Sportino revitalises Regional Football Club

Northland Football Club Incorporated (Northland FC, the club) is a community owned regional sports organisation in Whangarei. The club changed its ownership model and name (from North Force) in 2016 to better reflect the region. Northland FC have implemented a forward-looking philosophy that sees the club as the pinnacle of the game in Northland with best practice in talent identification, coaching methods and operations management.  Northland FC have implemented this philosophy in multiple ways, ranging from good governance, to changing the culture around football development in the region by bringing in qualified coaches to produce high-quality junior (9-12 years old) and youth (13-17 years old) football programs. 

THE CHALLENGE: 
Northland FC embarked on new a five-year plan in 2016, with an aim to provide high quality football programs for junior, youth and senior players in the region. This required the transfer of existing programs run by the Northern Football Federation (NFF, now Northern Region Football).

Owen Liiv was hired by Sportino in March 2017 and appointed General Manager at Northland FC with a brief to oversee the day to day running of the club as well as building the infrastructure to incorporate 300 players aged 9 all the way through to the first team.

Following an initial consultation process with all Northland FC stakeholders, Sportino identified four areas to monitor and improve to achieve the goals in the club five-year plan:  
1. Governance & Strategy, 
2. Football Programs, 
3. Finance, 
4. Facilities

SOLUTION
Governance & Strategy Northland has twenty local football clubs that compete locally comprising just over 3,000 players at all ages and abilities, Northland FC sits above this as a regional representative club. The aim was to unite the clubs behind Northland FC and seek to improve delivery of the whole game at every club in the region.

Football Programs 
The national governing body, New Zealand Football (NZF), release regulations detailing requirements for club licencing. Sportino aimed to acquire the existing programs run by the NFF alongside meeting and exceeding club licencing requirements for each program. The youth program, known as the NFF Northland Talent Centre was first to transition in 2018, and the junior NFF Northland Skills Centre would follow in 2020.

Finance 
Northland FC was heavily reliant on one source of income in 2017, with sponsorship capabilities under capitalised and a low membership. The aim was to increase revenue streams through club membership and sponsorship, investing all proceeds into the club to improve the standard of coaching on the pitch and operations off of it.

Facilities 
Originally owned by Kamo Soccer Club & Tikipunga AFC (when it was known as North Force AFC), the club played their games at the grounds of these two clubs. In 2016 with the expanded membership Northland FC had grounds to play and train at but no ‘home ground’ to speak of, in addition to a limited number of compliant facilities. Work had begun at board level to create a Northland Football Hub in Tikipunga which continues to be an anchor base for the club. 

RESULTS
Northland FC will enter the 2022 season as a club equipped to compete at the highest youth levels nationwide, and over the last five years have improved the quality of football delivery in all four of its key areas. 

The club is governed by an elected board and are currently creating a new five-year plan for release in March 2022.



The club’s junior and youth programs have been accredited by NZF and a community coach education program for member clubs has been implemented, qualifying over 150 grassroots coaches in 2021 .

SafeClub changes QHSE incident reporting culture in Sport.

The Challenge

As an employer, Northland FC must comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. The club engaged with Sportino with a view to making it as easy as possible for it’s employees, players and supporters to report a workplace incident, near miss or observation and to monitor sports incidents attempting to establish common causes of injuries.Northland FC identified four areas to monitor following the launch of our SafeClub platform.
Workplace Incidents
Sports Related Injuries
Crowd/Club Behaviour
Reporting and Efficiency

The club manager monitors the SafeClub dashboard for the club and counts on it to inform him of incidents on and off the pitch as the club sees eight teams through as many as 150 games a season. The club has been able to capture most injuries across over the course of the 2018 season and closed 100% of workplace incidents reported.

Results

All sports reported incidents are sent to the club’s osteopath Neil Holmes, owner of The Holmes Clinic in Whangarei. Neil is notified of all sports incidents and follows up on cases, managing the player’s return to play programme if necessary. The club can analyse this data and identify trends among teams, locations and opposition.