TopSpot’s mission is to use sports as a tool to develop the communities where TopSpot’s clients come from. In Asia and Africa the development projects are implemented by the NGOs that TopSpot partner’s with. In Europe and especially in Finland we are committed to work with clubs to help them to improve their level of management and coaching by exposing them to internationally well-known best practises and to our contact network with extensive experience in sports.
One concrete way to help the clubs within our partner network is to provide them athletes and coaches of the highest potential. Hopefully this will lead to a situation where the club can benefit also financially from their initial investment.
TopSpot’s success lies in the global contact network and in the ideology of profit sharing among the partner network. Sports tend to gather lots of parties that are after “fast cash and easy money”. Football industry being no different but rather the worst. This following picture explains how our concept works and how it is different from others.
We are currently engaged in activities in Finland, Nigeria and India. We work currently solely in the football industry, but that doesn’t mean that in the future we could not work in other fields as well.
The picture above tries to visualize how people, money and other resources as well as human capital (experience, contacts, know-how) circulate in our concept the same way as a tree grows and produces fruits.
The tree gets its’ strenght from the soil by spreading the roots as wide and as deep as it can. The trunk is a gateway that transfers nurture from the roots to the branches and to the leaves. The tree gradually grows by spreading its branches higher and higher, eventually reaching the skies. And if the surroundings and the environment are optimal, the tree produces fruits. The fruits are the outcome of a long and hard process – even though sometimes the most visible part of it. When the fruits drop back to the ground, they nurture the very same soil where they originally came from and perhaps start to grow a new tree from their seeds.
The Soil – Nigeria and India are countries with practically unlimited amount of human resources. The talent is there, but its not properly searched thus never discovered. If a talented athlete is found, very often the potential is ruined by some sort of abuse or greed that both aim for personal gain. Not only the individual potential of the talented person is perished but it also has a negative impact on much larger amount of people around the individual. Finland on the other hand is a good soil to bring new ideas and thoughts into reality. It has well working infrastructure and all the benefits of an European wellfare state, but in sports and sports management fields Finland is a developing country. All in all there are numerous opportunities to combine the benefits that each target country can offer.
The Roots – We are partnering with different Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) in our target countries. They ensure that we spread our concept wide and deep into the furthermost villages of the country, where the next talents might be discovered. TopSpot finances the NGO operations from the profits that it makes in the football industry. Also TopSpot’s clients (players, coaches and partner clubs) are committed to participate to these development projects run by the NGOs. The projects are in the field of health care, education, raising awareness, human rights and building infrastructure.
The Trunk – Our sport academy concept is based on a principle where everybody gets a fair chance to show what they got. Sounds simple, but in places like Nigeria a fair chance to show your talent is not what many people get. In a country where even the national team gets selected by who pays the most, getting a fair chance to show your skills is a rare opportunity. TopSpot’s academies cooperate with local schools and companies to provide education and other work opportunities during the academy phase, but also in that case if the sports career does not take off. There is a plan B for everybody.
The Branches – TopSpot Ltd has its head quarters in Finland, but our people travel around the world where ever there is a job opportunity for our clients or a contact to meet with. Networking is the key to success and that is the core work of our agents, because knowing the right people in right places at right times is invaluable for our players, coaches and partner clubs. We like to work with clubs directly, but in some markets we use existing agencies. Football for us is a tool to bring good things for local communities, but it is also an extremely good matchmaking tool for companies. We have been helping to establish trade links between European companies to Asian and African companies and we also continue to do so in the future. Making companies involved in the NGO work is one of our goals. For companies our athletes can give a valuable face to enter the market. The possibilities are unlimited and we like to reach our branches wide and far for the sake of our clients.
The Fruits – When everything else works seamlessly together in the end our tree has produced a fruit – perhaps a football player who has the chance to make it to the top. We don’t want rotten apples, but people who understand the meaning of social awareness and common good. Our clients, no matter whether they play in the biggest leagues in Europe or somewhere else, are ready to invest a share of their earnings through our concept to development projects either in their own community or in some other place in the world. Our clients are also ready to commit themselves to work certain amount of hours each month on social projects organized by their current employer. Same way we will try to influence our other client sector, the clubs, to commit themselves to the practices that emphasize social awareness, sustainable development and using sports as a tool to build a better world.
