Technical Director, Sporting Director, and Directors of Football

Executive summary

• Technical Director protects identity and pathway.
• Sporting Director runs the squad and the trading cycle.
• Director of Football aligns football with the board and allocates resources.
• Large clubs layer roles. Smaller clubs streamline proportionally.
• Recruitment is visible; governance must remain clear.
• Tenure is short. Stability comes from deputies and decision rights.

Introduction

Modern football separates technical, sporting, and strategic functions. The three roles operate as a system. Boundaries must be explicit to protect identity and strategy when coaches change.

See also: English Football Finances 2024–25, for the financial context underpinning decisions.

Technical Director

The Technical Director is the guardian of identity and pathway. They ensure alignment from academy to first team through philosophy and methodology.

Responsibilities & qualifications

Sporting Director

The Sporting Director runs the squad and the trading cycle. They oversee recruitment, renewals, exits, and portfolio balance.

Responsibilities & qualifications

Related: Navigating Managerial Change

Director of Football

The Director of Football sits above technical and sporting roles, linking football to board strategy, resources, and governance across all programmes.

Responsibilities & qualifications

Scale & structural examples

Structure depends on scale. Larger clubs often carry all three roles. For example, Manchester United have Jason Wilcox as Director of Football (formerly Technical Director) and Christopher Vivell as Director of Recruitment. This followed Dan Ashworth’s exit as Sporting Director and suggests a clearer sporting structure.

Smaller clubs usually streamline. They may use one of these roles rather than all three. The trade-off is cost and clarity versus resilience and redundancy.

European benchmarks

Football Benchmark’s survey of Sporting Directors across the Big Five leagues provides helpful context. Use these numbers as signals.

Source: Football Benchmark. Mapping Sporting Directors across Europe’s Big Five. July 2025.

Transparency, recruitment, and role blending

Some clubs blend roles or domains under one leader. That requires clarity, especially when public scrutiny focuses on recruitment.

The role’s origin was custodian: operations, recruitment, academy, women’s, medical, first team. Strategy is the axis. Frequent change erodes that design.

The path into these roles often runs via ex-players, heads of recruitment, or academy staff. Top operators may be overlooked. Hiring based on trend, not due diligence, adds to churn in roles meant to endure.

Decision rights & governance

Assign each decision once. Publish thresholds for transfers, contracts, and strategy. Keep clarity public.

Operating system

Core KPIs

• Availability for core and baseline players
• Pathway minutes for club developed & U23
• Churn control year on year
• Squad cost ratio (wages + amortisation + fees)
• Contract risk weighted by role importance
• Transfer yield across cycles

Cadence

• Monthly performance council
• Quarterly review of squad & cost envelope
• Pre-window plan and post-window audit

Conclusion

The Sporting Director role started as a custodial position above the head coach. It integrated recruitment, academy, women’s, medical, performance. Today, recruitment dominates perception. Trend-driven hiring has shortened tenure. Written decision rights and cadence protect continuity.

Daunté Crawford is conducting Master of Sports Directorship research exploring structures that shape winning teams.

Key takeaways

• Define roles and publish decision rights.
• Align structure to club scale. Layer roles only where needed.
• Design for resilience with deputies and succession.

Further reading

• English Football Finances 2024–25
• Navigating Managerial Change in Football