Anderton goes the extra mile to promote Al Jazira

Dubai: Before sealing their first ever league title with 4-0 victory over Al Wasl on Monday, Al Jazira spent the last six years floating between second and third.

Upon first glance little has changed between then and now, neither coaching wise nor on the pitch, but there has been one addition that may have finally swung things in the club's favour and he's neither Brazilian nor good with a ball.

Al Jazira CEO Phil Anderton, 45, arrived at the end of last season with a CV enriched with top brand and marketing roles at Coca-Cola and Proctor and Gamble. He went on to assess why people weren't attending local game, then corrected it by adopting a brand image and using incentives for the local community — expatriate and national — to attend and trial a match-day experience.

Be it end-of-season Ferrari raffles or half-time empty goal shoot-outs for cash, Anderton adopted an American all-round entertainment model to draw a crowd because unlike in Europe, a football-going culture hadn't been passed down here from father to son.

By engaging local companies to fund the prizes he has managed to take gate-receipts to record-breaking proportions. And the element of the 12th man has not only rubbed off on the performances but also in the club's coffers and its community. The average attendance this season is 15,297 according to UFL, that's a full 10,000 clear of next placed top-averaging Al Ain and 12,000 clear of the Fabio Cannavaro-inspired Al Ahli.

Al Jazira's top attendance of the campaign was 28,164 against Al Wasl in October. They've also managed to draw 10,000 to Asian Champions League games where last year they were only attracting 1,000. On the night they drew 10,000 there was no sideline entertainment or big cash prizes, proving the trial and taste sessions have worked.

Ask Anderton, who attends every match in a Al Jazira crest-emblazoned suit and sits high in the rafters, what he thinks about the club's first league and cup double and he's humble: "It's fantastic to win the double and have the big trophies come our way for the first time. It's a credit to all at the club for pulling together and getting this success."

Ironically, that on a night when Al Wasl had followed the Al Ahli sports marketing model of buying in big names with their Diego Maradona appointment, Anderton added: "Al Jazira is a good example of something built up over time. It's not chopping and changing. It's not a quick fix and that investment in building a team has paid off over time."

In the three years that a relatively unknown Abel Braga has coached Al Jazira, Al Wasl has had seven coaches; Maradona will be the eighth. Also, Al Jazira has achieved attendances (thus self-generated income) and on-pitch success without a short-term ‘big name' cash-spend like Diego at Al Wasl or Cannavaro at Al Ahli.