Interactions between financial efficiency and sports performance

Abstract

Purpose In the current economic climate, the huge rise in the levels of debt incurred by professional football clubs challenges the need to improve their efficiency levels. Hence, analysis of their productivity is essential and represents an integral dimension to any realistic and efficient strategy. Any such strategy includes the identification and analysis of the inputs and outputs that underpin club sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between the team performance of professional European football clubs and the stability of their financial efficiency. Design/methodology/approach The sample spans 15 professional football clubs that won the league titles in the leading football leagues (the English, German, Spanish, Italian and French leagues) in the period between 2009 and 2014. The analysis made recourse to the data envelopment analysis method. Findings The results demonstrate that of the 15 clubs analysed, only 10 proved efficient. Football is now an industry that moves major quantities of financial capital and holds the attentions of large groups of fans worldwide. However, despite this attractiveness, the financial crisis and recession, ongoing since 2008, increasingly requires the better management of such resources. To this end, clubs should improve their control over the financial resources available given the positive relationship prevailing between the sporting performance of clubs and their levels of financial efficiency. Originality/value Analysis of the efficiency levels of the inputs and outputs encapsulating performance related financial variables may aid in improving the standards of planning and sustainable management at professional sport clubs.

On the relationship between sport and financial performances: an empirical investigation

“…Another important issue is represented by the concept of business efficiency; Miragaia et al (2019) study this aspect finding that efficiency is not a primary goal for all football companies. It is clear that efficiency can be framed and defined in various aspects (productivity, solvency, profitability) and therefore must inevitably depend on the business model adopted.…”

The Perception and Knowledge of Financial Risk of the Portuguese

“…In the future, it is intended to study a conceptual model for the Portuguese population [37] which incorporates the variables risk perception, literature perception, literature knowledge, risk knowledge, confidence, attitude and financial stress [38].The study which was carried out in the present investigation may help academics, researchers and professionals to better understand the levels of perception and knowledge of financial risk of the Portuguese population [39]. Moreover, it may contribute to help the creators of financial education policies in the reformulation of their policies, and in the creation of tools to help in the improvement of financial risk perception [40].…”

Investigation into the efficiencies of European football clubs with bi-objective multi-criteria data envelopment analysis

“…DEA was used to determine the efficiencies of the teams in England's Premier league (Pestana Barros & Leach, 2006;Guzman & Morrow, 2007;Haas, 2003a;Kern et al, 2012), Germany's Bundesliga (Haas et al, 2004), France's Ligue 1 (Jardin, 2009), USA's Major League Soccer (MLS) (Haas, 2003b), Italian Serie A (Rossi et al, 2019), and Brazil's Serie A (Pestana Barros et al, 2010). In addition, the efficiencies of European clubs (Halkos & Tzeremes, 2013;Miragaia et al, 2019) and national teams participating in EURO 2012 (Rubem & Brandao, 2015) were determined using DEA. However, no study examining the 5season efficiency values of 10 top European clubs which make up half of the total value of the big five league were found in the literature.…”

“…Football clubs are no longer organizations that only provide emotional and symbolic satisfaction to their supporters and focus on sporting success without profit. Instead, football clubs have become a complex system in which investors invest capital and expect financial returns (Miragaia et al, 2019). This development in professional football has turned football from being not only a sport branch in Europe but also an industry branch.…”