The League Managers Association (LMA) is the
trade union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
for
Premier League
The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
,
EFL and
national team
A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport.
The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...
managers in
English association football. The LMA awards the
LMA Manager of the Year award annually.
History
The union was founded in 1919 as the Football League Secretaries and Managers Association. Its membership grew gradually, reaching 223 in 1963, and 321 in 1974. In its early years, all of its members were men, with the first women joining in 1971.
Organisation
The League Managers Association is the collective, representative voice of all managers from the Premier League, the Sky Bet Championship and Sky Bet Leagues 1 and 2. The LMA lobbies with the expertise of their members on various matters to
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
's governing organisations. Representatives of the LMA now sit on various
Football Association
A football association, also known as a football federation, soccer federation, or soccer association, is a governing body for association football. Many of them are members of the sport's regional bodies such as UEFA and CONMEBOL and the world gov ...
panels charged with helping to run the game in
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. It was set up in 1992 during the period when
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
in England was undergoing major changes, including the split of the Premiership from the rest of the football league, and the introduction of
satellite television
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...
coverage of football by
Sky Television.
The president of the LMA is customarily the person serving as the manager of the
England national football team
The England national football team have represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by the Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Eng ...
, meaning that there is no current president. Its
chief executive
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization.
CEOs find roles in variou ...
is Richard Bevan, and the chairman is
Martin O'Neill
Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player who played as a midfielder. After a brief early career in the Irish Leag ...
.
LMA Institute of Leadership and High Performance
In April 2017, the LMA launched the LMA Institute of Leadership and High Performance. It was established to provide ongoing learning and continuous personal development to those working in professional football.
The LMA Institute of Leadership and High Performance encompasses the LMA Diploma in Football Management, which is accredited by the University of Liverpool and is joint funded by the League Managers Association, the Premier League, The Football Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association. The programme has been built after an extensive period of research and analysis across the professional game into the complexities and challenges faced by those who choose to build a career in football management and coaching. It is designed to be delivered on a modular basis, combining two residential summer schools and seven one-day workshops during the course of the year.
Controversy
In August 2014
Malky Mackay and
Iain Moody were accused of sending each other racist, sexist and homophobic text messages; the LMA defended Mackay by dismissing his action as "banter" in a press statement which was widely condemned. The LMA later apologised for this. There were calls for LMA chief executive Richard Bevan to resign as a result.
In popular culture
The LMA added their name to a series of football management simulation games,
LMA Manager series, for the
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...
, and for 2007 the
PC.
See also
*
List of current Premier League and English Football League managers
*
List of Premier League managers
*
List of EFL Championship managers
References
External links
*{{official website, http://www.leaguemanagers.com
Football organisations in England
Association football trade unions
Coaching associations
Sports organisations of the United Kingdom
Professional associations based in the United Kingdom