EXCLUSIVE: Ramon Vega: Rugby World Cup technology shows Football the way forward

With the Rugby Union World Cup under way, it’s a good time to reflect on what football can learn from other sports.

I come at this topic from a pretty open-minded position given my own background in a different game: ice hockey!

The truth is I almost swapped a career on the football pitch for one on the ice.  I grew up very near the rink in Olten in Switzerland where one of the big teams played and used to head there to play after school in winter.

When I was around 17 I was given the opportunity to sign a professional NHL deal for Montreal.  The flights were booked. It was a tough and very close decision but in the end I chose football and a week later signed with Grasshoppers in Zurich. I sometimes wonder now what would have happened if I had chosen ice hockey!

But back to the rugby and one thing that impresses me in that sport is the way they have embraced technology. It is an example we should follow, using technology more widely, instead of limiting ourselves just to goal-line incidents. The technology is there, why not use it? Businesses are constantly pushing the tech boundaries and football should be doing the same.

Many have emphasised the respect for the referee that underpins so much of the interaction between players and officials on the rugby pitch. It is certainly admirable but here it is difficult to draw too close a parallel because of the fundamental differences between football and rugby.

There is so much fierce physical contact in rugby and that provides channels for aggression when things get heated. In football, you can’t just go and clobber your opponent when passions run high, so often frustrations boil over and manifest themselves when controversial refereeing decisions are made.

But in a way, this is another argument for greater use of video technology - if we had more technology to help referees then that would eliminate most cases of dissent as there would be nothing to argue about.

Much is made of the rugby ‘Third Half’ in the bar after games when opposing players can set aside any differences they had on the pitch and share a beer together. This did exist in football a few decades back but was already disappearing when I started playing.

It was more a case of getting your media commitments done and getting on the team bus. There was still respect between opponents and I always had a good relationship with the French players at Arsenal. We’d go out for dinner together sometimes but the reality is that straight after a hotly contested derby defeat the last thing you want to do is stick around for a drink in the stadium.  

As far as American sports are concerned, there is definitely a lot we can learn, such as they way they maximise different commercial streams. Especially in the Premier League, we have become too reliant on one source of income- TV rights.

In the States, they are masters at exploring all possible options when it comes to driving earnings up. You only have to try to get a beer before half-time and queue for 25 minutes at an English stadium to realise sports in the US are miles ahead on this front.

I also think that clubs here could be much more creative and adventurous in the way they reward fans for their loyalty, with discounts on season tickets and other incentives provided in the same way shoppers get loyalty points at supermarkets, for example.

Another concept I think the Premier League could import from the US is the Rooney Rule, which gives greater opportunities to coaches from minority groups. The Football League are planning to introduce this system, yet the Premier League should be leading the way, as more needs to be done to ensure there are equal chances for coaches to develop.

Wage caps in theory make sense and I do think there would be no harm in looking at how football could benefit from them, although I also accept there are inevitable issues with the practicality of enforcing a cap across different countries with varying degrees of wealth.

You certainly could not have a cap in England and then unrestrained spending in Spain. However, there might be a way certain elements- such as attendances and TV rights revenues – are factored in to ensure a fair and specially tailored cap is set for each individual club.

Finally, it may surprise a few people but I believe that even the much-maligned system in the US whereby promotion and relegation are scrapped has something to offer. With spiralling parachute payments, the gulf between the Premier League and Championship is only going to widen with time, thus effectively creating a ‘closed door’ effect anyway.

There is certainly nothing to lose by challenging accepted wisdom, thinking outside the box and exploring alternatives to the status quo.

Ramon Vega is a versatile high-flying executive with a comprehensive track record of driving commercial success in finance, property and football with national, international and World Cup experience as captain of the Swiss National Team in 1994. Proven experience in managing $billion funds in the asset management industry as well as a turnaround specialist who combines financial and business acumen, Ramon has a flair for inspiring others to exceed their own expectations. Follow him on Twitter here @Ramon_Vega71  (http://frompitchtoboardroom.com)

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