Powerleague is a leading operator of

small sided football Five-a-side football is a version of minifootball, in which each team fields five players (four outfield players and a goalkeeper). Other differences from football include a smaller pitch, smaller goals, and a reduced game duration. Matches are ...

artificial pitch Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commerc ...

es with 41 football centres in the UK, Ireland and Netherlands, based in

Fitzrovia Fitzrovia () is a district of central London, England, near the West End. The eastern part of area is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urban ...

, London in England. It has an exclusive playing surface called “Power Pitch” which it claims to be the best artificial playing surface in the industry. It also has a successful league operations arm called Powerplay which runs and manages leagues in over 300 locations across the UK for both football and netball leagues. Power League - geograph

Origins

In 1987 Keith Rogers opened the world’s first commercial 5-a-side football centre in Paisley under the brand name of Pitz,. He built a successful business with 11 centres and a site pipeline before selling the profitable business to 3i who rebranded the business as Powerleague. Rogers immediately went on to found the highly successful rival business,

Goals Soccer Centres Goals Soccer Centres (trading as Goals) is an operator of dedicated 5-a-side football centres based in Glasgow, with 45 locations in the UK and four in Los Angeles. History The origins of the industry go back to 1987 when Keith Rogers, co-foun ...

. In 2002, after the business went into decline under new management, 3i approached

Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Claude Littner Claude Littner (born 4 May 1949) is an American-born British business executive and the former chairman of Viglen, Powerleague, ASCO and Azzuri Communications. He is also the Deputy Chairman of Blacks Leisure and former chief executive of Tot ...

to take over the executive role. In 2003, Littner lead a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...

of the firm, leaving 3i with a minority stake. Having listed on the

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...

, in 2008 Powerleague took over the Soccerdome centres from

JJB Sports JJB Sports plc was a British sports retailer. On 24 September 2012, shares in JJB Sports were suspended, and the firm called in administrators. On 1 October 2012, it was announced that Sports Direct had purchased part of the business, includ ...

in a £17.4M deal.

Private company

In 2018, three new board directors were appointed to steer the company through the CVA progress and lead the subsequent turnaround. Christian Rose, a turnaround specialist, was appointed as CEO, along with Mike Evans as CFO and John Gillespie as COO

Finances

Post the CVA in 2018, Powerleague has had a successful turnaround and in 2019 recorded revenues of over £28m with EBITDA of £2.8m.Daily Record, http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/business/company-results-forecasts/losses-narrow-five-a-side-football-centre-4434878

Branding

From 2019, the two main company brands now stand alone as Powerleague and Powerplay with unique brand identities.

References

{{reflist Youth football in the United Kingdom Football in Scotland Leisure companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Renfrewshire Companies formerly listed on the Alternative Investment Market