Buying a professional football team? Ten lessons learned: #10 - The media are omnipresent and ruthless; you need a thorough media policy

Use the media to your advantage. Be proactive - you need them to work for you. Master the process, otherwise you will be at the mercy of their every whim.

Alexander Janssen was involved on the ownership side of two clubs, one in Belgium and the other in Spain, where he learned that the football industry is not only extremely competitive but very, very different to the environment that he used to work in.

As a successful consultant with deep knowledge of turnarounds, he inexplicably experienced a sudden disregard of the discipline and long-term mindset that normally characterised his every move.

Janssen has written ten columns about the insights he gained from being involved with those two clubs. This is the tenth.