Legal Project Management and football management

Mo’ Patel is a Vario Legal Project Manager (LPM) based out of Pinsent Mason’s Leeds office. However, in his spare time he is also a different kind of manager, a football manager. With the European Championships about to kick off in Germany, we thought there was no better time to sit down with Mo’ and reflect on how his passion for football and role as an LPM complement each other.

How did you get into football management?

During high school there was a free Level 1 Football Coaching course on offer by West Riding FA. I was only 1 of 2 attendees but I first grew my love of coaching on this course, and it was the start of my passion for football coaching.

Since then, I’ve coached at a wide range of levels starting off at grassroots level for my local club Savile Town FC. I then moved into open age coaching, coached a Women’s’ team and then moved back into Men’s first team football. I’m currently the manager of a step 6 (semi-professional) football club in the Northwest Counties Football League and Kashmir FA, a CONIFA international women’s team.

Alongside this I am also an Academy coach at Leeds United and I also referee when not coaching!

Is it difficult to balance your workload between football and Vario?

It has its challenges, in particular the planning of weekday evening training sessions and sometimes midweek evening games. Working late often means I have to find a way to balance both. Generally I’m pretty lucky though because the positive work life balance culture at Pinsent Masons Vario has allowed me to juggle both.

How much overlap do you see there being between your two jobs?

Surprisingly, quite a lot! I see a football manager / coaches’ role as a project running over the short or long term. Just like working as an LPM, you’re expected to be organised, structured and add value to your team in order to get results.

What do you think is the most important skill to have as a football coach / manager?

It’s difficult to give just one skill because you’re up against so many different situations, people, and environments. Its important to demonstrate a range of skills, but some I like to talk about are people management, problem solving and creativity.

Football can be played in so many ways with the historical ‘route one’ or the more recent fluid ‘tika taka’ style. It is important to be able to adapt but more importantly implement your style (game model) to your team as a foundation and then add to that.

What do you think is the most important skill to have as an LPM?

Again, very similar to a football coach / manager in my opinion, from effective people management, organisation to efficiency and creativity.

The audience here is the corporate world and at times can be a little more challenging than football but make no mistake both areas require a wide range of skills to succeed. Tough but extremely rewarding!

Given the current diversity statistics for English football managers and coaches, have you experienced any barriers to you getting a position?

In my opinion, unfortunately and unlike in other industries, the historical racial and stereotypical biases have been slow to change in football from the elite level down to grassroots. Where we see some great recent work being done with player representation from South Asian backgrounds, unfortunately the coaching representation is still poor.

Personally, over the years and more recently too, I’ve had challenges securing roles higher up the football pyramid despite meeting the criteria and more, I think the term ‘equality’ doesn’t resonate entirely in the world of football but being the optimist I am, I’m confident we will see significant change soon.

Do you think it is important that the FA push to improve diversity within football?

Most definitely, it must come from the top, a recent report published in August 2023 by the FA; Bringing Opportunities to Communities (Phase 2): The FA Asian Inclusion Plan Progress Report: Year 3 highlighted, only 3.1% of coaches in the UK are from the South Asian background, up from 3.0% the previous year.

Similarly with players, the PFA published in November 2023 a 29% increase in South-Asian heritage players in English Football. Although this looks positive, if you dive into the details it is 134 players, rising from 119 in 2021/22 season.

I’ve had some great conversations with key stakeholders at the FA and West Riding County FA. I will be presenting at St Georges Park on this very topic in June so really looking forward to that. The important thing is, The FA and Counties recognise this and there are initiatives in place to improve these figures such as the PFA’s Asian inclusion mentoring scheme headed up by former professional footballer Zesh Rehman.

When running such things, it’s important the aim isn’t just to improve stats but to demonstrate genuine support. It’s important to strive to provide all people, whether they are of ethnic minority groups or not to have equal opportunity to secure good positions where they are qualified to do so.

What is the main way that your role as a football coach / manager has influenced your work as an LPM?

When I’m on the sideline or on the training pitch I’m always analysing and thinking of ways to improve, identify weak areas to strengthen and strong areas to build on. Much like my LPM role, I apply a lot of analytical thinking. It’s important to be able to help lawyers and clients identify efficiencies and developments to deliver projects to a high standard.

How far do you think the home nations will make it in this year’s competition?

England will bring it home this year, I’m confident. There’s too much talent and form in that group of players to do anything less. England are always one of the favourites but end up falling short somewhere. They should have no problem making it to the quarter final stage. If the team put in consistently good performances until then, I think the confidence and growth gained will take them all the way.

Another team I enjoy watching and for me have one of the best group of fans is Scotland. I’m sure my fellow colleagues will agree, like England they are a team with talent, and in-form players but again like England something seems to be missing every tournament. I think Scotland will finally make it out of the groups and even pull off an upset against Germany in their first game. Getting to the knockout stage is realistic and will be historical.

With the fire power in both teams, I hope both Gareth Southgate and Steve Clarke entertain with free-flowing attacking football and give us something to be excited about. If not, I may just have to throw my CV into the pool this summer!