When being a partner means more: The external role of football club management accountants

The literature on management accountants mainly discusses them in terms of how they relate to the organisation's internal actors. Whether considered as routine and technical 'bookkeepers' or as serving a more rewarding 'business partner' role, it is their relationship with corporate management and/or operational managers that is often put under the spotlight. This paper explores the extent to which management accountants can play an active role in how their organisation interacts with the external environment. The research is based on ethnographic immersion in the management accounting department of a French professional football club. It shows that management accountants can extend externally the business partner role they play within the organisation against the industry's financial regulatory body. This external role brings to the fore the 'critical competences' (Boltanski, 2009) mobilised by management accountants to challenge the institutional domination of the regulatory body. By influencing the rules and practices with which their organisation must comply, management accountants engender its possible 'emancipation' (Boltanski, 2009).