Hugo Scheckter

Founder & MD @PlayerCareGroup. Trustee @FBeyondBorders. Ex Player Care @BrentfordFC, @WestHam, @SouthamptonFC & @IndyEleven. #gwu alum & OC

[The Player Care Group @PlayerCareGroup]

JOB ALERT: The Player Care Group are supporting NUFC Women to find a Player Performance & Lifestyle Lead. This role will lead the design, coordination and delivery of a Performance Lifestyle and Player Liaison programme. Closes on Sun 17th - JD & apply:
https://t.co/d4L9R2FaJD

[The Player Care Group @PlayerCareGroup]

The Player Care Group was delighted to be invited to the @Bundesliga_EN first ever Player Care meeting in Dortmund last week – with Founder & MD @HugoScheckter presenting on Player Care in leagues worldwide as well as how to gain buy in with leadership to invest in #PlayerCare.

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

@KFILE Good to know Graham & I were apparently classmates @GWtweets #onlyatgw @gwhatchet

[The Player Care Group @PlayerCareGroup]

A look at #PlayerCare in Brazil's Série A from @globo - with 8 teams having a Player Care provision.

It's great to see this work ever expanding across continents and to read about the innovative work being done in different cultures around the world.

https://t.co/vB2WNbXvJv

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

@vince_bartram Not sure even you could have helped me Vince! All good here mate hope you are too!

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

My school football scouting report aged 11… Brutal

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

Of course, there's much more to it - and with @PlayerCareGroup we've designed 170+ objective Player Care standards for clubs of all sizes to be able to consider and improve themselves. These standards are peer reviewed by some of the best people working in Player Care around the world and appropriate for professional clubs across the world and can be used by clubs to understand what 'good' really looks like, what's reasonable for your club and how you can go about putting it in place.

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

Why should clubs bother with a dedicated Player Care provision?

I've been lucky enough to run a #PlayerCare provision at 3 different Premier League clubs and helped set up and/or upskill departments at top level clubs in Germany, Italy, England, the US, Mexico & many more - I'm going to explore today why this provision helps clubs to achieve their goals.

A number of owners/sporting directors I speak to aren't sure about putting in a Player Care resource - whether a single person or a department. They're worried that it will create dependant, lazy players who won't perform to their best. However I've found clubs that have invested in proactive, appropriate Player Care have found the following benefits:

1. Protecting Marginal Gains - We hear of clubs having incredible performance, data, nutrition and analysis teams but then you find out that the players are still in a hotel after a number of months, eating takeaway food and unable to understand the language at the club. Performance needs to be about the whole person, not just the time they're at the training ground or those marginal gains will be lost. (1/4)

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

3. Less distractions off the pitch means more focus on it - it's impossible to be at your best at work when things are difficult at home - and when you're in a foreign country, away from friends & family for support, in a different culture & language, every problem can feel that much more difficult to solve. Having a proactive Player Care department can not only help solve those problems, but help the families build that community locally so they can support themselves too.

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

@suttyshow @DavidPalman Thanks for this, super helpful. This is about 15% I think of what there is, a random selection. You can see the bag of what’s left next to it. I seem to remember my shiny book was confiscated at school so there aren’t any in here that I’ve found

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

Found an old bag of my #pokemon cards from about 20 years ago. Anyone know the best place to understand value?

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

@DavidPalman They’re from late 90s/early 2000s. No idea on value tbh

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

@DavidPalman Thanks mate but there are like 300 there - think the time it would take won’t be worth it. Appreciate the offer tho!

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

@moggehh91 Cheers very useful!

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

@RosDror Have DMed

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

A 3 person Player Care team costs a Premier League club around £200,000 (approx €240,000) a year in salaries.

A 15% reduction in failed transfers - a conservative estimate on the impact of Player Care based on research from Liverpool FC's own Director of Research speaking at a Statsbomb Conference in 2021 - would save that same club around £3M (€3.5M) annually.

That's a 15:1 return. Before you factor in squad stability, player happiness, or the reputational cost of a high-profile signing publicly struggling.

I'm not saying Player Care prevents every failed transfer - it doesn't - but any support we can put in place to reduce the chances of failure are clearly worth investing in.

The clubs we've worked with who do this well don't just see it as pastoral care, they see it as protecting a multimillion pound asset & their performances. Instead of asking us how much it will cost, they ask how they can do it better. Player Care is a spectrum, not a binary in terms of whether clubs have it or not.

At The @PlayerCareGroup we've developed a set of 170+ peer reviewed Player Care standards for the 1st team, helping clubs worldwide implement & improve their Player Care provision.

In 2024 we commissioned a report into 'failed' transfers and the backgrounds, languages & ages of those players to dig more into the value of proactive Player Care. For a full copy of the findings, comment REPORT below or DM me.

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

@petecouhig Have DMed

[The Player Care Group @PlayerCareGroup]

Introducing the Conversation Circle. An offline, printed tool to better facilitate conversations between trusted adults & young athletes.

We explain more here: https://t.co/cPYpoCiPUm

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

@sport_simon Thanks Simon, appreciate the comment and your continued support!

[Hugo Scheckter @HugoScheckter]

Running a business is hard - as we ramp up to launch our first physical product on Friday, the last 6 months have been challenging in many new ways.

If anything, I'm an accidental entrepreneur - I never dreamed of running my own business or making huge profits. By many metrics, I'm not a very good one either. I've not taken a penny of funding since launching 5 years ago, we don't focus on scale, profitability or reach. We don't do paid social and we don't pay for referrals, have sponsors or any partner companies.

I've got a business degree, but so much of what I do is on gut feel. Does this 'feel' like the right direction for us, or for me? Will I be proud of this? Will I be excited by this? Will this help people? If any of the answers are no, we tend to leave what we're considering on the side.

For the last half a year, much of my focus has been away from what I've known my whole career - sport, interpersonal connections, proactive support - and onto lead times, minimum order quantities, inventory management & even the ever changing world of tariffs. My belief is that by doing the latter, we'll improve the former - through deliberate, practical tools to aid intergenerational relationships.

On Friday at 3pm UK, we'll show you what we've been working on. It might not have the best margin or go viral - but I'm bloody proud of it, bloody excited for it, and I know it'll help people. Stay tuned! @PlayerCareGroup