What is a Director of Football (DoF) and what is their role at a club

Right some clubs have a DoF and some dont but to be honest does anyone know the official role that they play?

what are they needed for if you have a manager who should surly be the one picking players etc

can someone with some knowledge please pass on what they do that a manager cant

to me it seems like an added expense clubs could do without.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Director_of_football

Right some clubs have a DoF and some dont but to be honest does anyone know the official role that they play?

what are they needed for if you have a manager who should surly be the one picking players etc

can someone with some knowledge please pass on what they do that a manager cant

to me it seems like an added expense clubs could do without.

Ajay all I see in DOF's is the disruption they can cause in the club, I agree with you the manager should be the one responsible for team selection and he should let the board know what players he requires for the club to succeed.

Ajay all I see in DOF's is the disruption they can cause in the club, I agree with you the manager should be the one responsible for team selection and he should let the board know what players he requires for the club to succeed.

This is plainly not true and a huge generalisation Billy.

Is there disruption at Bayern or Dortmund with Sammer and Zorc?

Monchi has Sevilla as a settled club with a clear vision and transformed them on a limited budget working with a number of Head Coaches.

Southampton have developed as a club using the system. Spurs, while maybe not pushing on, can change managers on a whim without it affecting their league positions too much.

To answer the question from my point of view a DoF or Sporting Director is hired to basically run the football affairs of a club and his remit is to work above and with the Head Coach in recruitment, youth policy etc etc.

I actually have always been one of the few on here who is a fan of the system as I think long term it can lead to a more settled football club as if the DoF gets his vision in place and it works you can change Head Coaches quite easily without it creating huge set backs.

I hope FSG are finally going to implement it as it is his they initially wanted to run the club.

Thanks mate I genually didnt know what it would involved which seems to be quite alot, my next question then is who is around at the moment if FSG choose to go down that route and would it spell the end of BR

Thanks mate I genually didnt know what it would involved which seems to be quite alot, my next question then is who is around at the moment if FSG choose to go down that route and would it spell the end of BR

The main guy being mentioned is Monchi from Sevilla. I posted a link about him in the backroom staff thread if you want a bit of background on him. I'm no massive expert on him by the way but most of us have followed Seville's success from a distance over he years and when I started to look at him in a bit more depth it shows what a class operator he appears to be.

I don't neccesarily think it spells the end for Brendan and actually if he gets his head around it and the DoF is one who thinks Brendan is worth working with then it could even be a positive for him.

I never got why this is less common in England. Most top clubs in the rest of Europe have one. If you look at the last 8 clubs in the CL this season, 7 of them currently have one. Only Real doesn't have one, after firing him last season when Atletico became champions. But they've been looking for a new sporting director since, and apparently Rafa wants one too.

I never got why this is less common in England. Most top clubs in the rest of Europe have one. If you look at the last 8 clubs in the CL this season, 7 of them currently have one. Only Real doesn't have one, after firing him last season when Atletico became champions. But they've been looking for a new sporting director since, and apparently Rafa wants one too.

I think the posts on here show that many in England just don't trust the system Bier.

I never got why this is less common in England. Most top clubs in the rest of Europe have one. If you look at the last 8 clubs in the CL this season, 7 of them currently have one. Only Real doesn't have one, after firing him last season when Atletico became champions. But they've been looking for a new sporting director since, and apparently Rafa wants one too.

Could you imagine the likes of Paisley, Clough, Shanks, Wenger, Ferguson all in their primes working under a DOF? I mean a DOF who is not a figurehead, but has an active role. I also agree that with the UK culture, managers were brought up to be in total control of managing day-to-day team affairs. And they could point to the success all those managers have had.

And I think DOF is the way to go now.

I never got why this is less common in England. Most top clubs in the rest of Europe have one. If you look at the last 8 clubs in the CL this season, 7 of them currently have one. Only Real doesn't have one, after firing him last season when Atletico became champions. But they've been looking for a new sporting director since, and apparently Rafa wants one too.

It's a mentality issue Bier. The people within the footballing circles all came up in the era when the manager was the gaffer and they ran everything. So when they get their chance to manage they feel undermined having the Sporting Director work above them. When they get sacked  those same people go on TV and the newspapers, they complain about the system. The average bloke picks up a magazine or tunes into Sky and they hear/read the person's complaint and they take it as gospel. It's going to take years of implementing the system and constantly pointing out the value of the Sporting Director to change people's (misinformed) impression of it.

This is plainly not true and a huge generalisation Billy.

Is there disruption at Bayern or Dortmund with Sammer and Zorc?

Monchi has Sevilla as a settled club with a clear vision and transformed them on a limited budget working with a number of Head Coaches.

Southampton have developed as a club using the system. Spurs, while maybe not pushing on, can change managers on a whim without it affecting their league positions too much.

To answer the question from my point of view a DoF or Sporting Director is hired to basically run the football affairs of a club and his remit is to work above and with the Head Coach in recruitment, youth policy etc etc.

I actually have always been one of the few on here who is a fan of the system as I think long term it can lead to a more settled football club as if the DoF gets his vision in place and it works you can change Head Coaches quite easily without it creating huge set backs.

I hope FSG are finally going to implement it as it is his they initially wanted to run the club.

I guess once again we have different viewpoints, you think you are right and I think my view is the correct one. As you say you are one of the few on here who is a fan of the system so I guess time will tell which system is the right one.