CMS: Which systems do the professional football clubs in the 1st and 2nd league choose for the online offensive?

The Covid19 crisis period, which has lasted since February and will continue to restrict at least until the end of the year, is also used by professional and forward-looking companies as well as associations, clubs and organizations in the sports business to carry out “system-relevant” optimizations and modernizations. This also applies to the content management systems as the foundation and launch pad for medium-term web development modernizations. Above all, this should affect the strongest economic factor among all German sports and professional leagues, the Bundesliga. Therefore we have with the DEV team of our sports unit for the 1st / 2nd Football Bundesliga analyzes the content management system (CMS) topic: software for creation, Presentation and management of digital content (content) on websites / online shops in text, image, video and other formats. Timing: In keeping with this, “WordPress” launched an updated version 5.4.2 on June 10, 2020 as a free CMS for its open source solution. And Europa League club Eintracht Frankfurt put their very successful website relaunch live on June 8th. 

CMS: Foundation of communicative online ability to act

Content is king – every marketer knows this maxim. Content management systems therefore offer royal stages, majestic foundations, princely foundations – more or less, as will be shown below. A CMS can be installed either locally on your own server in the company / club or on the server of a provider with access for the user / club. Maintaining certain content on the website, whether updating appointments or creating, adding to or updating blog posts, has long been unthinkable without a CMS in ambitious professional internet business. On top of that, search engine optimizationas a relevant factor without a suitable CMS can only be operated with significant additional effort. With a view to the Bundesliga business, the question of the right to exist or the necessity of content management systems has long since ceased to arise, but rather the question of choosing the best solution with the best possible fit. And the financial question is also in the room: Investing in tailor-made website solutions or free open source systems?

Digital Chief Officer: The head trainer for the system identification process

To get a graphic idea of ​​the importance of CMS for professional football clubs on the field of Web Development, this comparison is made: Similar to the way a head coach is faced with a sporting task, the most promising game system (including 4-4-2 / ​​4-3-3 / 3-5-2) to find and develop for his team on the pitch, the digital chief officer of a professional club also has to find the optimal content management system for his club. Similar to the way that the head coach should develop the optimally suitable system based on an analysis of the management potential and the club philosophy, the digital boss must create the optimal conditions with careful project preparation with regard to planned club online activities (interfaces, shops, landing pages, etc.).  

CMS: Market & Opportunities

There are currently no fewer than 300 different content management systems on the market, from the manageable blog construction kit to the enterprise system. With the help of this article, we show for the first time which CMS versions are used in the top two divisions of the Bundesliga and which advantages primarily account for these. Note: The variety of systems on the CMS market is as varied as the individual requirements of clubs and makes it almost impossible to choose a number 1 that is always the right one. Even if the established CMS application TYPO3 is by far the most frequently used version (see graphic) in German professional football, we consider the conclusion to be inadequate to proclaim this CMS as “the only always suitable system”. Rather, we are of the opinion that there is no one universal solution for the content of the club as well as the needs of the users / fans, but rather one to be favored in each case. As on the lawn, there is no one universally most successful and most modern game system, but always the one that is most promising for the overall context!