BackgroundThe risk of early death is particularly high in patients over the age of 65 presenting with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated renal vasculitis. We hypothesized that by combining disease severity markers, a comorbidity index and serious adverse event reports, we would be able to identify early predictors of one-year mortality in this population.MethodsWe performed a multicentre, retrospective study in the nephrology and internal medicine departments of six tertiary hospitals in northern France. A total of 149 patients (median [interquartile range (IQR)] age: 72.7 [68.5–76.8] years) presenting with ANCA-associated vasculitis and renal involvement were included between January 2002 and June 2015. The primary endpoint was the one-year mortality rate.ResultsRenal function was severely impaired at presentation (median [IQR] peak serum creatinine (SCr): 337 [211–522] μmol/l), and 45 patients required dialysis. The Five-Factor Score (FFS, scored as + 1 point for each poor prognostic factor (age > 65 years, cardiac symptoms, gastrointestinal involvement, SCr ≥150 μmol/L, and the absence of ear, nose, and throat involvement)) was ≥3 in 120 cases. The one-year mortality rate was 19.5%. Most of the deaths occurred before month 6, and most of these were related to severe infections. In a univariate analysis, age, a high comorbidity index, a performance status of 3 or 4, a lack of co-trimoxazole prophylaxis, early severe infection, and disease activity parameters (such as the albumin level, haemoglobin level, peak SCr level, dialysis status, and high FFS) were significantly associated with one-year mortality. In a multivariable analysis, the best predictors were a high FFS (relative risk (RR) [95% confidence interval (CI)] = 2.57 [1.30–5.09]; p = 0.006) and the occurrence of a severe infection during the first month (RR [95%CI] = 2.74 [1.27–5.92]; p = 0.01).ConclusionsWhen considering various disease severity markers in over-65 patients with ANCA-associated renal vasculitis, we found that an early, severe infection (which occurred in about a quarter of the patients) is a strong predictor of one-year mortality. A reduction in immunosuppression, the early detection of infections, and co-trimoxazole prophylaxis might help to reduce mortality in this population.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12882-018-1102-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The aim is to investigate the determinants of competitive balance (CB) across countries in European men's club football. Determinants already tested previously in the literature include revenue sharing (proxied by countries' income inequality), differences in drawing power, prize money, talent market and sports contest format. New determinants include climate, countries' economic power, tradition, timing, number of clubs, financial regulation and international performance.Methodology: Regressions explaining CB are tested in the European men's football first tiers over the 2006-18 period.Findings: Results show that economic power and income inequality have a significant positive impact on CB; while climate (temperature), differences in drawing power, international performance and financial regulation have a significant negative impact.Practical implications: Results question whether international performance is a legitimate objective given its negative impact on CB.Research contribution: Results enable to add new determinants explaining CB, namely countries' economic power, financial regulation and international performance.

PurposeThis paper analyses the effectiveness of UEFA's Financial Fair Play (FFP) under the break-even requirement.Design/methodology/approachData was collected from English and French football clubs competing in the English Premier League (EPL) and in Ligue 1 (L1) for the financial years 2008–2018. Our sample includes 395 club-year observations. Relevant statistical tests have been conducted with the aim of analysing the effects of pre (2008–2012) and post (2012–2018) FFP enforcement under both profitability and cost-efficiency assumptions.FindingsIn the EPL, an increase is observed in clubs' profitability through both operating and break-even results. In L1, this improvement is only significant for break-even results of clubs not participating regularly in European competitions (non Euro-oriented clubs). Player expenditures, measured through two wage-to-revenue ratios excluding trading activity for one and including it for the other, have significantly decreased in the EPL except for the Euro-oriented clubs for this latter. Conversely, in L1, this decrease is only significant in both wage-to-revenue ratios for non Euro-oriented clubs and for the whole sample when trading is included.Practical implicationsIn addition to evidencing contrasting results in FFP effectiveness across countries, our results suggest it is not the sole cause of such an improvement in clubs' finances. We suggest that UEFA should pursue its efforts to scrutinise the level of clubs' player expenditures and that there is a need for a wider look at the FFP regulations.Originality/valueThis article provides further contribution to empirical studies on FFP effectiveness that have often been focused on a single country.

Research question: This paper examines the ways in which French and UK professional sports clubs implement and communicate their CSR policies. In addition to identifying similarities and differences between CSR practices in the two countries, our analysis extends and adapts the implicit-explicit CSR framework to the field of sport. Research methods: We used a mixed methods approach to analyse qualitative and quantitative data on the CSR strategies of 66 professional rugby union (Top 14, Aviva Premiership Rugby) and football (Ligue 1, Premier League) clubs that participated in the 2017-2018 season. Results and findings: We found major differences in CSR communication between France and the UK. Communication by French clubs tends to highlight sport's values, involve few media channels, whereas communication by UK clubs explicitly vaunts their social responsibility and involves numerous channels. In the case of CSR implementation, there are similarities between French and UK clubs, especially in the fields their CSR initiatives cover (e.g. health, diversity), as well as differences. However, the scope of initiatives varies more between sports than between countries, with football demonstrating a more international outlook than rugby. Implications: This article expands Matten and Moon's [(2008). 'Implicit' and 'explicit' CSR: A conceptual framework for a comparative understanding of corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Review, 33(2), 404-424] implicit-explicit CSR framework by identifying the influence of interactions between sectorial/field-level factors and national/macro-level factors on CSR practices, and by distinguishing between CSR communication and CSR implementation. Our results throw light on the shift from implicit to explicit CSR in French professional sport.

Why did cycling become professional as early as the late nineteenth century, while other sports (such as rugby) and other sport events (such as the Olympic Games) remained amateur until the 1980s? Why are the organizers of the most important bicycle races private companies, while in other sports such as soccer the main event organizer is a nonprofit organization? To what extent have bicycle races changed since the late nineteenth century? And how does cycling reflect long-term economic changes? The history of professional road cycling helps answer these questions and understand many related phenomena. This chapter provides a long-term, historical perspective on (1) professional road cycling's economic agents, i.e., the public, race organizers, team sponsors and riders, and the relationships amongst them; (2) cycling's governing body, the International Cycling Union; and (3) professional cycling's final product, i.e., the show of bicycle races. More precisely, the chapter mostly focuses on the history of male professional road cycling in Western Europe since the late nineteenth century. It is founded on both an analysis of quantitative time series on the Grand Tours (and, to some extent, the classics) and a review of the existing literature on the history of professional cycling, whether economic history, institutional history, cultural history, or sport history.