Ralph Krueger was aware when he was appointed to coach Team Europe that it wouldn’t be given much of a chance in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. The team of players from eight nations across Europe is facing the world’s best national teams.
But Krueger is not one to shy from a challenge. Just three weeks earlier, he had again faced what he called perhaps the most exhausting thing he’s ever experienced in sports: the close of soccer’s transfer window in Europe.
“You draw up a plan in April and May, and by the time Aug. 31 rolls around, you’re just happy it closes,” he said with a laugh.
The Canadian-born Krueger cut his teeth in hockey, but he also serves as chairman of Southampton FC, which finished sixth in the Premier League last season.
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Ralph Krueger (right), coach of Team Europe in the World Cup of Hockey, became chairman of Southampton thanks to his experience in executive coaching for international corporations.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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Krueger coached the Swiss national team in three Olympic Games as well as the Edmonton Oilers, but it wasn’t his work in hockey that compelled Southampton owner Katharina Liebherr to hire him in March 2014 — “she had never seen a hockey game in her life,” he said.
Instead, it was Krueger’s experience in the corporate community, where he had worked since the early 1990s on leadership development and executive coaching for large international corporations. He also had been an active member of the World Economic Forum, serving on its global agenda council on new models of leadership.
“Hockey was the foundation for me to understand the big league athlete and the dynamics of a big league organization,” he said. “When I was given the opportunity to join Southampton, there was a leadership crisis, and I was given an opportunity to do something rare: clean the slate, wipe the white board and redefine the culture of the club.”
Krueger installed an organizational structure similar to that of an NHL team and unlike any other in the Premier League, which raised initial questions from the English media and the club’s fans. He created a clearly defined executive director of football role akin to a North American general manager, removing the on-the-field oversight of players and coaches that others with his title share.
The results have gone in his favor. The club has improved its standing in the league each of the last three years, qualifying for the Europa League group stage last season for the first time in its 130-year history.
Krueger said the club’s goal is to become a Champions League-level club in the next five years, while noting how the unique global nature of the business of soccer presents challenges to clubs like Southampton.
Manchester United, which finished one spot ahead of Southampton last season in the Premier League, recently reported that it had revenue of £515.3 million, or $669 million, for fiscal 2016, making it the first English club to earn over a half a billion pounds in a single year. By comparison, Southampton reported revenue of $147.6 million for its fiscal year ending in June 2015, an increase of 7 percent year over year. The club is expected to report its most recent numbers in October.
Krueger said that level of competition, as well as a directive given by Liebherr three years ago to be fully self-sustainable, puts further emphasis on growing the club’s non-soccer commercial revenue, which increased more than 21 percent during the 2015 fiscal year. The Premier League has also instituted a rule that allows clubs to increase their salary spend on players by approximately $9 million each season — however, all revenue from commercial growth can also be used on increasing player wages, money that Liebherr will allow Krueger and the club to freely spend in that manner.
The club is best known for its developmental academy, which produced Real Madrid star Gareth Bale. That’s the vehicle with which Southampton is looking to grow, Krueger said.
“We are … building our brand on being the teachers of the game, and using that to move into new markets,” he said.
Southampton signed a seven-year apparel and sponsorship deal with Baltimore-based Under Armour in April, and has opened a training camp there that it will look to spread throughout the U.S. in the coming years, Krueger said. The club is looking at starting similar efforts in China.
Krueger thinks the NHL and NHLPA should also build around teaching to further the game in some European countries that have been developing NHL players but perhaps are not yet viewed among the elite national teams on the continent, such as Denmark or Norway.
“Feeding these countries that are right on the edge of becoming big nations with funding and support around the game of hockey would only make their development go faster, but would be markets where the NHL and NHLPA could grow very quickly,” he said.
While Krueger said he hoped fans of Southampton would watch and support Team Europe, he said he took the coaching role strictly out of his love for the game and the players. In the group stage completed last week, the team finished 2-1-0 and advanced to the knockout round, stunning the U.S. with a 3-0 victory in the opening game of the tournament.
“Each and every player I spoke with going into the tournament talked about how we were an underdog,” he said. “Our message in the room is going to be that we can band together and shake off that mantle.”
