Manager (association football) explained

In association football, a manager is an occupation of head coach in the United Kingdom responsible for running a football club or a national team. Outside the British Isles and across most of Europe, a title of head coach or coach is predominant.


The manager's responsibilities in a professional football club usually include (but are not limited to) the following:

Some of the above responsibilities are shared with the director of football or sporting director, and are at times delegated to an assistant manager or club coach.

Additionally, depending on the club, some minor responsibilities include:

These responsibilities are more common among managers of small clubs.

European and North American managers

The title of manager is almost exclusively used in British football.[1] In the majority of European countries where professional football is played, the person responsible for the direction of a team is awarded the position of coach or "trainer". For instance, despite the general equivalence in responsibilities, Bobby Robson was referred to as the manager of England, while Joachim Löw was described as the head coach of Germany (Germany also has a team manager role that is subordinate to the head coach and that is filled by Oliver Bierhoff).

The responsibilities of a European football manager or head coach tend to be divided up in North American professional sports, where the teams usually have a separate general manager and head coach (known as a field manager in baseball), although occasionally a person may fill both these roles. While the first team coach in football is usually an assistant to the manager who actually holds the real power, the American-style general manager and head coach have clearly distinct areas of responsibilities. For example, a typical European football manager would have the final say on in-game decisions (including player line-ups), and off-the-field and roster management decisions (including contract negotiations). In American sports, these duties would be handled separately by the head coach and general manager, respectively.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Manager or Coach?. Football Italia. 5 September 2008. 30 January 2011.