Van Hees Strategic Advisory
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Macro-economic Consultation
From Survival to Sustainable Wealth Growth
In most football organizations, the entire annual budget is immediately consumed by operational expenses. Consequently, essential concepts such as saving, strategic investment, and capital growth are missing from the current management culture. However, a healthy organization always maintains a professional treasury as a reserve for unforeseen times.
At Van Hees Strategic Advisory, we go significantly further: we do not only teach organizations how to build reserves, but we help them realize a robust capital ecosystem.
We advise football organizations to structurally allocate 5% of their annual budget for strategic investments with a long-term horizon of at least ten years.
The 5% Rule: Strategic Capital Allocation
Before looking outside the organization, capital should be deployed to strengthen the core of the club:
The Owned Stadium: The stadium represents the most important asset and the financial foundation of the organization. It offers full control over operations and generates new revenue streams outside of match days.
The Football Academy as a Value Factory: A focused policy for scouting and training is the most powerful form of value creation. From an accounting perspective, youth academies cost almost nothing, while the sporting and financial appreciation of homegrown talent is unparalleled. There is almost no other market in which value can be created so easily: a youth player costs little upfront, but as soon as he reaches the first team and gains minutes, his market value skyrockets by tens if not hundreds of thousands of euros.
Responsibility & Loyalty: Young players spend a large portion of their youth at the club. They enter as children and often leave as adults. A close, almost parental bond develops with coaches and club staff. After all, they often spend more time at the club than at home. At Van Hees Strategic Advisory, we believe that this relationship can be utilized even more intensively. Clubs invest a tremendous amount of time in the sporting aspect, but performance on the pitch only truly accelerates when personal guidance is broadened.
When a youth player breaks through, he suddenly earns large sums of money. Often, a player is blamed if he goes off the rails financially, but the problem lies in the lack of education. If a player spends most of his youth at a club, the responsibility also lies there to prepare him for fame, attention, and asset management. By including financial literacy in the training, loyalty increases. Players stay with the club longer when conditions and trust are optimal. Staying longer is better for the player's playing time and maturation; for the club, it ensures maximum value creation during an eventual transfer.
Phase 1: Investing in the Internal Organization (Core Assets)
Before looking outside of the organization, capital must be deployed to strengthen the core of the club:
The owned stadium represents the most important asset and the financial foundation of the organization, providing control over operations and generating new income streams outside match days. Additionally, the football academy functions as a value factory; a focused policy for scouting and training is the most powerful form of value creation. Youth academies cost almost nothing accounting-wise, while the sporting and financial value increase of homegrown talents is unparalleled.
Phase 2: External Asset Diversification (Wealth Building)
Once the foundation is established, the reserved 5% is deployed into hard, value-retaining, and fast-growing assets:
Strategic Spread: Investments in assets such as physical gold, silver, Bitcoin, real estate, and high-quality stock portfolios focus on long-term value preservation and a solid return.
The Cumulative Effect: Because this capital is separate from daily operations, it can generate returns undisturbed for ten years. Reallocating 5% of the budget annually can result in tens of millions of euros in capital growth over a decade-long period.
Sponsor Synergy: A smart club incorporates this 5% directly into future sponsorship agreements. Sponsors are more inclined to contribute a few extra percent if a club transparently demonstrates that these funds are used for sustainable capital accumulation and the future of the club.