♣ LMA (League Managers Association)

The League Managers Association (LMA) is the trade union for Premier League, EFL and national team managers in English association football. The LMA awards the LMA Manager of the Year award annually.

▼ Connection Pages

♣ History

The union was founded in 1919 as the Football League Secretaries and Managers Association. Its membership grew gradually, reaching 223 in 1963, and 321 in 1974. In its early years, all of its members were men, with the first women joining in 1971.

♣ Organisation

The League Managers Association is the collective, representative voice of all managers from the Premier League, the Sky Bet Championship and Sky Bet Leagues 1 and 2. The LMA lobbies with the expertise of their members on various matters to football's governing organisations. Representatives of the LMA now sit on various Football Association panels charged with helping to run the game in England. It was set up in 1992 during the period when association football in England was undergoing major changes, including the split of the Premiership from the rest of the football league, and the introduction of satellite television coverage of football by Sky Television.

The president of the LMA is customarily the person serving as the manager of the England national football team, meaning that the current president is Gareth Southgate. Its chief executive is Richard Bevan, and the chairman is Howard Wilkinson.

♣ LMA Institute of Leadership and High Performance

In April 2017, the LMA launched the LMA Institute of Leadership and High Performance. It was established to provide ongoing learning and continuous personal development to those working in professional football.

The LMA Institute of Leadership and High Performance encompasses the LMA Diploma in Football Management, which is accredited by the University of Liverpool and is joint funded by the League Managers Association, the Premier League, The Football Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association. The programme has been built after an extensive period of research and analysis across the professional game into the complexities and challenges faced by those who choose to build a career in football management and coaching. It is designed to be delivered on a modular basis, combining two residential summer schools and seven one-day workshops during the course of the year.

♣ League Managers Association Awards

The League Managers Association Awards is an annual award ceremony in English football, awarded by the League Managers Association. The most prestigious award is the LMA Manager of the Year award. It is presented to a manager from any division for his achievements in the prior season. The award is voted by fellow professional managers and as a result consideration is also given to managers who inherit poor sides or financial difficulties and not only those managers who do not have such financial constraints and have won trophies. On only five occasions has the Premier League winning manager won the award compared with the Premier League Manager of the Year award which has been won on all but four occasions by the manager of the team who were league champions. Trophies for the event are hand-crafted by silversmith Thomas Lyte, which also makes trophies for the LG Performance of the Week Award throughout the league season.

LMA Manager of the Year

The LMA Manager of the Year Award is voted by fellow managers and the winner can come from any of the four professional leagues. To date seven have come from outside the Premier League: 1996 winner Peter Reid, who led Sunderland to the Division One title; 1997 winner Danny Wilson, who guided Barnsley into the Premier League; 2000 winner Alan Curbishley who led Charlton to the Division One title; 2006 winner Steve Coppell, who led Reading to win the Championship; 2015 winner Eddie Howe, who guided AFC Bournemouth into the Premier League; 2019 winner Chris Wilder, who took Sheffield United up from the Championship; and 2024 winner Kieran McKenna who guided Ipswich Town to back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League.

Divisional Award Winners

The divisional award winners are voted by a panel.

♣ LMA Go Page