Managers who dress for success

Dale Terry comments on a direct correlation between manager's apparel and their team's success rate.

Coaches who wears suits on game days get the most out of their teams according to new research from the University of Portsmouth.

Researchers asked 97 men and women to react to photographs of four different coaches: lean and large coaches in suits and tracksuits.



Those wearing tracksuits were rated best for technical ability and character building -- ideal for practice days -- but coaches in suits were seen as better strategists.



"We have found that the clothing that coaches wear can have a direct effect on the players' perceptions of the coach's ability," said Dr. Richard Thelwell.



"A coach in a suit suggests strategic prowess which is obviously ideal for a match. In our study, coaches wearing a suit were perceived as being more strategically competent than those wearing sporting attire."



However, overall, the large coach in a suit ranked poorly in terms of ability to motivate, develop technique and strategy and build character, so apparently on game day a thin man in adidas might be better off than a fat man in Armani.



"I saw an interview with the researcher and at the end the journalist asked, 'What about Bob Paisley, the most successful manager in Liverpool history? He wore a cardigan,' Paul Barber said. "And the guy just went, 'Oh, well, I can't comment on cardigans.'"