Key Considerations for Sports Organisations on Senior Executive Pay

Senior executive remuneration in sport remains a hot topic of conversation and organisations and executives alike need to be alive to the complexities and considerations involved in setting executive pay within the sector. Sports organisations and the executives that they employ can often face a unique challenge due to the inherent tension between the commercial reality of modern sport and, in some cases, its amateur roots.  It is important to remember that a number of sports in the UK have only been fully professional for the last 30 or so years and yet the sector is now a global multi-billion-dollar industry^[1].

Employers within the sector can also include a wide variety of commercial and not-for-profit entities, ranging from governing bodies to clubs listed on stock markets and teams backed by private equity investment. Different types of sports organisations will adopt different approaches to remuneration, and it is therefore not possible to apply a one-size-fits-all all approach.  The thoughts below therefore seek to set out some of the general principles and approaches that we see when advising both sports organisations and the senior executives who work for them.

For the purposes of this article, ‘senior executive’ refers to the most senior employees within an organisation, such as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the Chief Operating Officer (COO). In a sporting context, this group might also include individuals such as the Chief Performance Officer (for example, The FA’s Chief Football Officer) or the Chief Technical Officer, which is common in motor racing.

This article looks at:

• Senior Executive Remuneration
  • Annual Salary
  • Bonus / Short Term Incentives
  • Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP)
• Remuneration Committee
• Retention and Benefits
• Reputation
• Concluding comments