Football Club management technology system is a project work aimed at developing software that will enable football club register its players, coaches and the matches they play. Since information management system has been of great concern to organizations, keeping records properly, and prompt retrieval is a key issue in record keeping. Most often lost of vital documents are encountered, leading to poor management. But with proper football club management technology system, the club stands the chance of having up to date information on her players and coaches including matches played and the result. So this project work is designed to explore the possible means of implementing a football management information system using visual basic 6.0 as the platform for the software development. This study proves that information systems can facilitate football clubs in business processes and operations, internal communication and decision-making; furthermore, it supports football club business strategies and helps establish a powerful human resource management system.
1.1 Background of the Study
From the appearance of human language until the universal application of computer, mankind never stopped improving information technology. From the middle of last century people started associating information technology with computers. Nowadays, computers, data centres, servers, database management systems and specialized software applications are managed by information technology departments, systems and databases administrators. Information technology supports modern businesses and becomes an important part of life (Alliance, 2011).
An information system is regarded as a combination of information technology and human activities. It supports people in many fields such as operation, management and decision making. Usually information systems are categorized in three parts: Management Information System, Decision Support System and Executive Information System (James, 2000). Following the evolution of information technology, various information systems, such as data warehouses, enterprise resource planning and enterprise systems, expert systems, geographic information systems, global information systems and office automations have been emerged in the business world. Bill Gates (1999) said information system is the ―digital nervous system‖ of business. This means information system has an important role in modern business. As Bill Gates mentioned, business information system is a discipline with its mission to study the use of information system for business purposes. The research and application of business information system have become a meaningful issue, which involved many industries such as Manufacturing, Building, Transportation, Storage, Post, Finance, Wholesale and retail trade, Real estate, Accommodation and Catering, Services, Education, Health, social security and social welfare, Culture, Sports and Entertainment.
Football, as the most famous sport in the world and a new emerging industry, has an immeasurable impact on human life. For example, the World Cup 2006 in Germany captivated 3,359,439 spectators, who watched matches in 12 magnificent stadiums. Furthermore, estimated worldwide audiences were more than 3 billion. 32 teams from all over the world brought 64 matches and a 147-goal show (FIFA1, 2006). Meanwhile, World Cup 2006 influenced a hotel, retail and general consumption, which significantly increased during the championship. During and after this event, trillions of information and data were collected, stored, retrieved, distributed, compared and analyzed such as schedule planning, choosing a place for 64 matches, a composite 12 stadiums arranging, tickets selling to 3,359,439 spectators, hotels pointing for teams from 32 countries, TV agreements signing, matches results recording, players data counting, referees choosing, bonus setting, sponsors activities, etc.
Even though Football World Cup has great influence, it is held only once in each four years. Actually, professional football players are mainly playing and working for football clubs but not for the national teams. Football matches between different football clubs have dramatic influence. The origin of modern football – England football was restructured in 1992. Following the formation of the Premier League, the deal signing between the television and the Sky Satellite Company has announced that a modern football industry in England was established (Szymanski, et al., 1997).
There are 326,527 football clubs officially registered all over the world in FIFA (FIFA, 2011). Two hundred and sixty-five million male and female players in addition to five million referees and officials make a grand total of two hundred seventy million people are actively involved in the game of football. The amount of people is a four percent of the world's population (FIFA, 2011).
Generally, football clubs contain several teams and are responsible for their management. In England top clubs have at least three teams to attend various leagues at different levels: first team mainly plays in Premier league, The Football Association Challenge cup, Community Shield competition, European league; reserve team attends Barclays Premier Reserve League; youth team plays in Academy league and Youth cup. In Spain first teams of each football club attend Spanish league, Spanish cup and European league; B teams play in B-level league; youth teams also play in Youth cup. In Italy football clubs have more youth competitions than clubs from the other two countries.
Normally, one football season contains one national cup competition, one main international cup competition and many commercial exhibitions. Football club should organize around 80 games for the first team, including around 38 league games (for instance, 20 teams play in bi-circulating league), 10 international cup matches, around 10 national games, and countless commercial or friendly matches (at least 20). Besides, football clubs need to arrange many matches for reserve teams and youth competitions according to different age groups.
A football club is consisted by many organizations, which can be categorized in finance, marketing, public relations, service, medical, soccer, human resource, fans association sectors and so on. The targeted scope of each sector is large; their administration is more complex than other sports clubs. A profit of football club per year is incredible, for example, one of the richest worldwide football clubs from England - Manchester United‘s revenue in 2010 reached 156 million pounds (Stretty, 2011). Undoubtedly, administrating of 156 million pounds every year is a complex task for the finance department. Most famous football clubs, as known, have a history of almost one century, much longer than the biggest company in the world– Wal-Mart, which was founded in 1962 (Anon., 2008). For example, Real Madrid, which was formed in 1897 in Madrid, has more than 450 million fans worldwide (Real Madrid Club, 2011). Real Madrid club obviously has to consider different payment patterns in each country according to various situations and relevant online payment policies for its official online shops. For football clubs, establishing an overseas fans association to get supports from clubs‘ worldwide fans is a sensible choice to improve influence.
Football club singularity has been proven; football industry has confirmed its great influential position in human daily life. Information system application in football clubs should be regarded as an important subject of business information.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The research and application of information system in football clubs and the whole football industry are rare. On one hand, almost no general and integral football club-targeted information systems were developed; even not any detailed information system models for football clubs were designed. Because of the lack of basic information system models, it is even more impossible to run a suitable football club management system. On the other hand, without effective information system‘s support, it is obviously a challenge for managers to operate clubs.
So, this study could be interesting and useful in order to check information systems’ support and benefit in such a complex organization as a football club, which is a good area to test information systems’ abilities in different departments, such as sports, finance and so on. It would give a way to football club managers how to operate and improve their work in pursuance to solve or avoid some problems in various sectors.
1.3 Research Questions
The research tends to find answers to the following questions.
1.4 Objectives (Purpose) of the Project
This study is meant to help football club managers realize possible influence and significance brought by information systems; this study would be useful as a reference for football club managers and software developers when they try to establish or improve football club information system.
The objectives of the study include:-
1.5 Significance of the Study
This project will be useful to club managers as it will help to provide information on the clubs players, matches played and also the clubs performance.
It will also help club owners to access information concerning club performance and human resource management of the club.
In practice, it would help football clubs to establish or enhance their information systems. So, football club managers will be the main target group in practical area. Football club information system developers would be the second target group that will benefit from this system.
1.6 Scope and Limitations of Study
This scope of this study covers developing an information system for a football club which covers maintaining a database of the club members, players, coaches, matches, and match results.
The research was done in Oduduwa University Football Club. Obtaining the necessary materials, classified documents and other supports for the study was extremely difficult. Whatever is left out is as a result of time and finance.
1.7 Basic Assumptions/Hypotheses
A few numbers of research assumptions / hypothesis can be made in view of Implementation of a Football Club Management Technology System on Oduduwa University Football Club. In light of the research objective the following discussion will covers the hypotheses that this study will attempt to test.
H1: There is significant relationship between the use of information technology on football club management system of Oduduwa University Football Club and the club performance.
H2: Computerization affects football club management system efficiency of Oduduwa University Football Club.
H3: Information technology significantly affects the overall performance of football club in terms of information dissemination
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms
Data- This can be defined as facts about the organization and its business transaction.
Information- This can be defined as data that has been refined and organized by processing and purposeful intelligence.
Information system- This is an arrangement of people, data, processes and interface that interact to support and improve day to day operation in a business as well as support the problem solving and decision makes needs for management and users.
Management: It is the co-ordination of all the resources of an organization through the process of planning, organization, directing and controlling in order to attain organizational objectives.
Database: This refers to a large store of related data on a computer that a user can access and modify.
Password: This is a secret code that must be entered into a computer to enable access to its applications. It is made up of numbers, letters, special characters or a combination of any of the above categories.
Computerization: This is the conversion of a manually operated system to a controlled, organized and automated system.
Automation: This is the use of technology or computers to control and process data reducing the need for human intervention.
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