From 'Fair Play' to 'Serious Play': Any Leadership Lessons from The Russian Football League?

Abstract

This paper builds on previous studies on the management and leadership, and the attendant insights that can be garnered from football – highlighting how this ‘perceived play’ has evolved into ‘serious play’ in the boardroom. Two academic papers (Madichie, 2009; Haskins, 2013) form the theoretical basis for investigating the Russian football League, and specifically CSKA Moscow, not just because the latter are the current champions of the Russian League, but more because of the seven long years it took the club to achieve such greatness under the leadership of Leonid Viktorovich Slutski.

Further insights are derived from non-academic spheres – e.g. Rogovitski (2013), who highlighted “seven reasons for CSKA’s regeneration” from grass, to grace. Finally some leadership caveats are anchored upon Littrell’s (2013) special issue in the Journal of Management Development, on “preferred explicit leadership preferences across cultures.” While that ‘special issue’ covered countries/cultures such as Turkey and Latin America, Russia, which provides a case illustration in this paper, was omitted.

Keywords: Football, Serious Play, Leadership and Management, CSKA Moscow, Russia

JEL Classification: J44, L830, M10, M120, M190