gibbens in his book “Snowboarding” 1996

According to Heino (2000), “a real outcry, as well as a lawsuit, came when the International Olympic Committee

(IOC) appointed the Federation Internationale du Ski (FIS), skiing’s regulatory body, as the governing organisation

over snowboarding rather than the International Snowboarding Federation. This was an obvious exercise of power

over snowboarding. There was considerable concern that the FIS was only interested in the network money and that

it did not understand the practice and culture of snowboarding”.

In the political model, there are some behaviours that cannot be completely explained rationally and could have an

important impact on the development of Futsal. Examples of politically motivated behaviour related to Futsal are:

- National Associations discourage their nations’s Futsal teams to participate at international competitions

with the reasoning to save accommodation and flight costs

- Training courses for Futsal coaches are reduced significantly from one year to the next


- A national TV station is pressurised by the Football Association not to show Futsal if it wants to have a

chance to bid for the national football competitions

Whether these examples are hypothetical or real, they highlight the potential impact that political behaviour can

have on the development on Futsal.

Some people see politics as involving coercion, dishonesty, and manipulative behaviour by individuals seeking to

further their own self interests. Others see politics as an integral feature of organizations and a way in which

differences among interest groups are resolved and tasks are accomplished (Slack 1997). Whichever way one looks

at it, from the perspective of developing the sport Futsal, the rational approach seems to be clearly the preferable

way. Parties involved in the development of Futsal should put the interest of the sport first and rationally find

solutions as to how best develop the sport in the future.

In some countries the cooperation between National Football Association and National Futsal Association seems to

work very well. In Switzerland for example, the National Football Association wrote in a letter to all clubs in

Switzerland:

“In cooperation with “Swiss Futsal”, the Swiss Football Association would like to make an effort to unify

all existing indoor football competitions under the official Futsal rules and to launch official

championships. We do not see Futsal as a competitor, but as complementary to our sport. This is especially

true, since the Futsal championships will take place between November and March, which is the dead

season of football.”

Association Suisse de Football, 08/2003

The Futsal Association on its part sees it as a natural next step to be integrated in the Swiss FA, as it sees Futsal as

part of the overall “football family”. It sees thus no problems with sharing responsibility and welcomes any support

of the Football Association.

It can only be hoped that more and more Football and Futsal Association see the potential of this sport and Futsal as

a way to rejuvenate interest in football related sports and thus work closely together to establish Futsal as a major

sport in Europe.


8. Conclusions Based on the strategic analysis of Futsal in Europe, the following conclusions can be drawn:

1. Futsal is not just a fade but growing strongly and here to stay

Futsal has been growing very strongly over the past 10-20 years and is now played in about 100 countries by over

30 million people.

2. Futsal can be used to rejuvenate the growth in football related sports

The growth of traditional football is now in the mature phase of the product life cycle, as shown in the example of

Germany. Therefore, Futsal could be needed to rejuvenate growth in football related sports.

3. Futsal is currently in the ‘Global Spread’ phase of development. The logical next phase of development

would be to become an Olympic sport.

Futsal has been growing in the last 15 years from 16 to 96 countries participating at the FIFA World Cup. The sport,

which originated in South America, is now truly played on a global scale. However, the sport has not yet met the

criteria of becoming an Olympic sport.

4. Futsal is an attractive modern sport that appeals also to the youth

Comparing the sport to successful new emerging sports such as snowboarding and beach volleyball, Futsal seems to

have all the virtue of a modern sport (exciting, fun, fast) as well as a special appeal to young people (‘Latin style’

appeal).

5. Futsal has the potential for further strong growth throughout Europe

If Futsal is positioned correctly to participate in the growth of the fun sport segment of the sport industry, Futsal has

the potential for further strong growth in Europe.

6. Futsal’s main competitors are other indoor sports as well as other entertainment offerings

In terms of scheduling (November to March), type of sport (team sport), competitive nature of the sport

(competitive sport), and mass participation (inexpensive/mass sport), and use of venues (indoor centres), Volleyball,

Basketball and Handball are the closest rivals of Futsal. However, one of the main challenges is to position Futsal in

a complementary and not competitive way to traditional football and to provide added entertainment value to fend

off competition from substitute entertainment offerings.

7. An ‘Invest’ strategy is needed to make Futsal competitions an attractive and profitable offering

Futsal can currently be classified as a ‘question mark’ according to the BCG Matrix. This means that the potential

for growth is there, but investment is needed to build the market share of Futsal. The future of Futsal competitions

can either be ‘stars’ if the appropriate strategy is followed, or ‘dogs’, if the governing bodies decide on a ‘divest’

strategy.


8. Futsal needs a distinct differentiation strategy for further development and growth

The differentiation strategy was shown to be the best suited strategy to further the development and growth of

Futsal and its competitions and to make the sport an Olympic sport. It has been recommended to use the original

Brazilian culture to differentiate the sport.

9. UEFA should consider restructuring the Futsal function in its organisation

UEFA should consider setting up a separate business unit for Futsal within the UEFA organisation to provide

flexibility for the dynamic and fast growing market segment.


9. Recommended Generic Methodology for Assessing New Sports

The study has shown the specific results for the strategic analysis of Futsal and has come up with recommendations

for the strategy and organisational structure for Futsal in Europe. In analysing the specific example of Futsal, the

author has followed a certain methodology, which can now be used for assessing any new emerging sports and to

find ways to develop a sport further:

Figure 12: Methodology for assessing new emerging sports and find ways to develop the sport further

Step 1: Strategic Analysis of the sport and its competitive position compared to other sports

1. What are the sport’s dominant economic features?

a) Analysis of market size (participants, spectators, TV audience, sponsors) of the sport

b) Life cycle and growth analysis

2. What are the sports’ strengths and weaknesses and its opportunities and threats?

a) SWOT Analysis

3. What are the trends/drivers of change in the sport industry and what impact will they have?

a) Trend analysis

4. Which sports are in the strongest/weakest competitive positions?

a) Strategic Group Mapping

Step 2: Strategic Analysis of the sport’s competitions/events

1. What is competition like and how strong are each of the competitive forces?

a) Competitor analysis

b) Porter’s industry structure analysis

2. How strong is the competition’s competitive position?

a) Boston Consulting Group Matrix

3. What strategic issues need to be addressed?

a) Identification of main strategic issues

Step 3: What strategic options does the governing body realistically heave?

a) Setting of SMART objectives

b) Identification of all possible strategic option

c) Discussion of all strategic option with main advantages/disadvantages

Step 4: What are the best strategy and the appropriate structure?

a) Selection of the best strategy

b) Matching strategy with the appropriate structure

Source: Model adapted from Thompson & Strickland (1998) for new emerging sports

The methodology has its origin in a framework developed by Thompson and Strickland (1998), which has the

purpose to conduct an industry and competitive analysis for private corporation. It has been modified and adapted in

this paper to the world of sport and Futsal in particular.


10. Lessons Learned There are a number of lessons that could be learned from conducting this analysis. Firstly, it is essential to follow a

rigid, systematic structure to assess a new emerging sport, as an evaluation requires following an objective approach

without relying too much on subjective views (which will always be present to a certain degree). Each sport

executive who has to conduct such an analysis will struggle to approach “his” or “her” sport with an objective,

neutral approach, without seeing the sport in a biased way. This requires to base as much of the strategic analysis on

collected facts and data.

Which brings us to the second lesson to be learned: Finding the relevant data and facts in a new sports is extremely

difficult, as the organisations involved are often new start-ups and not yet working in a professional way. It is key

for each new association to collect the data and statistics right from the beginning. In the case of Futsal, UEFA as a

professional association was able to provide a large amount of data and figures, but this might not always be true for

all sports.

The third lesson learned is that no matter how objective and rational a strategic analysis has been done and

recommendations have been made, the implementation of the strategies will always depend on the political will of

senior executives. With the right support from senior decision makers, the strategy can go a long way in achieving

the stated objectives, while a lack of support can in fact be hindering to the development of the sport.


11. Literature 1. Literature related specifically to Futsal

Ashby, B. (2002), “Driving Futsal forward”, 5 November 2002, uefa.com

Burns, T. (2003), Holistic Futsal, ISBN: 1-4116-0453-9

FIFA (June 2000)“Attractive and spectacular: the future belongs to Futsal”, FIFA Magazine June 2000

FIFA (February 2000) “Guatemala: Futsal against drugs and violence”, FIFA Magazine February 2000

FIFA (December 2001) “Futsal is growing up”, FIFA Magazine December 2001

FIFA (May 2001) “Approximately 250 million footballers worldwide”, FIFA News May 2001

futsal5.de, UEFA Futsal Chef Petr Fousek „Nur eine Frage der Zeit...“, futsal5.de news

Murphy, P. (2003),”Transplanting the Beautiful Game”, Soccer Review 2002

Sanderson, P. (2004), “Fousek on the rise of Futsal”,12 January 2004, uefa.com

SFL (2003) „Die Stärken des Futsal“, Swiss Futsal League Magazine August/November 2003

UEFA (2003/04), “First Division Clubs in Europe, Address List 2003/04”, UEFA publication

UEFA (2003) “The rise of Futsal”, UEFA European Futsal Championship 2003, Official Programme

UEFA (2003) “Futsal Fever”, UEFA European Futsal Championship 2003, Official Programme

UEFA (August 2002) “Futsal in the spotlight”, 6 August 2002, uefa.com

UEFA (November 2001) “Futsal set for Olympics”, 28 November 2001, uefa.com

2. Literature related to other new sports and the promotion of new leagues

Abbott, P.D. (2001), Antitrust and Sport – Why Major League Soccer succeeds where other sport leagues have

failed

Anderson, K.L. (1999), “Snowboarding: The construction of gender in an emerging sport”, Journal of Sport and

Social Issues 1999, 23, 55-57

Gladden, J.M., Irwin, R.L., Sutton, W.A. (2001), Managing North American Major Professional Sport Teams in

the New Millennium: A focus on building brand equity, Journal of Sport Management, 2001, 15, 297-317

Gibbins, J. (1996) “Snowboarding”, Parragon Books Ltd

Heino, R. (2000), New Sports: What is so punk about snowboarding?, Journal of Sport & Social Issues, Volume 24,

No 2, May 2000, pp. 176-191

FIVB (1997), „Beach Volleyball – Get involved“, published by FIVB

Fournier, S., Greyser, S., Schulman, S. (2002), Introducing…The XFL, Harvard Business School Press, July 15,

2002

Keller (1998), WTO, 1st Congress on Snow and Winter Sports, Andorra 1998

Krohn, O. (1994), “Adventure Sports – Beach Volleyball”, Meyer & Meyer Verlag

McKinsey (2004), Playing to win in the business of sport, The McKinsey Quarterly June 2004

Smith, S., Feineman, N. (1988), “Kings of the Beach - The Story of Beach Volleyball”, Power Books Division of

Computh!nk. Inc


3. Literature related to relevant management theory

Cravens, D.W. (1997), Strategic Marketing, Irwin McGraw-Hill

Lehmann, D.R., Winter, R.S. (1994), Product Management, Category Attractiveness Analysis,

Mauws, M.K., Mason, D.S., Foster, W.M. (2003), Thinking Strategically about Professional Sports, European

Sport Management Quarterly 2003, 3, 145-164

Minzberg, H. (1994), The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. New York: Prentice Hall

Porter, M.E. (1980), Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, New York: Free

Press.

Porter, M.E. (1995), What is strategy, Harvard Business Review, 74 (6), pp. 61-78

QuickMBA (2004), BCG Growth-Share Matrix, www.quickmba.com/strategy/matrix/bcg/

Slack, T. (1997), Understanding Sport Organizations, The Application of Organisational Theory, Human Kinetics

Thompson & Strickland (1998), Strategic Management, 10th edition

Tutor2u (2004), Product Portfolio Strategy, www.tutor2u.net/business/strategy/bcg_box.htm

Documents

Kaestner Project - Promotion of Futsal in Europe