ENTREPRENEURIAL PROGRAMMES FOR SPORTS PEOPLE – REVIEW EXERCISE.

1 March 2020 – 30 September 2020

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This international survey of approximately 400 young football players across 6 European national football associations asked players dozens of questions on their attitude towards their second career path. 

The target group was football players, age between 18 and 30, who are actively playing in professional and semi-professional teams and football leagues.

The survey was conducted in July 2020 among 395 football players. An online quantitative questionnaire, targeted at professional/semi-professional football players, was designed, and circulated among the football players across the countries.

The 328 participants in the survey provided complete responses, which are analysed in this report. The respondents were primarily:

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• residents of Slovenia (37%; n=122), North Macedonia (32%; n=106) and Azerbaijan (18%; n=60),

• male (83%; n=273),

• age between 16 and 30 (89%; n=293),

• paid by their clubs for playing football (73%; n=240), majority of which on a full-time basis (58%; n=135).

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The survey was designed specifically to gather the opinions of active young football players on their career after they stop playing football.

 
The results of the survey show that football players are interested in becoming entrepreneurs, whether as specialists, running community programmes, educational programmes, or non-profit organisations, becoming investors in start-ups or innovating products, services, and technologies. Players can use different skills during their entrepreneurship: discipline, teamwork, patience, respect, and resilience. 

In the light of the survey, we recommend providing football players with training in entrepreneurship, in order to provide a possible professional alternative after their football career, or to be able to approach the sports field from a business perspective during the time on the football field.

 

They would also appreciate mentoring support regarding their follow-on career and are willing to invest their time on training in the topic of entrepreneurship.

 

Becoming an entrepreneur represents not only an option to generate economic income, but also the possibility of professional growth, which is what would move the players most to participate in such courses.

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