Effective governance through human resources : international experience in career development of football administrators in Poland

The internationalisation of professional football, in terms of players’ and coaches’ migration, is an important and a well-studied phenomenon. In contrast, hardly anything is known about the international experience of people managing this industry. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the internationalisation of careers of football administrators in Poland. To this goal, a mixed method approach was applied. In the first stage, a quantitative content analysis of football administrators’ profiles available on LinkedIn was conducted to estimate the scale and forms of international experience in the profession. In the second stage, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 administrators to investigate possible outcomes of their international experiences on their careers and their organisations. The interviews were analysed through the lens of career capital concept. The main conclusion to emerge from the study is that an international experience is highly valued by football administrators themselves and has the potential to advance both their careers and the football industry. However, in the Polish context, the phenomenon is limited in scale and forms, and its positive impact is hampered by the specific business culture prevailing in the sport.