Lincoln City CEO: "We must never be a cold organization that makes decisions on a spreadsheet – but also we must never put the farm on red or black"

• Lincoln City have undergone a remarkable ascent from the National League to League One and now aims to establish itself as a self-sustaining Championship club.
• Chief Executive Liam Scully emphasizes the need to explore new markets for talent acquisition, as well as forming partnerships with innovative businesses.
• Why it matters: Numerous clubs experience a few years of extraordinary growth and may achieve promotions along the way. However, sustaining momentum and progressing to top leagues pose significant challenges.
• The perspective: How do you balance short-term commitments to maintain competitiveness on-the-pitch, while at the same time allocating resources to long-term projects?

By Kasper Kronenberg , Editor-in-Chief, Off The Pitch

Liam Scully, the 38-year-old Chief Executive of Lincoln City FC , is keen to avoid the fate of many executives at smaller and medium-sized clubs who become consumed by daily firefighting tasks. While acknowledging the importance of attending to daily operations, Scully emphasizes the need to allocate time for strategic development to propel the club forward.

However – it is a delicate balance between long-term thinking and short-term tasks.

“In order to succeed and to continue to punch above our weight we have to hit a very small sweet spot,” reflects Liam Scully in an interview with Off The Pitch .

He says that ultimately it is about developing a winning philosophy. Making sure that you have a football team capable of winning matches quite often between three and five pm on a Saturday afternoon.

“It might sound very obvious, since we are a football club, but the tricky part as an executive, and also for the ownership group, which has a big appetite for developing things, is not losing your sight on the job that we have to do week in and week out: winning football matches,” he says.

“You must never forget that this is a very, very competitive league, and if you lose that focus you will find yourself quickly back in League Two within a short period of time,” says Scully, who prior to joining Lincoln City spent 16 years in various roles at Doncaster Rovers and the wider Club Doncaster group.

He started as an apprentice funded by the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) graduating to a spell as Foundation Chief Executive then Chief Operating Officer of Club Doncaster.

The long-term goals

Today, being the Chief Executive at Lincoln City, currently ninth in the table with a six-point gap to sixth-placed Stevenage, Liam Scully is very much focused on getting that balance right between the long-term goals and the weekly pressure to deliver wins on a continued basis in League One.

“We have a responsibility to make sure that our first team - and all the brilliant people working with that team – has a training ground fit for purpose, and that they can also play in a stadium, where fans want to come and spend a cold evening or a sunny afternoon. So, we need to allocate capital into those projects, building the best possible infrastructure, because it must never be just about “how do we win tomorrow?,” he says.

Having said that he is also determined that he does not lose sight of the importance of winning that very next game coming up.

“If I allocated all my work into long-term projects, I honestly believe that we would have problems. We are not Real Madrid, Frankfurt or PSG, we are a small club on a small budget.

“That means every leader in this club has to manage their own expectations, because ultimately we are just temporary custodians. We play in an open league facing much bigger opponents, so in respect of that we have to be focused on all the small things in our operation, because we need to squeeze a few extra percentages out of all areas of the club. To do that you need to be present and focused and not be absent because you are working on a strategy that should help this club in seven or eight years.”

Scully says at the very center of everything you have an emotional sport, which is why all stakeholders want to be part of the club.

“Yes, we want to make decisions based on facts and have a thorough strategy that we all stick to, and at the same time we need to understand that all our stakeholders have tapped into all these emotions. We must never be a cold organization that makes decisions on a spreadsheet – but also we must never put the farm on red or black,” says Scully calling it “mid-term-thinking”, the exercise he is trying to do every day he walks into his office.

Scully and his team have achieved remarkable progress considering Lincoln City's humble beginnings just eight years ago. At that time, they played non-league football, trained at an army barracks and a local school field, and attracted crowds of only 2,000 or 3,000 to home games.

Talented individuals departing

Today, at the LNER Stadium with a capacity of nearly 11,000 supporters and an average attendance that hovers around 9,000 fans. Lincoln City has maintained its position in League One for the fifth consecutive season and came close to Championship promotion in 2021, narrowly losing the play-off final to Blackpool. The club's relatively new strategy aims for sustainable success in the Championship.

"We're in the early phase of a new six-year strategy period. While we've seen the football team achieve promotions, we've focused on ensuring the entire organization keeps pace," Scully explains.

Despite talented individuals departing for opportunities at clubs like Liverpool and in Formula One, Scully is proud of the club’s ability to develop personnel, which signals its status as a place for individual and leadership growth.

With a turnover of ￡6.9 million in the last financial year and significant growth over the past four to six years, Scully and the board, including major shareholder Harvey Jabara from the US, recognized the need for innovative approaches to further revenue growth.

"Since my arrival, revenues have increased by 214 per cent. However, relying solely on broadcasting, matchday, commercial, and transfer revenues won't be sufficient," Scully notes.

Eager to trial new technology

They've pinpointed two areas where they can gain an advantage over their League One competitors. Recently, they brought Jason Futers on board as Director of Innovation and Growth, a newly created role at the club.

"We're uncertain about the exact outcomes, but we see significant opportunities in this realm. While we aim to enhance our infrastructure across the board, achieving a substantial uplift might involve financial strain for about nine years, with the benefits realized in the tenth year," says Scully.

"Instead, Jason has innovative ideas for partnering with tech firms eager to trial new technology and services with a professional football club. By adopting this proactive approach, we hope to reduce costs in some areas and increase turnover in others."

Another area undergoing change is player recruitment for the first team. Despite maintaining a relatively small squad of around 24 players, they plan to expand their search for talent beyond the UK.

"Historically, we've recruited many players from Ireland, but post-Brexit, we're redirecting our focus elsewhere," Scully explains. "While we still prioritize English players, you'll see us signing players from other countries in the coming years. Although we can't divulge specifics yet, we're exploring this avenue and see promising opportunities to recruit top talent from leagues where League One teams typically don't recruit players."

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