Correlation between profitability and transfer activity in European football

Abstract

The transfer market of European football can be classified as a system. In this system, the effectiveness of participant teams can depend on the activity in players’ transfers. This article assesses the utility of network analysis in analysing connections between the mentioned concepts. The hypothesis is that there is causality between a club’s activity in the transfer market and its profit from transfers. This research is based on empirical transfer data of major soccer teams, which have had a significant role in the last 12 years in Europe. It is assumed that the most active clubs in the transfer system have more financial power in the transfer market, while teams which are not active in transfers have less profit from transfers. In the network analysis, the teams can be defined as a set of nodes and connected by edges (interactions). The thickness of the edges and the size of the nodes depend on the volume of transfers among clubs. The number of interactions and the amount of the transfer price can measure this volume also. Considering the results of network indices, the relationships between the two phenomena were reviewed. In order to explore these relationships, the correlations among all of the relevant variables in the transfer market were also measured.

Economic contribution and sport success through the sale of homegrown football players from the five European major leagues

“…The continuous search for young players is increasingly intense, due to the increase of price market and it turns more difficult for "normal and little" teams to buy "big players" but, on the other hand, it allows that the good acquisition of young talent could be a multi-million-euro sale in the future that will help the club grow. This aspect, commonly seen in "minor leagues", is a survival way for a lot of teams (Depken & Globan, 2021;Fürész, 2018;Metelski, 2021).…”

“…"Individual player performance and innate ability are prominent determinants of transfer fees" (Van den Berg, 2011), especially when looking for talent to develop in unknown young players. This allows "minor clubs" to grow up, due to the main transfer industry motivation is the best investment since in their case the profit realized at each transaction gives them the opportunity to acquire players that are more valuable (Fürész, 2018), taking players from different leagues indifferently (Lee et al 2015) and cultivating players with high potential and selling them to wealthier leagues is another viable way of generating profit for the clubs (Liu et al 2016), generating a great income quantity, receiving offers from more clubs and attracting new talent by demonstrating that they develop a greater number of elite football players.…”

Türk Futbolundaki̇ Yabanci Futbolcu Transferleri̇ni̇n Kâr-Zarar Anali̇zi̇

“…İtalya'nın Udinese kulübü 12 yıllık analizde transferde 200M € üzerinde kâr elde etmiştir (Fürész, 2018 (Transfermarkt, 2020f). Bu çarpıcı örnekte görüleceği üzere yüksek transfer maliyetlerinin getirdiği ağır yüklerden kurtulmanın en kestirme yollarından biri altyapıya yönelmektir.…”