Football Development Institute
Institute

Vision

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The world of football needs serious intellectual reform, leading to a complete change in perception, interpretation, solutions, mechanisms and attitudes within dozens of the most important areas of this game.

Despite spreading the myth about a high stage of evolution, professional football in the broad context of intellectual, strategic, sports, organizational, football management, communication, marketing and financial layers has been reduced to the state of a primitive sport, hidden behind a mask of glitz, excellent infrastructure and flashy promotion.

The diagnosis made by Marcin Gabor is based on fifteen years of observation, analysis, work, defining knowledge, gathering experience, as well as creating original concepts and content-related structures. Evaluation itself does not make the antidote, which is why Marcin Gabor established the Football Development Institute, and built the organization – conceptually, structurally and in terms of the projects implemented – on the basis of his own “Football Identity”.

Marcin Gabor

Educational, development
and research institution

We are the institution founded on the self-defined “Football Identity”. This means that all projects have been based on the own football intellectual foundations, as well as typical definitions, concepts and models of FDI. The main goal of FDI is to raise the level of football over the next dozen years.

In order to achieve all the objectives (main | specific) you need a multifaceted approach, taking into account multiple levels of influence. We pursue our mission on the basis of a “Complementary plan”, consisting of four conceptual elements:

 


We plan education for the following specialized roles:

Board Member
Strategy Specialist
Administration Specialist
HR Specialist
Sports Director
Coach
Fitness Coach
Goalkeeper Coach
Analyst
Scout
Sports Psychologist | Mental Coach
Head of the Academy | Youth Development Coordinator
other roles in the sports department & Academy
Communication Specialist
Marketing Specialist
Finance Specialist
Legal Specialist
Compliance Specialist
Football Journalist

Institute Profile

Every tree grows stronger by holding on to the same roots over and over again. Football Development Institute has ideological references in the following areas:


General values
  • integrity
  • respect
  • personal manners
  • professionalism
  • dedication
  • discipline
  • consistency
  • determination
  • credibility
  • hard work
Institution characteristics
  • own convictions
  • loyalty to own convictions
  • solid content foundations
  • intellectual cause-and-effect sequence
  • precise project structure
  • detailed concept
  • purposeful actions
  • competence
  • premium quality
  • elite education, development and research institution
Football DNA
  • football is complex and complicated
  • football is an extremely team-based sport - not the player, but the team as a unit
  • tactics (team tactics) as the most important element - affects all on-field and off-field aspects
  • Game Model is the starting point for all thoughts, concepts and actions
  • there are two phases of play in football
  • quality of a player's performance depends on the quality of the team's performance | individual skills have the least impact on the structure and quality of the team's performance
  • every development is a long-term process
  • team development is based on raising team's tactical organization and areas that support team's tactical organization
  • players' development is only possible through team development
  • it is the realization that is evaluated, not the effect
Definition of success
  • loyalty to own convictions
  • implementation of scheduled courses for Specialists
  • effective educational process
  • support in the development a certain number of Clubs
  • status of an opinion-making institution
  • achieve the reputation of a competence center
  • impact on changing the way of thinking about football
  • restore football as a team-based sport
  • operations all over Europe
  • impact on "Football Level Identification Indicators" - raising the level of the entire football
FDI as an employer
  • character, professionalism, potential, not experience is what matters
  • demanding towards Employees
  • first the person, then the team, finally the Employee
  • necessity to work out own position
  • unconditional requirement to identify with the Institute Profile and the "Football Identity of FDI"
  • high loyalty to the Employee
  • individual development path of the Employee
  • opportunity to advance in the hierarchy
  • numerous non-material benefits
  • progressive wage increases
Social aspects
  • high sensitivity to community and social problems
  • strong accent on the Employees development
  • participation in recruitment processes with no experience required
  • opening up opportunities for young people to work together - helping them get on the professional track
  • clear criteria for evaluating Employees
  • promoting attitudes that enhance human dignity
  • various forms of support for anyone interested in attending educational events of FDI
  • unconventional education as a factor in building human independence
  • providing support to find a job
  • on-time coverage of bills to external contractors

Original identity

The identity of the Institute is based on original “Football Identity of Marcin Gabor,” who argues that without own professional content identity, there is no autonomy, high quality, independence, development and controlled perspective.

Marcin Gabor
The Author of Institute Concept

“Football identity”, in the opinion of Marcin Gabor, consists of three areas:

1
Personal foundation
2
Football intellectual foundations
3
Content module

Personal foundation comprises six segments, characterising the approach to own Specialist role and acting in the football world through the lens of personality. Football intellectual foundation is the entirety of reflections, understanding, convictions, knowledge and vision within 25 key areas of football.

According to Marcin Gabor’s thesis, the Personal foundation (6 directions) and the Football intellectual foundations (11 directions) are the starting point for the Content module, which is the totality of derivatives – specific to a person or sports organization: definitions, concepts, models, methodology, mechanisms, planning, criteria, and also verification. Sum of these components forms the “Football Identity”.

All Football Development Institute projects arise from the characteristic individual “Football Identity of FDI”. We are unconditional opponents of stereotypes, trends, copying solutions. When you undertake cooperation with our Institute, you not only gain a detailed and proven knowledge, but also get to know an interpretation of football that is unprecedented anywhere else.


Here are the individual elements, having as their foundation the "Football Identity of FDI":
  • content concept of FDI
  • educational programs
  • Specialist courses
  • advisory
  • mentoring programs
  • "Club Development Model of FDI"
  • "Club Development Areas"
  • "Club Development Formula"
  • Clubs' development concepts
  • public content
  • publications
  • research projects
  • "Education platform of FDI"

Football Competence Centre

FDI has the ambition to become the Football Competence Center, with operations all over Europe.

 

 

Achieving the reputation of European Competence Center is a perspective specific goal, intended – alongside other assumptions – to lead to improve the level of football by affecting its content areas. The status of Competence Center means that FDI will be able to answer and find solutions to every problem that occurs in football in the broadest sense. We are starting with a large resource of knowledge, experience and original projects, but we need time to build a complete system.



Elite nature of FDI

Football Development Institute is an elite enterprise with many distinguishing features:


  • own "Football Identity"
  • idea of FDI
  • Institute Profile
  • know-how not found elsewhere
  • structured football intellectual foundation
  • radically different way of football understanding and game understanding
  • own Theory of Tactics
  • specific football DNA
  • original definitions, concepts, models, methodology, mechanisms, criteria
  • innovative and multi-level educational programs for Specialists
  • high standard of educational events
  • long-term advisory and mentoring plan for Graduates
  • recruitment process to select Participants in educational programs
  • final exams for Participants of educational programs
  • original "Club Development Model"
  • precisely constructed "Club Development Formula"
  • wide range of services for Clubs
  • complex and non-standard Club development projects
  • evaluation of the Club before support
  • prestige of education and cooperation under the auspices of FDI
  • certificate of cooperation with FDI as an equivalent of the quality mark

Complementary plan


In order to set your path, you need to know where you are heading. Football Development Institute seeks to positively modify the level of football through progress in many content segments, using the complementary impact principle. The formula we have planned looks as follows.


Content-based communication

In parallel with educational, advisory, mentoring, development and research activities, we use other ways to put the foundation for the main goal. Among these are strategic communication through our own channels, publications – in the form of articles, books and summaries of research projects, expert speeches, as well as media statements. A variety of platforms for precise communication make it possible to clarify logical errors and the fragmentary nature of trends in football, to present and consolidate the principals of the “Football Identity of FDI”, and to provide arguments confirming the correctness of the articulated concepts. Long-term content-based communication affects the recognition of the Institute, makes FDI an opinion-making authority, causes reflection and a successive change in the football understanding, arousing the interest of future Graduates and Clubs open to development.

Education of Specialists

Each Specialist, educated by FDI, is another person in the football community, knowing the “Football Identity” of the Institute and seeing football away from common trends. Graduates – who are employed in traditionally managed Clubs – do their work according to FDI standards, presenting correct operational directions and improving quality within the limits of their duties. Specialists certified by the Football Development Institute pass on the knowledge and standards gained in the education process. Due to their different approach, they create interest in their professional environment, automatically make them think and cause a change of thinking in some of their immediate environment. They also persuade people to participate in the Institute’s educational programs and events. Our “alumni” become multipliers for building proper awareness, correct football understanding, popularizing new content canons and creating correct standards, so they contribute to the evolution of various areas of football themselves. At the same time, they develop an individual “Football Identity”.

Club development

Based on the implementation of specific content services, a process of multi-level development of the partner Club takes place. Professional cooperation leads to a change in the thinking of board members, department heads and specialists in the context of football understanding, as well as the evolution of the Club. Extensive support from the Institute, based on the “Club Development Model of FDI”, determines the operation of the football Club, transforming our Partner into football organization of a new format with an individual identity. Thanks to the higher awareness of board members, development is recognized and cultivated. FDI-certified Clubs are transferring knowledge assets to new employees who previously had no contact with the Institute. The structural and content transformation of the Club, its professionalization, as well as new standards of operations are quickly noticed by competitors. This gives us an opportunity to develop more Clubs. At the same time, the board members of conventional football Clubs are receiving education. They introduce the acquired awareness and knowledge resource to their Clubs, taking the first step on the path of modernization. The next step is to invite the Football Development Institute.

Analysis & Research

An important aspect of the “Complementary plan” is the collection of information and data, providing evidence for the correctness of the content convictions of FDI, as well as confirming the common misconception of football nowadays. The arguments collected are used by the Football Development Institute – to support its own theses – as part of ongoing external communications and publications, during webinars, conferences, in-person courses or online courses, as well as while working with clubs, so that there is a strengthened effect of the conceptual and content message. Fact gathering is carried out in the mode of analytical and research activities, and another key initiative in this context is the Europe-wide research projects of the FDI. Research projects make the Institute widely recognized and contribute to become an opinion-making institution. The “Analysis & Research” department also performs analysis for European Clubs based on the proprietary “Complex Analysis Concept of FDI”, implementing the plan to develop its own analytical brand at the ELITE level. Provided alternative analytical interpretation brings to the Clubs a completely different way of football understanding, game understanding, team and player development.

Learn more about the Institute's goals

Goals